Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/watchersnovel00masorich THE WATCHERS THE WATCHERS A Novel BY A. E. W. MASON AUTHOR OF "THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE BUCKLER," ETC. NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1899_. _By Frederick A. Stokes Company_. CONTENTS CHAP. I. TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO STOOD BEHIND IT. II. DICK PARMITER'S STORY. III. OF THE MAGICAL INFLUENCE OF A MAP. IV. DESCRIBES THE REMARKABLE MANNER IN WHICH CULLEN MAYLE LEFT TRESCO. V. THE ADVENTURE IN THE WOOD. VI. MY FIRST NIGHT UPON TRESCO. VII. TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN CULLEN MAYLE'S BEDROOM. VIII. HELEN MAYLE. IX. TELLS OF A STAIN UPON A WHITE FROCK AND A LOST KEY. X. IN WHICH I LEARN SOMETHING FROM AN ILL-PAINTED PICTURE. XI. OUR PLANS MISCARRY UPON CASTLE DOWN. XII. I FIND AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND. XIII. IN THE ABBEY GROUNDS. XIV. IN WHICH PETER TORTUE EXPLAINS HIS INTERVENTION ON MY BEHALF. XV. THE LOST KEY IS FOUND. XVI. AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION. XVII. CULLEN MAYLE COMES HOME. XVIII. MY PERPLEXITIES ARE EXPLAINED. XIX. THE LAST. THE WATCHERS CHAPTER I TELLS OF A DOOR AJAR AND OF A LAD WHO STOOD BEHIND IT I had never need to keep any record either of the date or place. It was the fifteenth night of July, in the year 1758, and the place was Lieutenant Clutterbuck's lodging at the south corner of Burleigh Street, Strand. The night was tropical in its heat, and though every window stood open to the Thames, there was not a man, I think, who did not long for the cool relief of morning, or step out from time to time on to the balcony and search the dark profundity of sky for the first flecks of grey. I cannot be positive about the entire disposition of the room: but certainly Lieutenant Clutterbuck was playing at ninepins down the middle with half a dozen decanters and a couple of silver salvers; and Mr. Macfarlane, a young gentleman of a Scottish regiment, was practising a game of his own.