id not answer.

"His animosity was against Mr. Spearman, Miss Sherrill, wasn't it?
That is the only animosity of Mr. Corvet's that any one has told me
about."

"Yes."

"It was against Mr. Spearman that he warned you, then?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." He turned and, not waiting for the man, let himself out.
He should have known it when he had seen that Spearman, after
announcing himself as unable to get back to the office, was with
Constance.

He went swiftly around the block to his own house and let himself in at
the front door with his key. The house was warm; a shaded lamp on the
table in the larger library was lighted, a fire was burning in the open
grate, and the rooms had been swept and dusted. The Indian came into
the hall to take his coat and hat.

"Dinner is at seven," Wassaquam announced. "You want some change about
that?"

"No; seven is all right."

Alan went up-stairs to the room next to Corvet's which he had
appropriated for his own use the night before, and found it now
prepared for his occupancy. His suitcase, unpacked, had been put away
in the closet; the clothing it had contained had been put in the
dresser drawers, and the toilet articles arranged upon the top of the
dresser and in the cabinet of the little connecting bath. So, clearly,
Wassaquam had accepted him as an occupant of the house, though upon
what status Alan could not guess. He had spoken of Wassaquam to
Constance as his servant; but Wassaquam was not that; he was Corvet's
servant--faithful and devoted to Corvet, Constance had said--and Alan
could not think of Wassaquam as the sort of servant that "went with the
house." The Indian's manner toward himself had been noncommittal, even
stolid.

When Alan came down again to the first floor, Wassaquam was nowhere
about, but he heard sounds in the service rooms on the basement floor.
He went part way down the service stairs and saw the Indian in the
kitchen, preparing dinner. Wassaquam had not heard his approach, and
Alan stood an instant watching the Indian's tall, thin figure and the
quick movements of his disproportionately small, well-shaped hands,
almost like a woman's; then he scuffed his foot upon the stair, and
Wassaquam turned swiftly about.

"Anybody been here to-day, Judah?" Alan asked.

"No, Alan. I called tradesmen; they came. There were young men from
the newspapers."

"They came here, did they? Then why did you say no one came?"

"I did not let them in."