.

"You see," she said, "I must go back. He will not let me stay here.
He must think that you are Everard. It is only I who know that you are
not."

She slipped from the chair, kissed him, and, walking quite firmly across
the floor, touched the spring and passed through the panel. Even then
she turned around and waved a little good-bye to him. There was no sign
of fear in her face; only a little dumb disappointment. The panel glided
to and shut out the vision of her. Dominey held his head like a man who
fears madness.

CHAPTER XIX

Dawn the next morning was heralded by only a thin line of red parting
the masses of black-grey snow clouds which still hung low down in the
east. The wind had dropped, and there was something ghostly about the
still twilight as Dominey issued from the back regions and made his way
through the untrodden snow round to the side of the house underneath
Rosamund's window. A little exclamation broke from his lips as he stood
there. From the terraced walks, down the steps, and straight across the
park to the corner of the Black Wood, were fresh tracks. The cry had
been no fantasy. Somebody or something had passed from the Black Wood
and back again to this spot in the night.

Dominey, curiously excited by his discovery, examined the footmarks
eagerly, then followed them to the corner of the wood. Here and there
they puzzled him. They were neither like human footsteps nor the track
of any known animal. At the edge of the wood they seemed to vanish into
the heart of a great mass of brambles, from which here and there the
snow had been shaken off. There was no sign of any pathway; if ever
there had been one, the neglect of years had obliterated it. Bracken,
brambles, shrubs and bushes had grown up and degenerated, only to be
succeeded by a ranker and more dense form of undergrowth. Many of the
trees, although they were still plentiful, had been blown down and left
to rot on the ground. The place was silent except for the slow drip of
falling snow from the drooping leaves. He took one more cautious step
forward and found himself slowly sinking. Black mud was oozing up
through the snow where he had set his feet. He was just able to scramble
back. Picking his way with great caution, he commenced a leisurely
perambulation of the whole of the outside of the wood.

Heggs, the junior keeper, an hour or so later, went over the gun rack
once more, tapped the empty cases, and turned towards Middleton,