all and turning where it turned
to skirt the little lane at the bottom between the garden and the
churchyard. The lane led to the pastures, and the pastures to the
Manor. And from the Manor grounds a field track trailed to a small
wicket gate on the north side of the churchyard wall. A flagged path
went from the wicket to the door of the north transept. It was a short
cut for the lord of the Manor to his seat in the chancel, but it was
not the nearest way for anybody approaching the church from the high
road.

Now, the slope of the Vicarage garden followed the slope of the road
in such wise that a person entering the churchyard from the high road
could be seen from the windows of the Vicarage. If that person desired
to remain unseen his only chance was to go round by the lane to the
wicket gate, keeping close under the garden wall.

Rowcliffe heard the wicket gate click softly as it was softly opened
and shut.

And he could have sworn that Alice heard it too.

* * * * *

He waited twenty minutes or so in his surgery. Then, instead of
sending at once to the Red Lion for his trap, he walked back to the
church.

Standing in the churchyard, he could hear the sound of the organ and
of a man's voice singing.

He opened the big west door softly and went softly in.

XLII

There is no rood-screen in Garth church. The one aisle down the middle
of the nave goes straight from the west door to the chancel-rails.

Standing by the west door, behind the font, Rowcliffe had an
uninterrupted view of the chancel.

The organ was behind the choir stalls on the north side. Alice was
seated at the organ. Jim Greatorex stood behind her and so that his
face was turned slantwise toward Rowcliffe. Alice's face was in pure
profile. Her head was tilted slightly backward, as if the music lifted
it.

Rowcliffe moved softly to the sexton's bench in the left hand corner.
Sitting there he could see her better and ran less risk of being seen.

The dull stained glass of the east window dimmed the light at that
end of the church. The organ candles were lit. Their jointed brackets,
brought forward on each side, threw light on the music book and the
keys, also on the faces of Alice and Greatorex. He stood so close to
her as almost to touch her. She had taken off her hat and her hair
showed gold against the drab of his waist-coat.

On both faces there was a look of ecstasy.

It was essentially the sa