hesitate any longer. I kept on the turf
by the side of the avenue and made my way up to the house.

The library alone and one small window on the ground floor were lit. I
crept up on the terrace and tried to peer in, but across each of the
library windows the curtains were too closely drawn. There remained the
small window at the end of the terrace. I crept on tiptoe towards this,
feeling my way through the darkness by the front of the house. Suddenly
I came to a full stop. I flattened myself against the stonework and
held my breath. Some one else was on the terrace. What I had heard was
unmistakable. It was the wind blowing amongst a woman's skirts, and the
woman was very close at hand.

I almost felt her warm breath as she stole past me. I caught a gleam of
a pale face, sufficient to tell me who she was. She passed on and took
up her stand outside that small end window.

I, too, crept nearer to it.--About a yard away there was a projection of
the front. I stole into the deep corner and waited. A few feet from me
I knew that she too was waiting.

Half an hour, perhaps an hour, passed. My ears became trained to all
sounds that were not absolutely deadened by the roar of the wind. I
heard the crash of falling boughs in the wood, the more distant but
unchanging thunder of the sea, the sharp spitting of the rain upon the
stone walk. And I heard the opening of the window by the side of which
I was leaning.

I was only just in time. Through the raised sash there came a hand,
holding a packet of some sort, and out of the darkness came another hand
eagerly stretched out to receive it. I brushed it ruthlessly aside,
tore the packet from the fingers which suddenly strove to retain it, and
with my other hand I caught the arm a little above the wrist. I heard
the flying footsteps of my fellow-watcher, but I did not even turn
round. A fierce joy was in my heart. Now I was to know. The veil of
mystery which had hung over the doings at Braster was to be swept aside.
I stooped down till my eyes were within a few inches of the hand. I
passed my fingers over it. I felt the ring--

Then I remember only that mad headlong flight back across the park,
where the very air seemed full of sobbing, mocking voices, and the
ground beneath my feet swayed and heaved. I could not even think
coherently. I heard the motor go tearing down the road past me, and
come to a standstill at the turn. Still I had no thought of any danger.
It never occur