Anyhow, by eleven o’clock that night Gertrude was on her way to Johnsville, three hundred and eighty miles away, accompanied by Rosie.  The domestic force was now down to Mary Anne and Liddy, with the under-gardener’s wife coming every day to help out.  Fortunately, Warner and the detectives were keeping bachelor hall in the lodge.  Out of deference to Liddy they washed their dishes once a day, and they concocted queer messes, according to their several abilities.  They had one triumph that they ate regularly for breakfast, and that clung to their clothes and their hair the rest of the day.  It was bacon, hardtack and onions, fried together.  They were almost pathetically grateful, however, I noticed, for an occasional broiled tenderloin.

It was not until Gertrude and Rosie had gone and Sunnyside had settled down for the night, with Winters at the foot of the staircase, that Mr. Jamieson broached a subject he had evidently planned before he came.

“Miss Innes,” he said, stopping me as I was about to go to my room up-stairs, “how are your nerves tonight?”

“I have none,” I said happily.  “With Halsey found, my troubles have gone.”

“I mean,” he persisted, “do you feel as though you could go through with something rather unusual?”

“The most unusual thing I can think of would be a peaceful night.  But if anything is going to occur, don’t dare to let me miss it.”

“Something is going to occur,” he said.  “And you’re the only woman I can think of that I can take along.”  He looked at his watch.  “Don’t ask me any questions, Miss Innes.  Put on heavy shoes, and some old dark clothes, and make up your mind not to be surprised at anything.”

Liddy was sleeping the sleep of the just when I went up-stairs, and I hunted out my things cautiously.  The detective was waiting in the hall, and I was astonished to see Doctor Stewart with him.

They were talking confidentially together, but when I came down they ceased.  There were a few preparations to be made:  the locks to be gone over, Winters to be instructed as to renewed vigilance, and then, after extinguishing the hall light, we crept, in the darkness, through the front door, and into the night.

I asked no questions.  I felt that they were doing me honor in making me one of the party, and I would show them I could be as silent as they.  We went across the fields, passing through the woods that reached almost to the ruins of the stable, going over stiles now and then, and sometimes stepping over low fences.  Once only somebody spoke, and then it was an emphatic bit of profanity from Doctor Stewart when he ran into a wire fence.