e scrap of paper, saw that it would be
some time before they arrived at the precise spot indicated in the Latin
directions. He quietly drew back and tugged at Dick Bewery.

"Stop here, and keep quiet!" he whispered when they had retreated out
of all danger of being overheard. "Watch 'em! I want to fetch
somebody--want to know who that stranger is. You don't know him?"

"Never seen him before," replied Dick. "I say!--come quietly back--don't
give it away. I want to know what it's all about."

Bryce squeezed the lad's arm by way of assurance and made his way back
through the bushes. He wanted to get hold of Harker, and at once, and
he hurried round to the old man's house and without ceremony walked
into his parlour. Harker, evidently expecting him, and meanwhile amusing
himself with his pipe and book, rose from his chair as the younger man
entered.

"Found anything?" he asked.

"We're done!" answered Bryce. "I was a fool not to go last night! We're
forestalled, my friend!--that's about it!"

"By--whom?" inquired Harker.

"There are five of them at it, now," replied Bryce. "Mitchington,
a mason, one of the cathedral clergy, a stranger, and the Duke of
Saxonsteade! What do you think of that?"

Harker suddenly started as if a new light had dawned on him.

"The Duke!" he exclaimed. "You don't say so! My conscience!--now, I
wonder if that can really be? Upon my word, I'd never thought of it!"

"Thought of what?" demanded Bryce.

"Never mind! tell you later," said Harker. "At present, is there any
chance of getting a look at them?"

"That's what I came for," retorted Bryce. "I've been watching them, with
young Bewery. He put me up to it. Come on! I want to see if you know the
man who's a stranger."

Harker crossed the room to a chest of drawers, and after some rummaging
pulled something out.

"Here!" he said, handing some articles to Bryce. "Put those on over
your boots. Thick felt overshoes--you could walk round your own mother's
bedroom in those and she'd never hear you. I'll do the same. A stranger,
you say? Well, this is a proof that somebody knows the secret of that
scrap of paper besides us, doctor!"

"They don't know the exact spot," growled Bryce, who was chafing at
having been done out of his discovery. "But, they'll find it, whatever
may be there."

He led Harker back to Paradise and to the place where he had left Dick
Bewery, whom they approached so quietly that Bryce was by the lad's side
before