through the rapid stages of deterioration.

"Forrest," he said, "I cannot stand it any longer. This place is
sending me mad. I think that the best thing we can do is to chuck it."

"Do you?" Forrest answered drily. "That may be all very well for you, a
countryman, with enough to live on, and the whole world before you. As
for me, I couldn't face it. I have passed middle age, and my life runs
in certain grooves. It must run in them now until the end. I cannot
break away. I would not if I could. Existence would simply be
intolerable for me if that young fool were ever allowed to tell his
story."

"We cannot keep him for ever," Cecil answered gloomily. "We cannot play
the jailer here all our lives. Besides, there is always the danger of
being found out. There are two detectives in the place already, and I
am fairly certain that if they have been in the house while we have
been out--"

"There is nothing for them to discover here," Forrest answered. "I
should keep the doors open. Let them search if they want to."

"That is all very well," Cecil answered, "but if these fellows hang
about the place, sooner or later they will hear some of the stories
these villagers are only too anxious to tell."

Forrest nodded.

"There," he said, "I am not disinclined to agree with you. Hasn't it
ever struck you, De la Borne," he continued, after a moment's slight
hesitation, "that there is only one logical way out of this?"

"No!" Cecil answered eagerly. "What way? What do you mean?"

Forrest filled his glass to the brim with wine before he answered. Then
he passed the decanter back to Cecil.

"We are not children, you and I," he said. "Why should we let a boy
like Engleton play with us? Why do we not let him have the issue before
him in black and white? We say to him now--'Sign this paper, pledge
your word of honour, and you may go.' He declines. He declines because
the alternative of staying where he is is endurable. I propose that we
substitute another alternative. Drink your wine, De la Borne. This is a
chill house of yours, and one loses courage here. Drink your wine, and
think of what I have said."

Cecil set down his glass empty.

"Well," he said, "what other alternative do you propose?"

"Can't you see?" Forrest answered. "We cannot keep Engleton shut up for
ever. I grant you that that is impossible. But if he declines to behave
like a reasonable person, we can threaten him with an alternative which
I do not think he