“Were you seen by anyone?”

Heath paused and thought for a moment.

“I would like to deal entirely candidly with you, Mr. Coryndon, but, with your permission, I must avoid any mention of names.  As it happened, I was seen, but I believe that the person who saw me has no connection with either my own place in this story or the story itself so far as it affects Absalom.  I saw Rydal go.  He went in silence, an utterly broken-hearted and ruined man, and only ten months divided that day from the day that he stood on the deck of the Worcestershire filled with every hope the heart of a man knows.  Behind him, his wife lying near death in the little house his love had provided for her, and nothing lay before him but utter desolation.  I watched the boat take him away into the darkness, and I saw the lights of the Lady Helen quite clearly, and then I saw her move slowly off, and I knew that Rydal was safe.”

He paused and stared into the darkness of the room, seeing the whole picture again, and feeling the awful misery of the broken man who had gone by the way of transgressors.  The man who had once been light-hearted and happy, who had sung in his choir, and who had read the lessons for the Rev. Francis Heath and helped him with his boys.

Coryndon’s face showed his tense, close interest as the clergyman spoke again.

“I was standing there for some time, how long I do not know, when I saw that I was not alone, and that I was being watched by a Chinaman.  I knew the boy by sight, and must have seen him before somewhere else.  He was a large, repulsive creature, and appeared to have come from one of the houses near the river, where there are Coringyhis and low-caste natives of India.  At the time I remarked nothing, but when the boy saw that he had attracted my attention, he started into a run, and left me without speaking.  The incident was so trifling that it hardly made me uneasy.  No one had seen me actually with Rydal—­”

“You are quite clear on that point?  Not even the other person you alluded to?”

“I can be perfectly clear.  I passed the other person going in the opposite direction, before I joined Rydal.  On the way back I saw Absalom again, and he was with the Chinaman whom I already mentioned; they did not notice me, and they were talking eagerly; my mind was overful of other things, and you will understand that I did not think of them then, but, as far as I remember, they went towards the fishermen’s quarter on the river bank.  I cannot be sure of this.”

Coryndon did not stir; the gloom was deep now, and yet neither of the men thought of calling for lights.

“And the Chinaman?”

Heath flung out his arms with a violent gesture.