He had acquired his substantial villa and large garden by a very shrewd bargain a number of years ago, and he lived there with just the decency that his condition in life enjoined, but with not a suspicion of display beyond it. He kept a staff of two competent and respectable girls, just enough to run a house of that size, but only just; and when he wanted to drive abroad he hired a conveyance exactly suitable to the occasion from the most respectable hotel. His life, in short, was ordered to the very best advantage possible. Enthusiastic devotion to such an extremely exemplary gentleman was a little difficult, but in his present housemaid, Mary MacLean, he had a girl with a strong Highland strain of fidelity to a master, and an instinctive devotion to his interests, even if his person was hardly the chieftain her heart demanded. She was a soft voiced, anxious looking young woman, almost pretty despite her nervous high strung air, and of a quiet and modest demeanour. Soon after her master had begun breakfast, Mary entered the dining-room with an apologetic air, but a conscientious eye. "Begging your pardon, sir," she began, "but I thought I ought to tell you that when cook and me was going out to the concert last night we thought we saw _something_ in the drive." Mr. Rattar looked up at her sharply and fixed his cold eyes on her steadily for a moment, never saying a word. It was exactly his ordinary habit, and she had thought she was used to it by now, yet this morning she felt oddly disconcerted. Then it struck her that perhaps it was the red cut on his chin that gave her this curious feeling. Silent Simon's hand was as steady as a rock and she never remembered his having cut himself shaving before; certainly not as badly as this. "Saw 'something'?" he repeated gruffly. "What do you mean?" "It looked like a man, sir, and it seemed to move into the trees almost as quick as we saw it!" "Tuts!" muttered Simon. "But there was two friends of ours meeting us in the road," she hurried on, "and they thought they saw a man going in at the gate!" Her master seemed a little more impressed. "Indeed?" said he. "So I thought it was my duty to tell you, sir." "Quite right," said he. "For I felt sure it couldn't just be a gentleman coming to see you, sir, or he wouldn't have gone into the trees." "Of course not," he agreed briefly. "Nobody came to see me." Mary looked at him doubtfully and hesitated for a moment. "Didn't you even hear anything, sir?" she asked in a lowered voice. Her master's quick glance made her jump. "Why?" he demanded. "Because, sir, I found footsteps in the gravel this morning--where it's soft with the rain, sir, just under the library window." Mr. Rattar looked first hard at her and then at his plate. For several seconds he answered nothing, and then he said: "I did hear some one."