He walked to the door, Williams following him. As it shut after them Bassett went to her and bent over her chair. She held him off with a hand on his breast and whispered: “Where are they going?” “Up-stairs, to the top story.” She clutched the lapels of his coat: “He’s there, he’s up there.” “He--who?” “Joe!” Bassett stared into her eyes. He thought her senses were giving way: “Anne, darling, what’s the matter? Joe’s not here--you’ve just said so yourself.” “I said what wasn’t true--he’s there.” He caught her arms and drew her to her feet: “What do you mean?” “I know it, I’ve seen him.” “Seen Joe himself?” “Last night when I came down for the book. He’s hiding up there--I thought he was safe. And now they’ll find him.” Bassett knew she was telling the truth. His mind took a sweep backward over the last twenty-four hours--she had known it all along, played a desperate game single-handed. In flashes of retrospect came her questions to him in the garden, her ashen face when they had burst in upon her the night before. The situation, accepted and familiar, was suddenly shaken apart like the pattern in a kaleidoscope and had fallen into another shape, a shape so unexpected and horrible that he stood frozen looking over her shoulder into its unfolding dreadfulness. “What can I do--what can I do?” Her whisper pierced to his brain and her hands jerked at his coat in frantic urgency. “Nothing now. They’ve gone, we can’t stop them. But tell me the rest--how did you know--tell me everything.” “I saw the launch go without him and I was going to speak to you, but Shine was there and I couldn’t. Then she was killed and I didn’t know what to think, where he’d gone, anything! But that night I heard them say there was a man on guard at the causeway, and I came down to tell him in case he was here and would try to get across. And then I saw him.” “Where?” “In the living-room. He came from the door into the kitchen wing and I whispered it.” “Did he say anything?” “No--just ran the way he’d come in. And then I knew--” she stopped and closed her eyes. “Oh, I didn’t know it but I thought it. _Can_ it be true--could he have done it? One minute I’m sure and then I can’t believe it; and I don’t know, I don’t know.” She pressed her face against his chest and he held her close, saying anything he could think of that might sustain her--they knew nothing yet--it was all guesswork--something might turn up that would explain it. He did not believe what he said--knowing more than she he had no doubts--and under his words his thoughts searched wildly for possible ways of coming to her aid. “Oh, God grant it, God grant it!” she groaned, and drawing away from him ran to the door, and opening it, stood listening. He followed her and with pauses for that tense listening, she told him of her visit to the top floor. “He didn’t answer you?” he said. “Then he might not have been there.” “Where else could he be?”