“It is all very mysterious; but--have it as you will. You--you won’t, I trust, keep me longer than necessary in this state of suspense?” Though he essayed to dismiss the matter lightly, I knew that I had greatly disturbed him. The dogs of doubt, of suspicion, of some formless apprehension, were awake in him. It grieved me to the soul so to leave him; but I felt that for the moment I had no choice. I must at least face his unhappy wife, offer her the chance of defence, explanation, before I decided upon my course. I found Johnny triumphant in the completion of his code. It was, numerically, simplicity itself; but the ingenuity of its parts was devastating. Thus, for example, Dalston was Dalston junction, was points, was a pointer, was a dog. Therefore _Dog_ represented Dalston. Pugsley was a pug, was a pug-nose, was tip-tilted. Therefore _Tip_ represented Pugsley. Miss Christmas, of course, was Noel, was no-hell, which naturally was heaven, and _Heaven_ was Miss Christmas. Lord Skene was a skein, was woolly, was a sheep, was a baa. Therefore _Baa_ stood for Lord Skene. His lady, by the same reasoning, was an ewe, and you being not-I, was knotty, which the point at issue was. Therefore _Point_ represented Lady Skene. I myself was Gaskett, was (what I hadn’t known; but Johnny was a learned and travelled little person) a piece of canvas used in furling sails, was a fastening, was a _Button_--and there I stop. I hadn’t the faintest conception of the use to which he proposed converting all these symbols; but he was very convinced of their necessity, and so I let the question go by default, and accepted a key. He left me during the afternoon, to return, provisionally, to his inn in Footover, and I regret to say that I was never relieved over anything so much as over his departure. It was agreed that, until further notice from me, we were to hold no communication with one another unless in the code, and on that understanding we shook hands affectionately at the gate, and parted, strangers, beyond it. Dear fervent little man. I wish I could have repaid your devotion as it deserved. CHAPTER XVI. A STRANGE ENCOUNTER As I turned to go in by the gate, a figure, coming hastily up the road from Market Grazing, made a gesture as if to detain me. I paused in surprise; and in another minute the woman, for a woman it was, had hurried to where I stood, and stopped. She was panting heavily, and she put a hand on her breast as if forcibly to control its spasms. She was very thin, and dowdy in appearance, and had on a thick grey veil, pulled down over her face. But, for all the close secrecy of that screen, I knew her at once. It was Mrs Dalston.