Silence fell.

The moon rays, creeping around from the right of the avenue, crossing
the shrubbery and encroaching upon the low wall of the loggia, now
flooded its floor. Against the silvern light, Bristol appeared to
me in black silhouette. The breeze, too, seemed now to blow from a
slightly different direction. It came through the windows on my
right, beyond which lay the unkempt bushes which extended on that
side to the wall of the grounds.

So we sat, until the moonlight poured fully in upon Bristol's back.
So we sat when the clock chimed the hour of one.

Bristol arose and once more went out to the gate. He had arranged
to visit Morris's post every half-hour. Again I experienced the
nervous dread that he would be attacked in the avenue; but again he
returned unscathed.

"All's well," he said.

But from his tones I knew that he had not forgotten that it was at
this hour Marden and West had suffered mysterious attack.

Neither of us, I think, was disposed to talk. We both were
unwilling to break the silence, wherein, with all our ears, we
listened for the slightest disturbance.

And now my attention turned anew to the course of the slowly creeping
moon rays. In my mind an idea was struggling for definition. There