As Ball got away, it may be believed that either the dog was chained, or that it was called off immediately by Tarn himself.
"I don't know what you make of it, sir, but it looks to me as if those Tarns were Romans," said Perrot.
"Mr Perrot," I said, "it doesn't do to take much notice of what a fuddled man thinks he sees."
"Perhaps not," said Perrot. "Anyway, it gave Ball a good scare--he's been teetotal ever since and talks of joining the Plymouth Brethren."
Within a brief period from that day my visits to Felonsdene ceased; there was no longer any reason for them. Tarn accepted all that the law required; he registered the birth of the child and he had her vaccinated. The devotion of Mala and himself to that child was beyond all question.
I repeated the very good advice which I had already given him, but he refused to follow it. I think he considered that he had already said too much, and he quite obviously attempted to minimise it. He said that perhaps he had expressed himself too strongly. It was quite possible for a small family to live happily and cheerfully together even in so desolate a spot as Felonsdene. There was plenty to do. Mala had her baby and the house to look after. He had the outdoor work. If he wanted to see what the rest of the world was doing, he could always go into Helmstone; there were plenty of hotels there where he could get a drink and a game of billiards. When I told him what Ball professed to have seen and heard he got rather angry. It was all a lie. Ball had never been near the place. But a few minutes afterwards he said: "I wish I'd let the dog get him."
It was all intended to be very reassuring. But it was not candid and it was vaguely disquieting. It occurred to me to pay a visit one night secretly to Felonsdene to see if I could make out what was going on. But my practice in Helmstone was too heavy to leave leisure for nocturnal expeditions of that sort; besides, it was no business of mine.
Tarn paid my bill--he wanted to pay twice as much--and I regarded the incident as closed. If I were called in again I thought it likely that it would be to certify the lunacy of either Tarn or his wife.
But the incident was reopened a little less than a year later, and not in the way that I had expected.