So the butler withdrew, and the danger disappeared.
"You will please to remember, sir," said Varbarriere, as they approached the house, "that this is of the nature of a military movement--a surprise; there must be no sound--no alarm."
"Quite so," whispered old Lennox, with white lips. He was clutching something nervously under the wide sleeve of his loose drab overcoat. He stopped under the shadow of a noble clump of trees about fifty steps away from the glass door they were approaching.
"I--I almost wish, sir--I'll go back--I don't think I can go on, sir."
Varbarriere looked at his companion with an unconscious sneer, but said nothing.
"By ----, sir, if I find it true, I'll kill him, sir."
The old man had in his gouty grip one of those foolish daggers once so much in vogue, but which have now gone out of use, and Varbarriere saw it glimmer in the faint light.
"Surely, Colonel Lennox, you don't mean--you can't mean--you're not going to resort to violence, sir?"
Varbarriere placed his hand on the old man's sleeve, he could feel the tremor of his thin wrist through it.
"General Lennox, if I had fancied that you could have harboured such a thought, I never should have brought you here."
The General, with his teeth clenched, made him no reply but a fierce nod.
"Remember, sir, you have the courts of law, and you have the code of honour--either or both. One step more I shall not take with you, if you mean that sort of violence."
"What do you mean, sir?" asked the General, grimly.
"I mean this, sir, you shall learn nothing by this night's procedure, unless you promise me, upon your honour as a soldier, sir, and a gentleman, that you will not use that dagger or any other weapon."
General Lennox looked at him with a rather glassy stare.
"You're right, sir, I dare say," said Lennox, suddenly and helplessly.
"I'm satisfied, General. Now observe, you must be silent, and as noiseless as you can. If Sir Jekyl be apprised of your arrival, of course the--the experiment fails."
General Lennox nodded. Emerging into the moonlight, Varbarriere saw how pale and lean his face looked.
Across the grass they pace side by side in silence. The glass door opened without a creak or a hitch. Jacques politely secured it, and, obeying his master's gesture, led the way through the gallery to the hall.