ou, "ready for anything." There being no
bell, he had raised and let fall the great knocker, and then stood
still in the sunshine looking placidly about him. The desolation of
the park left him unmoved. Money, judiciously expended, could rectify
that. And the house seemed sound enough. They knew how to build in
the old days. Colonel Winchester was probably using only one wing for
the present. In time to come, possibly ... Mr. Plowman had
straightened his tie.

Then the door had opened.

Clad like a husbandman, his shirt open at the neck, his sleeves rolled
to his elbows, the biggest man Mr. Plowman had ever seen had stood
regarding him. The cold majesty of a lion had looked out of those
terrible eyes; neck, chest, and arms proclaimed the strength of a
Hercules; the pose was that of a demi-god at bay. The carelessly
brushed fair hair, the broad forehead, the unusual distance between
those steel-grey eyes, the fine colour of the cheeks, the fair,
close-cut beard, contributed to make the fellow unearthly handsome.
But there was something behind it all--a dominating irresistible force,
which rose up in a great wave, monstrous and menacing.

Mr. Plowman, who knew little of personality, felt as if he had been
suddenly disembowelled....

Thereafter he had been led stumbling through the semi-darkness of a
stark hall, by gaunt mouldering passages to the servants' quarters. A
fair-sized parlour, looking upon a courtyard, carpetless, curtainless,
and something suggestive of an "Orderly Room," had presently received
him.

There a deep bass voice had bade him be seated, and he had been told
quite dispassionately that he was present to assist the speaker to
prepare for insanity.

All things considered, it is to Mr. Plowman's credit that he was able
to appreciate and answer coherently quite a number of questions which
his client had put to him upon matters of law. The strain, however,
was severe, and he was unutterably relieved when he was directed to
move to a table, where paper and ink were waiting, and take down the
explicit instructions which the voice would dictate. He had obeyed
parrot-wise.

The dictation was hardly over when Lyveden had appeared at the window
and, at a nod from Winchester, walked to a side-door and entered the
room a moment later....

What immediately followed his entrance, gentlemen, we have already
seen. Your time being precious, I have but made use of the silence
which poor Mr. Plo