circumstances, does not usually, as a matter of fact, walk thus prepared for deadly onslaught.  The more I reflected, the further I felt at sea.  I recapitulated the elements of mystery, counting them on my fingers:  the pavilion secretly prepared for guests; the guests landed at the risk of their lives and to the imminent peril of the yacht; the guests, or at least one of them, in undisguised and seemingly causeless terror; Northmour with a naked weapon; Northmour stabbing his most intimate acquaintance at a word; last, and not least strange, Northmour fleeing from the man whom he had sought to murder, and barricading himself, like a hunted creature, behind the door of the pavilion.  Here were at least six separate causes for extreme surprise; each part and parcel with the others, and forming all together one consistent story.  I felt almost ashamed to believe my own senses.

As I thus stood, transfixed with wonder, I began to grow painfully conscious of the injuries I had received in the scuffle; skulked round among the sand hills; and, by a devious path, regained the shelter of the wood.  On the way, the old nurse passed again within several yards of me, still carrying her lantern, on the return journey to the mansion house of Graden.  This made a seventh suspicious feature in the case.  Northmour and his guests, it appeared, were to cook and do the cleaning for themselves, while the old woman continued to inhabit the big empty barrack among the policies.  There must surely be great cause for secrecy, when so many inconveniences were confronted to preserve it.

So thinking, I made my way to the den.  For greater security, I trod out the embers of the fire, and lighted my lantern to examine the wound upon my shoulder.  It was a trifling hurt, although it bled somewhat freely, and I dressed it as well as I could (for its position made it difficult to reach) with some rag and cold water from the spring.  While I was thus busied, I mentally declared war against Northmour and his mystery.  I am not an angry man by nature, and I believe there was more curiosity than resentment in my heart.  But war I certainly declared; and, by way of preparation, I got out my revolver, and, having drawn the charges, cleaned and reloaded it with scrupulous care.  Next I became preoccupied about my horse.  It might break loose, or fall to neighing, and so betray my camp in the Sea-Wood.  I determined to rid myself of its neighborhood; and long before dawn I was leading it over the links in the direction of the fisher village.

III

For two days I skulked round the pavilion, profiting by the uneven surface of the links.  I became an adept in the necessary tactics.  These low hillocks and shallow dells, running one into another, became a kind of cloak of darkness for my inthralling, but perhaps dishonorable, pursuit.

Yet, in spite of this advantage, I could learn but little of Northmour or his guests.