its
scanty furniture; and the wind all the while tempestuously booming in
the chimney and scouring land and sea. And neither on land nor sea was
there a single friend; surrounded by enemies who would have given a
heavy price to have learned who sat in that room, we talked of many
things.

At last, all too soon, she rose and wished me good-night. A demon of
perversity seized me.

"I shall escort you down to Mr Tiel, and the devil take his
precautions!" I exclaimed.

"Oh no," she protested. "After all he is in command."

She really seemed quite concerned at my intention, but I can be very
obstinate when I choose.

"Tuts!" I said. "It is sheer rubbish to pretend that there is any risk
at this time of night. Probably he is still out, and anyhow he will
not have visitors at this hour."

She looked at me very hard and quickly as if to see if I were possible
to argue with, and then she gave a little laugh and merely said--

"You are terribly wilful, Mr Belke!"

And she ran downstairs very quickly, as though to run away from me. I
followed fast, but she was some paces ahead of me as we went down the
dark passage to the front of the house. And then suddenly I heard
guarded voices, and stopped dead.

There was a bend in the passage just before it reached the hall, and
Eileen had passed this while I had not, and so I could see nothing
ahead. Then I heard the voice of Tiel say--

"Well?"

It was a simple word of little significance, but the voice in which it
was said filled me with a very unpleasant sensation. The man spoke in
such a familiar, confidential way that I suddenly felt I could have
shot him cheerfully. For the instant I forgot the problem of the other
voice I had heard.

"Mr Belke is with me! He insisted," she cried.

At this I knew that the unknown voice could not belong to an enemy, and
I advanced again. As I passed the bend in the passage I was just in
time to see Tiel closing the front door behind a man in a long dark
coat with a gleam of brass buttons, and to hear him say,

"Good-night, Ashington."

Eileen passed into the parlour with a smiling glance for me to follow,
and Tiel came in after us. I was not in the most pleasant temper. In
fact, for some reason I was in a very black humour.

"I thought you had gone out," I said to him at once.

"I did go out."

"But now I understand that the worthy Captain Ashington has been
visiting you here!"

"Both these remarkable events ha