nstant forthcoming. The windows remained
obstinately blind, no figures appeared on the terrace, the garden lay
deserted, and without life. My departure had not, as I half expected it
would, drawn the secret into light.

I watched awhile, at times cursing my own meanness; but the excitement
of the moment and the quest tided me over that. Then I determined to go
down into the village and see whether anything was moving there. I had
been down to the inn once, and had been received half sulkily, half
courteously, as a person privileged at the great house, and therefore
to be accepted. It would not be thought odd if I went again, and after a
moment's thought, I started down the track.

This, where it ran through the wood, was so densely shaded that the
sun penetrated to it little, and in patches only. A squirrel stirred
at times, sliding round a trunk, or scampering across the dry leaves.
Occasionally a pig grunted and moved farther into the wood. But the
place was very quiet, and I do not know how it was that I surprised Clon
instead of being surprised by him.

He was walking along the path before me with his eyes on the
ground--walking so slowly, and with his lean frame so bent that I might
have supposed him ill if I had not remarked the steady movement of his
head from right to left, and the alert touch with which he now and again
displaced a clod of earth or a cluster of leaves. By-and-by he rose
stiffly, and looked round him suspiciously; but by that time I had
slipped behind a trunk, and was not to be seen; and after a brief
interval he went back to his task, stooping over it more closely, if
possible, than before, and applying himself with even greater care.

By that time I had made up my mind that he was tracking someone. But
whom? I could not make a guess at that. I only knew that the plot was
thickening, and began to feel the eagerness of the chase. Of course, if
the matter had not to do with Cocheforet, it was no affair of mine; but
though it seemed unlikely that anything could bring him back so soon,
he might still be at the bottom of this. And, besides, I felt a natural
curiosity. When Clon at last improved his pace, and went on to the
village, I took up his task. I called to mind all the wood-lore I had
ever learned, and scanned trodden mould and crushed leaves with eager
eyes. But in vain. I could make nothing of it all, and rose at last with
an aching back and no advantage.

I did not go on to the villag