Yet, conscious of a hundred unmerited graces, a blight as of abandonment by all the world seemed to fall upon me as I left the room where the inquest had been held. The inquiry was over; the last flicker of its excitement was dead for me; the madhouse and the unhallowed acre had closed upon the scene. The Jury, equal to Inspector Jannaway’s faith in them, had brought in a verdict of Justifiable _felo de se_; and, with the snap of that final spark, the curtain had fallen, committing me to a profound gloom. That, in its essence, no doubt, was fruit of the inevitable reaction from long nervous tension. In the exhaustion following any such prolonged struggle, one is always apt to make a selfish grievance of one’s state--to resent the self-imposition of one’s burden as a duty enforced upon one by the callous egotism of one’s fellows. The disease of ungraciousness soured my vision, and painted the world to me a bilious yellow. True, my friend had very handsomely provided the material means to my success; but why, in the justice of things, should Fate have imposed upon _me_ the necessity of securing that success at all? A dozen issues were involved in the question, and I knew it; but my reason was clouded under the sense of personal desertion, at the crisis, by those who appeared to think that their moral sympathy with me at a distance was all-sufficing. In fact, and to end the matter, I had not heard from the two dearest to me for a week and more, and the shadow of that silence was obscuring my mind, and peopling it with a hundred spectres of apprehension. And so, returning to the “Black Dog,” I found a telegram awaiting me: _If possible be at lodge in Caddle three-thirty this afternoon. Particular business Gas and Gaiters. J. D._ It was like finding a bottle of champagne in a glooming wilderness. At the first gulp the clouds lifted, a crevice opened in them, and sunshine poured into my heart. Cryptic as ever, there was no telling Johnny’s meaning; but, Johnny being Johnny, and all things equal, helpfulness shone in some sort potential. I looked at the clock. With barely time to keep the appointment, I started, with a bounding heart, on my way. Reaching near to the wicket at last, I was aware of a station fly loitering along the road ahead, as if in waiting for a discharged fare. I hesitated an instant, then, passing through the gate, plunged into the wintry coppices, and went resolutely for the lodge. I had not once entered this old hermitage of mine since my return. I had felt it, indeed, morally barred to me while the great question was at issue. But now I could not resist the sudden recall, since, as I told myself, I was visiting it an invited guest.