The light of the lamp was continuous now; the stranger was making his
examination. By it Captain Alec guided his steps; and he arrived behind
the tall gorse bush opposite Tower Cottage just in time to hear the
Sergeant say "Mrs. Willnough, Laundress, Inkston," and to witness the
parting of the two companions.
There was very little to go upon there. Why should not one friend give
another an address? But the examination? Beaumaroy should surely know of
that? It might be nothing, but, on the other hand, it might have a
meaning. But the men had gone, had obviously parted for the night.
Beaumaroy could be told to-morrow; now he himself could go back to his
visions--and so homeward, in happiness, to his bed.
Having reached this sensible conclusion, he was about to turn away from
the garden gate which he now stood facing, when he heard the house door
softly open and as softly shut. The practice of his profession had given
him keen eyes in the dark; he discovered Beaumaroy's tall figure stealing
very cautiously down the narrow, flagged path. The next instant the light
of another torch flashed out, and this time not in the distance, but full
in his own face.
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