irascible, but simmering into calm. "Isn't this good enough for you?" 

"Oh, I'm out for a land where they have more Christian laws," said Gardiner easily. "England's too civilized to be livable," he added.

Scott did not hear him. He was studying the house under their feet. "That's Mrs. Trent's room below, I suppose? And your parlor below that, on the ground floor? Any one in that south wing opposite could see straight in. Lucky for you there was nobody watching on Thursday evening."

"Lucky? What the devil do you mean?" Scott turned round and stared in the face. "You didn't want any visitors in hysterics, did you? Enough people involved in it already, aren't there? What do you mean yourself?"

"I thought," said Gardiner, "I thought you were echoing Mrs. Trent's idea, and suggesting I'd done him in." It was the best he could do, but it was not good. Scott stared at him with his bright eyes, shifted them to Denis, and brought them back to Gardiner again. Gardiner knew that in the first moment of surprise he had started violently, changed color, showed all the signs of guilt. Nothing could erase that impression.

"Your nerves must be in a bad way for you to jump like that at an innocent remark," said Scott dryly. "They are, I told you so. You can give me something for them, if you like. I don't mind swallowing your beastlinesses."

"No," said Scott. He pulled out his watch. "I must go to my patient. Good-night to you both." He climbed down through the trap-door, and then poked his head up again to add: "Mind, I never meddle with what isn't my concern. Never." He was seen no more, and they heard him descending the ladder.

"Damn," said Gardiner. "He won't make any use of it," said Denis. "That's not a bad little chap, Harry."

"Not a bad little chap? He's a most confoundedly inquisitive little chap! He won't rest till he's ferreted out the whole thing. Oh, damn! I wouldn't have had this happen for anything. Why the devil couldn't I keep my countenance? I thought I might have trusted myself for that!" He paced up and down in a fury.

"You've had a tryin' time." "Trying? I've had a scarifying time! That inquest, when the foreman began pumping you--I'd have murdered you as well, Denis, if you hadn't been adroit. But if I'm going to lose my nerve over such trifles as this--what an ass! oh, what an ass!" He threw himself back on the lounge. Denis could not help feeling 

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