"I went through the first house, and saw nothing. The shadow of the wall prevented the moonlight from shining in there. But just as I was about to enter the middle house, I thought I saw--a face."
"What do you mean you _thought_ you saw?" snapped Mr. Saunderson.
"I mean, sir, that it was so horrible and so strange that I could not believe it was real--which is one of the reasons why I did not speak before. It reminded me of the face of a gentleman I have seen here--Mr. Ferrara--"
"But in other ways it was quite unlike the gentleman. In some ways it was more like the face of a woman--a very bad woman. It had a sort of bluish light on it, but where it could have come from, I don't know. It seemed to be smiling, and two bright eyes looked straight out at me."
Crombie stopped, raising his hand to his head confusedly.
"I could see nothing but just this face--low down as if the person it belonged to was crouching on the floor; and there was a tall plant of some kind just beside it--"
"Well," said Dr. Cairn, "go on! What did you do?"
"I turned to run!" confessed the man. "If you had seen that horrible face, you would understand how frightened I was. Then when I got to the door, I looked back."
"I hope you had closed the door behind you," snapped Saunderson.
"Never mind that, never mind that!" interrupted Dr. Cairn.
"I had closed the door behind me--yes, sir--but just as I was going to open it again, I took a quick glance back, and the face had gone! I came out, and I was walking over the lawn, wondering whether I should tell you, when it occurred to me that I hadn't noticed whether the key had been left in or not."
"Did you go back to see?" asked Dr. Cairn.
"I didn't want to," admitted Crombie, "but I did--and--"
"So you concluded that your imagination had been playing you tricks," said Saunderson grimly. "In my opinion you were right."
Crombie, with a mumbled "Good-night, gentlemen," turned and left the room.
"Why are you worrying about this matter," inquired Saunderson, when the door had closed, "at a time like the present?"
"Never mind," replied Dr. Cairn wearily. "I must return to Half-Moon Street, now, but I shall be back within an hour."
With no other word to Saunderson, he stood up and walked out to the hall. He rapped at the study door, and it was instantly opened by Robert Cairn. No spoken word was necessary; the burning question could be read in his too-bright eyes. Dr. Cairn laid his hand upon his son's shoulder.