o know
more than he actually knew--which was literally nothing at all. For
Macleod, who was, in ordinary circumstances, anything but a reserved or
austere person, was on this subject strictly silent, evading questions
with a proud and simple dignity that forbade the repetition of them.
"_The thing that concerns you not, meddle not with:_" he observed the
maxim himself, and expected others to do the like.

It was an early dinner they had had, after their stroll in Richmond
Park, and it was a comparatively early train that Macleod and his friend
now drove down to catch, after he had paid his bill. When they reached
Waterloo Station it was not yet eleven o'clock; when he, having bade
good-bye to Ogilvie, got to his rooms in Bary Street, it was but a few
minutes after. He was joyfully welcomed by his faithful friend Oscar.

"You poor dog," said he, "here have we been enjoying ourselves all the
day, and you have been in prison. Come, shall we go for a run?"

Oscar jumped up on him with a whine of delight; he knew what that taking
up of the hat again meant. And then there was a silent stealing
downstairs, and a slight, pardonable bark of joy in the hall, and a wild
dash into the freedom of the narrow street when the door was opened.
Then Oscar moderated his transports, and kept pretty close to his master
as together they began to wander through the desert wilds of London.

Piccadilly?--Oscar had grown as expert in avoiding the rattling
broughams and hansoms as the veriest mongrel that ever led a vagrant
life in London streets. Berekely Square?--here there was comparative
quiet, with the gas lamps shining up on the thick foliage of the maples.
In Grosvenor Square he had a bit of a scamper; but there was no rabbit
to hunt. In Oxford Street his master took him into a public-house and
gave him a biscuit and a drink of water; after that his spirits rose a
bit, and he began to range ahead in Baker Street. But did Oscar know any
more than his master why they had taken this direction?

Still farther north; and now there were a good many trees about; and the
moon, high in the heavens, touched the trembling foliage, and shone
white on the front of the houses. Oscar was a friendly companion; but he
could not be expected to notice that his master glanced somewhat
nervously along South Bank when he had reached the entrance to that
thoroughfare. Apparently the place was quite deserted; there was nothing
visible but the walls, trees, an