ent in our
extravagant cups. And yet I did want to know what was in my companion's
mind about the Royles; for my own was no longer free from presentiments
for which there was some ground in the facts of the case. But I was not
going to start the subject; and Delavoye steadily avoided it until we
strolled out afterward (with humble pipes on top of that Madeira!). Then
his arm slipped through mine, and it was with one accord that we drifted
up the road toward the house with the drawn blinds.

All these days, on my constant perambulations, it had stared me in the
face with its shut windows, its dirty step, its idle chimneys. Every
morning those odious blinds had greeted me like red eyelids hiding
dreadful eyes. And once I had remembered that the very letter-box was
set like teeth against the outer world. But this summer evening, as the
house came between us and a noble moon, all was so changed and chastened
that I thought no evil until Uvo spoke.

"I can't help feeling that there's something wrong!" he exclaimed below
his breath.

"If Coysh is not mistaken," I whispered back, "there's something very
wrong indeed."

He looked at me as though I had missed the point, and I awaited an
impatient intimation of the fact. But there had been something strange
about Uvo Delavoye all the evening; he had singularly little to say for
himself, and now he was saying it in so low a voice that I insensibly
lowered mine, though we had the whole road almost to ourselves.

"You said you found old Royle quite alone the other night?"

"Absolutely--so _he_ said."

"You've no reason to doubt it, have you?"

"No reason--none. Still, it did seem odd that he should hang on to the
end--the master of the house--without a soul to do anything for him."

"I quite agree with you," said Delavoye emphatically. "It's very odd. It
means something. I believe I know what, too!"

But he did not appear disposed to tell me, and I was not going to press
him on the point. Nor did I share his confidence in his own powers of
divination. What could he know of the case, that was unknown to
me--unless he had some outside source of information all the time?

That, however, I did not believe; at any rate he seemed bent upon
acquiring more. He pushed the gate open, and was on the doorstep before
I could say a word. I had to follow in order to remind him that his
proceedings might be misunderstood if they were seen.

"Not a bit of it!" he had the nerve to say a