s he bent over the tarnished
letter-box. "You're with me, Gillon, and isn't it your job to keep an
eye on these houses?"

"Yes, but----"

"What's the matter with this letter-box? It won't open."

"That's so that letters can't be shot into the empty hall. He nailed it
up on purpose before he went. I found him at it."

"And didn't it strike you as an extraordinary thing to do?" Uvo was
standing upright now. "Of course it did, or you'd have mentioned it to
Coysh and me the other day."

It was no use denying the fact.

"What's happening to their letters?" he went on, as though I could know.

"I expect they're being re-directed."

"To the wife?"

"I suppose so."

And my voice sank with my heart, and I felt ashamed, and repeated myself
aggressively.

"Exactly!" There was no supposing about Uvo. "The wife at some
mysterious address in the country--poor soul!"

"Where are you going now?"

He had dived under the front windows, muttering to himself as much as to
me. I caught him up at the high side gate into the back garden.

"Lend me a hand," said Delavoye when he had tried the latch.

"You're not going over?"

"That I am, and it'll be your duty to follow. Or I could let you
through. Well--if you won't!"

And in the angle between party-fence and gate he was struggling
manfully when I went to his aid as a lesser evil; in a few seconds we
were both in the back garden of the empty house, with the gate still
bolted behind us.

"Now, if it were ours," resumed Delavoye when he had taken breath, "I
should say the lavatory window was the vulnerable point. Lavatory
window, please!"

"But, Delavoye, look here!"

"I'm looking," said he, and we faced each other in the broad moonlight
that flooded the already ragged lawn.

"If you think I'm going to let you break into this house, you're very
much mistaken."

I had my back to the windows I meant to hold inviolate. No doubt the
moon revealed some resolution in my face and bearing, for I meant what I
said until Delavoye spoke again.

"Oh, very well! If it's coming to brute force I have no more to say. The
police will have to do it, that's all. It's their job, when you come to
think of it; but it'll be jolly difficult to get them to take it on,
whereas you and I----"

And he turned away with a shrug to point his admirable aposiopesis.

"Man Uvo," I said, catching him by the arm, "what's this job you're
jawing about?"

"You know well enough. You're in the whol