that night he spent in arming himself for
the task that lay before him. Yet how he dreaded that scene to-morrow!
How he wished that this hideous nightmare were after all a dream, and
that he could awake and find Bolsover where it was even yesterday
morning! The other watcher was Jeffreys. He had slept not a wink the
night before, and to-night sleep seemed still more impossible. Had you
seen him as he sat there listlessly in his chair, with his gaunt, ugly
face and restless lips, you would have been inclined, I hope, to pity
him, cad as he was. Hour after hour he sat there without changing his
posture, cloud after cloud chasing one another across his brow, as they
chased one another across the pale face of the moon outside.

At length, as it seemed, with an effort he rose to his feet and slipped
off his boots. His candle had burned nearly out, but the moon was
bright enough to light his room without it, so he extinguished it and
softly opened the door.

The passage was silent, the only sounds being the heavy breathing
somewhere of a weary boy, and the occasional creaking of a board as he
crept along on tip-toe.

At the end of the passage he turned aside a few steps to a door, and
stood listening. Some one was moving inside. There was the rustle of a
dress and the tinkle of a spoon in a cup. Then he heard a voice, and
oh, how his heart beat as he listened!

"I'm tired," it said wearily.

That was all. Jeffreys heard the smoothing of a pillow and a woman's
soothing whisper hushing the sufferer to rest.

The drops stood in beads on his brow as he stood there and listened.

In a little all became quiet, and presently a soft, regular breathing
told him that some one was sleeping.

He put his hand cautiously to the handle and held it there a minute
before he dared turn it. At last he did so, and opened the door a few
inches. The breathing went regularly on. Inch by inch he pushed the
door back till he could catch a glimpse in the moonlight of the bed, and
a dark head of hair on the pillow. An inch or two more, and he could
see the whole room and the nurse dozing in the corner. Stealthily, like
a thief, he advanced into the room and approached the bed. The sufferer
was lying motionless, and still breathing regularly.

Jeffreys took a step forward to look at his face. At that moment the
moonlight streamed in at the window and lit up the room. Then, to his
terror, he noticed that the patient was awake