e
away, we were certain of what he had it in his mind to do."

"And when you looked at Miss Cristel, and she was too busy with her
brooch to notice you, was that another signal?"

"It was, sir. When she handled her silver ornament, she told me that I
might depend on her to forget nothing, and to be afraid of nothing."

I remembered the quiet firmness in her face, after the prayer that she
had said in her own room. Her steady resolution no longer surprised me.

"Did you wonder, sir, what possessed her," Gloody went on, "when she
burst out singing? That was a signal to me. We wanted him out of our way,
while you were made to drink what he had drunk out of the jug."

"How did you know that he would not drink the whole contents of the jug?"

"You forget, sir, that I had seen the dog revived by two doses, given
with a space of time between them."

I ought to have remembered this, after what he had already told me. My
intelligence brightened a little as I went on.

"And your accident in the next room was planned, of course?" I said. "Do
you think he saw through it? I should say, No; judging by his looks. He
turned pale when he felt the floor shaken by your fall. For once in a
way, he was honest--honestly frightened."

"I noticed the same thing, sir, when he picked me up, off the floor. A
man who can change his complexion, at will, is a man we hav'n't heard of
yet, Mr. Roylake."

I had been dressing for some time past; longing to see Cristel, it is
needless to say.

"Is there anything more," I asked, "that I ought to know?"

"Only one thing, Mr. Roylake, that I can think of," Gloody replied. "I'm
afraid it's Miss Cristel's turn next."

"What do you mean?"

"While the deaf man lodges at the cottage, he means mischief, and his eye
is on Miss Cristel. Early this morning, sir, I happened to be at the
boat-house. Somebody (I leave you to guess who it is) has stolen the
oars."

I was dressed by this time, and so eager to get to the cottage, that I
had already opened my door. What I had just heard brought me back into
the room. As a matter of course, we both suspected the same person of
stealing the oars. Had we any proof to justify us?

Gloody at once acknowledged that we had no proof. "I happened to look at
the boat," he said, "and I missed the oars. Oh, yes; I searched the
boat-house. No oars! no oars!"

"And nothing more that you have forgotten, and ought to tell me?"

"Nothing, sir."

I left Gloody to wai