tall our
asking any questions:

"I am not at liberty to mention anything of my mission; where it was
to, what it was for, or anything at all about it. Such matters are in
confidence between Mr. Trelawny and myself; I am pledged to absolute
secrecy."

He paused, and an embarrassed look crept over his face. Suddenly he
said:

"You are sure, Miss Trelawny, your Father is not well enough to see me
today?"

A look of wonderment was on her face in turn. But it cleared at
once;--she stood up, saying in a tone in which dignity and graciousness
were blended:

"Come and see for yourself!" She moved toward her father's room; he
followed, and I brought up the rear.

Mr. Corbeck entered the sick-room as though he knew it. There is an
unconscious attitude or bearing to persons in new surroundings which
there is no mistaking. Even in his anxiety to see his powerful friend,
he glanced for a moment round the room, as at a familiar place. Then
all his attention became fixed on the bed. I watched him narrowly, for
somehow I felt that on this man depended much of our enlightenment
regarding the strange matter in which we were involved.

It was not that I doubted him. The man was of transparent honesty; it
was this very quality which we had to dread. He was of that
courageous, fixed trueness to his undertaking, that if he should deem
it his duty to guard a secret he would do it to the last. The case
before us was, at least, an unusual one; and it would, consequently,
require more liberal recognition of bounds of the duty of secrecy than
would hold under ordinary conditions. To us, ignorance was
helplessness. If we could learn anything of the past we might at least
form some idea of the conditions antecedent to the attack; and might,
so, achieve some means of helping the patient to recovery. There were
curios which might be removed.... My thoughts were beginning to whirl
once again; I pulled myself up sharply and watched. There was a look
of infinite pity on the sun-stained, rugged face as he gazed at his
friend, lying so helpless. The sternness of Mr. Trelawny's face had not
relaxed in sleep; but somehow it made the helplessness more marked. It
would not have troubled one to see a weak or an ordinary face under
such conditions; but this purposeful, masterful man, lying before us
wrapped in impenetrable sleep, had all the pathos of a great ruin. The
sight was not a new one to us; but I could see that Miss Trelawny, l