The first two days he stayed with me in that back room
he was very peaceful. He read and smoked a bit, and
made a heap of jottings in a note-book, and every night
we had a game of chess, at which he beat me hollow. I
think he was nursing his nerves back to health, for he
had had a pretty trying time. But on the third day I
could see he was beginning to get restless. He fixed up
a list of the days fill June 15th, and ticked each off with
a red pencil, making remarks in shorthand against
them. I would find him sunk in a brown study, with his
sharp eyes abstracted, and after those spells of
meditation he was apt to be very despondent.

Then I could see that he began to get edgy again. He
listened for little noises, and was always asking me if
Paddock could be trusted. Once or twice he got very
peevish, and apologized for it. I didn't blame him. I
made every allowance, for he had taken on a fairly stiff
job.

It was not the safety of his own skin that troubled him,
but the success of the scheme he had planned. That
little man was clean grit all through, without a soft spot
in him. One night he was very solemn.

"Say, Hannay," he said, "I judge I should let you a bit
deeper into this business. I should hate to go out
without leaving somebody else to put up a fight." And
he began to tell me in detail what I had only heard
from him vaguely.

I did not give him very close attention. The fact is, I was
more interested in his own adventures than in his high
politics. I reckoned that Karolides and his affairs were
not my business, leaving all that to him. So a lot that he
said slipped clean out of my memory. I remember that
he was very clear that the danger to Karolides would
not begin till he had got to London, and would come
from the very highest quarters, where there would be
no thought of suspicion. He mentioned the name of a
woman--Julia Czechenyi--as having something to do
with the danger. She would be the decoy, I gathered, to
get Karolides out of the care of his guards. He talked,
too, about a Black Stone and a man that lisped in his
speech, and he described very particularly somebody
that he never referred to without a shudder--an old
man with a young voice who could hood his eyes like a
hawk.

He spoke a good deal about death, too. He was
mortally anxious about winning through with his job,
but he didn't care a rush for his life.

"I reckon it's like going to sleep when you are pretty
well tired out, and waking to find a summer day with
the scent of hay coming in at the window. I used to
thank God for such mornings way back in the Blue-
Grass country, and I guess I'll thank Him when I wake
up on the other side of Jordan."

Next day he was much more cheerful, and read the life
of Stonewall Jackson most of the time. I went out to
dinner with a mining engineer I had got to see on
business, and came back about half-past ten in time for
our game of chess before turning in.

I had a cigar in my mouth, I remember, as I pushed
open the smoking room door. The lights were not lit,
which struck me as odd. I wondered if Scudder had
turned in already.

I snapped the switch, but there was nobody there.
Then I saw something in the far corner which made me
drop my cigar and fall into a cold sweat.

My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a
long knife through his heart which skewered him to the
floor.

2. The Milkman Sets Out on His Travels

I sat down in an arm-chair and felt very sick.

That lasted for maybe five minutes, and was
succeeded by a fit of the horrors. The poor staring
white face on the floor was more than I could bear,
and I managed to get a table-cloth and cover it. Then I
staggered to a cupboard, found the brandy and
swallowed several mouthfuls. I had seen men die
violently before; indeed I had killed a few myself in the
Matabele War; but this cold-blooded indoor business
was different. Still I managed to pull myself together. I
looked at my watch, and saw that it was half-past ten.

An idea seized me, and I went over the flat with a
small-tooth comb. There was nobody there, nor any
trace of anybody, but I shuttered and bolted all the
windows and put the chain on the door.