ver the sill and watched. The figure emerged from the great shadows of
the elm trees into the glaring moonlight. With a start of surprise
Sahwah saw that it was Veronica, fully dressed and with a cloak thrown
about her shoulders. Before Sahwah had recovered herself sufficiently to
call to her, Veronica had passed through the gate into the stable yard
and was lost in the shadows of the high barn.

"Whatever can she want out there?" thought Sahwah, with visions of
Kaiser Bill loose and on a rampage. But there were no disturbing sounds
anywhere; Kaiser Bill was not out. Veronica did not go into the barn;
she went around behind it and struck into the path that led down the
hill to the carriage road below. The path was bathed in moonlight for a
good part of its length; Veronica was plainly visible as she ran lightly
along, and Sahwah watched wonderingly. Sahwah was very far sighted, and
constant practice in focusing on distant objects enabled her to
distinguish plainly things quite far away. Down at the bottom of the
hill, where the path met the road, Sahwah saw Veronica come to a
standstill and look about her for a few moments; then a man appeared in
the road and together he and Veronica moved forward and vanished into
the shadows that lay beyond.

Wondering, Sahwah stared after them, and as she looked a great, nameless
dread took possession of her, and she experienced exactly the same
peculiar sensation she had felt in the train coming down, a feeling of
prescience and foreboding, of brooding evil. It gripped her heart with
cold hands and she changed her intention of going to Nyoda's room and
asking what was the matter with Veronica. Suddenly she felt that Nyoda
would not know. All her heart cried out in love and loyalty to Veronica.
The others must not find out what she had seen to-night. Veronica had
simply gone out to take a walk in the moonlight; possibly she had a
headache or was unable to sleep. It was a trick of the eyes that she had
thought someone had been with her in the road; the distance and the
waving shadows had deceived her. Why shouldn't Veronica steal out
quietly and go for a walk if she wanted to? What time was it, anyway,
eleven? Twelve? Sahwah switched on the light and looked at her watch. It
was half past two.

She shivered as the freshening breeze came in through the window and
became conscious that her bare feet were cold on the polished floor. She
jumped into bed to get warm, intending to get up a