He stared at me very hard.

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly, and I am bound to say this of
Tiel, that there is something very reassuring in his calm voice.

I told him hurriedly. He looked at me for a moment, began to smile,
and then checked himself.

"I owe you an apology, Belke," he said. "I ought to have explained
that that woman is in my pay."

"In your pay?" I cried. "And she has been so all the time?"

He nodded.

"And yet you never told me, but let me hide up in this room like a rat
in a hole?"

"The truth is," he replied, "that till I had got to know you pretty
well, I was afraid you might be rash--or at least careless, if you knew
that woman was one of us."

"So you treated me like an infant, Mr Tiel?"

"The life I have lived," said Tiel quietly, "has not been conducive to
creating a feeling of confidence in my fellowmen's discretion--until I
_know_ them. I know you now, and I feel sorry I took this precaution.
Please accept my apologies."

"I accept your apology," I said stiffly; "but in future, Mr Tiel,
things will be pleasanter if you trust me."

He bowed slightly and said simply--

"I shall."

And then in a different voice he said--

"We have a visitor coming this afternoon to stay with us."

"To stay here!" I exclaimed.

"Another of _us_," he explained.

"Another--in these islands? Who is he?"

As I spoke we heard a bell ring.

"Ah, here she is," said Tiel, going to the door. "Come down and be
introduced whenever you like."

For a moment I stood stock still, lost in doubt and wonder.

"She!" I repeated to myself.

VI.

THE VISITOR.

My feelings as I approached the parlour were anything but happy. Some
voice seemed to warn me that I was in the presence of something
sinister, that some unknown peril stalked at my elbow. This third
party--this "she"--filled me with forebodings. If ever anybody had a
presentiment, I had one, and all I can say now is that within thirty
seconds of opening the parlour door, I had ceased to believe in
presentiments, entirely and finally. The vision I beheld nearly took
my breath away.

"Let me introduce you to my sister, Miss Burnett," said Tiel. "She is
so devoted to her brother that she has insisted on coming to look after
him for the few days he is forced to spend in this lonely manse."

He said this with a smile, and of course never intended me to believe a
word of his statement, yet as he gave her no other name, and a