The doctor nodded, but he seemed still to cling to his idea. “It is as if there were something weighing on his mind, some secret trouble. He’s not as he ought to be;――as I expected to find him,” he added almost angrily. “His pulse is absurd; he’s feverish; and I don’t like the look in his eyes. I’d very nearly swear he has been frightened, that there’s something he’s afraid of at this moment. His nerves are strung up. He’s all wrong.... And he wasn’t that way when I saw him this morning.” “Then you think there’s more in it than these last two nights can account for?” she questioned, with just the faintest shade of scepticism in her voice. “He didn’t have much sleep, you know.” “If it comes to that, last night itself hasn’t been accounted for,” said the doctor. “Why did he walk in his sleep? He tells me he hasn’t done so for more than a year.” “I’m sure I don’t know what it can be.... He’s so very reserved,” she added rather lamely. Doctor O’Neill smiled. “Yes; I discovered that. He’s also immensely polite. He did everything to help me except tell me what I wanted to know.... By the way, where’s this Palmer boy? I’d like to have a chat with him.” “Oh, Palmer hadn’t anything to do with it,” said Aunt Caroline, hastily. “No; I didn’t suppose he had.” “Do you really want him? I’m afraid he is out.” “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I have an unbounded respect for that boy’s perspicacity, that is all.” He took a turn up and down the room, while Aunt Caroline followed him with her eyes, wishing she could order him to sit down and behave properly. He stopped again before her, and this time the frown had disappeared from his rather ugly yet rather fine face. “I’m afraid I must be alarming you by so much mystery. There’s no need to be alarmed. All that’s necessary is to be careful――very careful. What makes it more serious than it ought to be is that he has no stamina――nothing physical to fall back upon: which means that we never know where we are. I’d almost be inclined not to leave him alone to-night. I suppose that could be managed?” “Oh yes; I’ll sit up with him myself.” “No need to keep awake, you understand. As long as you’re _there_, that is all that is required. But he must have some sleep. I’ll send up a sedative when I get back, though I don’t want you to give it to him unless it is necessary. If he can do without it it will be all the better.” He departed, leaving Aunt Caroline in a state of extreme dissatisfaction. * * * * * Her anxiety diminished considerably as she watched Grif sleeping, and without the aid of any drug. She sat in an armchair, with a lamp burning on a table close by her elbow, while Pouncer, restored to his former position of guardian, lay on the floor, lost in noisy slumbers. No sedatives were required to lure Pouncer to the Land of Nod. His regular snores were in themselves a kind of narcotic, and under their influence Aunt Caroline dropped into a doze.