s Pett. "You make yourself
easy--I'll see you're all right. And now I'll go and cook you a nice
chop, for no doubt you'll do with something after all the stuff you had
to hear in the court."

"You were there, then?" asked Mallalieu. "Lot o' stuff and nonsense! A
sensible woman like you----"

"A sensible woman like me only believes what she can prove," answered
Miss Pett.

She went away and shut the door, and Mallalieu, left to himself, took
another heartening pull at his glass and proceeded to re-inspect his
quarters. The fire was blazing up: the room was warm and comfortable;
certainly he was fortunate. But he assured himself that the window was
properly shuttered, barred, and fully covered by the thick curtain, and
he stood by it for a moment listening intently for any sound of movement
without. No sound came, not even the wail of a somewhat strong wind
which he knew to be sweeping through the pine trees, and he came to the
conclusion that the old stone walls were almost sound-proof and that if
he and Miss Pett conversed in ordinary tones no eavesdroppers outside
the cottage could hear them. And presently he caught a sound within the
cottage--the sound of the sizzling of chops on a gridiron, and with it
came the pleasant and grateful smell of cooking meat, and Mallalieu
decided that he was hungry.

To a man fixed as Mallalieu was at that time the evening which followed
was by no means unpleasant. Miss Pett served him as nice a little supper
as his own housekeeper would have given him; later on she favoured him
with her company. They talked of anything but the events of the day, and
Mallalieu began to think that the queer-looking woman was a remarkably
shrewd and intelligent person. There was but one drawback to his
captivity--Miss Pett would not let him smoke. Cigars, she said, might be
smelt outside the cottage, and nobody would credit her with the
consumption of such gentleman-like luxuries.

"And if I were you," she said, at the end of an interesting conversation
which had covered a variety of subjects, "I should try to get a good
night's rest. I'll mix you a good glass of toddy such as the late Kitely
always let me mix for his nightcap, and then I'll leave you. The bed's
aired, there's plenty of clothing on it, all's safe, and you can sleep
as if you were a baby in a cradle, for I always sleep like a dog, with
one ear and an eye open, and I'll take good care naught disturbs you, so
there!"

Mallalieu drank