night bell, but could get no answer.”

“The night bell’s gone wrong. I’ll run and tell Uncle Jock at once——”

Leaving the window open, she hustled on a dressing gown and ran down the passage.

“Uncle Jock!” she knocked on the door as hard as she could. “Mr. Garlett has come to fetch you, for Mrs. Garlett has been taken ill——”

Mrs. Maclean opened the bedroom door. “Go back to bed, child; I’ll see to Harry Garlett.”

Reluctantly the girl did as she was bid, for she had the natural desire of youth to be in the middle of anything exciting that is going on.

To Jean Bower Mrs. Garlett was still a mere name, for she had never seen the invalid. But already, though she had only been working on and off with him for a very short time, she had come to like the man every one called Harry Garlett. She was a simple, straightforward, old-fashioned girl. From her point of view all ordinary married people love one another, and she believed her employer to be exceptionally devoted to his ailing wife. There had been a note of extreme anxiety and urgency in the now familiar voice which had come up from the garden just now.

As Dr. MacLean hurried by Harry Garlett’s side along the road leading to the Thatched House he felt a good deal disturbed. Though he had thought his patient more ailing than usual the day before, there had been nothing to indicate anything in the nature of a sudden seizure.

“D’you know exactly when your wife was taken ill?” he asked, aware that his companion’s bedroom was in quite another part of the Thatched House, some way from the rooms occupied by the ailing woman and Agatha Cheale.

34“She was taken ill early in the night. But Miss Cheale thought she’d be able to manage without calling me, and then, suddenly, Emily seemed to collapse! So I dressed and hurried along to fetch you.”

34

They walked on in silence till they turned in through the gate of the delightful garden which surrounded the house for which they were bound, and as they hastened up the avenue, Dr. Maclean noticed that there were no lights in any of the windows. Agatha Cheale had evidently not seen fit to rouse the servants.

The two men hurried together through the dark hall 

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