'em!"

"I don't agree with you a bit, Gilly. I never believe those blithering
blighters who attribute their crimes to the bad example of some criminal
hero of the magazines or of the stage. Villain-worship doesn't carry you
to that length unless you're a bit of a villain in the first instance."

"But suppose you are?" I argued, almost before I saw the point that I
was making. "Suppose you have as few scruples, principles, 'pangs and
fears'--call them what you like--as this fellow Nettleton. Suppose
you're full of fire of sorts, but also as irresponsible and
chuckle-headed as you yourself say he is. Well, then, _I_ say, it's
taking responsibility for two to go pumping your theories into as
sensitive an engine as all that!"

Uvo clapped his thin hands softly as there came a knock at the door.
"Well, he's a practical man, Gilly, I must admit, so let's leave it at
that. Come in! What is it, Jane?"

"The servant from Mr. Nettleton's, sir, wants to see Mr. Gillon," said
the maid.

I began by explaining why this scarcely comes into the category of
Witching Hill coincidences. Yet it was rather startling at the time, and
Uvo Delavoye looked as though his evil ancestor had materialised at the
foot of the bed.

"All right, Jane! Mr. Gillon will be down directly."

It was the first time his voice had risen to more than a whisper, and it
was shaky. The maid seemed to catch some echo of an alarm already
communicated to herself, and faintly sounded in her own announcement.

"Sarah seems very anxious to see you, sir," she ventured, turning to me,
and then withdrew in some embarrassment.

I rose to follow. Sarah was almost as great a character as her master,
and I for one liked her the better of the two. She was a simple,
faithful, incompetent old body, who once told me that she had known Mr.
Nettleton, man and boy, most of his life, but without betraying a page
of his past. She had come with him to Witching Hill Road as
cook-general. There had been a succession of auxiliary servants who had
never in any instance outstayed their month. The last of them had left
precipitately, threatening a summons, to the scandal of the neighbours;
but beyond that fact the matter had been hushed up, and even I only knew
that Sarah was now practically single-handed through her coming to me
about a charwoman. I thought I ought to see her at once, but Uvo
detained me with an almost piteous face.

"Do wait a moment! Of course it's probably nothi