The survivor roused himself and looked keenly around. Were there no traces on the smooth turf that would connect him with the disappearance of the other when he should come to be missed and a search was made; no marks of feet upon the slippery rock? No, there were none. The moon's cold eye alone had witnessed the deed--of which there remained absolutely no trace. Having assured himself of this, he readjusted his spectacles and walked rapidly away from the spot without once looking back. Battisford was an old-fashioned place and "The Silver Fleece" was a snug and old-fashioned hostelry, where they kept early hours. Especially on Sundays was this the case, but on this particular Sunday our friend the loquacious waiter was deputed to sit up for the new guest--the gentleman who had gone over to church at Wandsborough. The service there would be over at any time after eight--say half-past, so that he should be back at a quarter-past nine or half-past at the latest. But it was slow work sitting up alone in the deserted coffee-room, and so it speedily came to pass that the talkative one followed the example of the five foolish virgins--slumbered and slept. At length the stranger returned, and the first sound that greeted his ears as he let himself in and stood within the dimly lighted passage was a prolonged and unmistakable snore. Now in the said passage there stood a clock--a large timepiece of venerable aspect--and the hands of this clock were close upon a quarter-past ten. Whether it was a kind of instinct that prompted him to do so, or that he noticed that the glass was closed, but not shut--or both--cannot be here recorded, but in a moment he had opened the clock face, put the hands back forty minutes, and, having closed the glass again, proceeded carelessly in the direction of the snore. "Hallo! Been sitting up for me?" he cried. "Early here, I suppose. Well, see if you can scare me up an S. and B., and that's all I shall want to-night." Up jumped the drowsy one with a start. "Yes, sir. Beg pardon, sir, but I must ha' dropped off," he said, rubbing his eyes and making for the door. "Ah well, sir, I h'aint been long in a doze; it was after nine when last I looked at this blessed clock, and now it ain't quite half-past yet, leastways it's just over it." The other felt relieved. There was no fear of the man discovering the alteration of the hands if he had been asleep ever since nine, and it crossed his mind as just within the bounds of possibility that this circumstance might yet stand him in good stead. "Just over half-past nine? So it is," he said carelessly, as the waiter re-appeared with the brandy and soda. "I must have come quick, for it seemed to me a precious long way from Wandsborough." "You have come quick, sir. Did you come by the cliffs?" "The cliffs! Is there a way by the cliffs, then?" "Oh yes, sir, much shorter. But not over-safe at night, speshully to a gentleman as doesn't know the country well."