"The mystery, as you will soon hear, was to be unveiled three days later. I had gone to bed about ten o'clock, but, being unable to sleep, had arisen at midnight, intending to dress myself and spend a few hours over my accounts. About to strike a light, the creaking of the veranda under someone's footsteps attracted my attention and drew me to the window. Fortunate it was that I had done so before lighting the candle, for, on looking out into the darkness, I was just in time to catch sight of the dim figure of a man creeping stealthily along in the direction of the entrance to Mme. MacDonald's room. After proceeding a couple of yards or so he stopped, gave a low whistle, and at the same time so turned his head that, in the light of the moon, which up to then had been obscured, I could see his face in profile. One glance was enough. It was Jasper Ivory--the last man in the world whom I should have expected to be my nurse's son! Suddenly awakened to a sense of my danger--for I knew that this ruffian had vowed vengeance upon me, and in my weakened state I was no match for him--I sprang back into the room, huddled on my clothes with the greatest rapidity, and after stowing away my money and as many of my papers as I could get together in the dark, once more crept to the window. Ivory had disappeared into the old woman's room, whence, amidst the dead stillness of the night, came the hum of their voices. Were they plotting my destruction? I wondered. "Having opened the long window, I noiselessly slipped out on to the veranda, turned to the left, in the opposite direction to where they were in consultation, and rapidly passed down a small flight of steps into the garden. What a relief it was to feel that I was free! I lost no time, I can tell you, in making my way as best I could to the limit of the grounds, where there was a pathway that would lead me to the main road and James Town. But before I had reached the fence that enclosed the Briars a cry from the house told me that my escape had been discovered, and somehow or other I failed to find the path I was seeking. There was nothing to be done, therefore, but to push on in the darkness at hazard. Stumbling over rocks and shrubs, my progress was exceedingly slow. My weakness, too, hindered me considerably, and I was more than once forced to stop and rest. On one of these occasions I turned round and saw that the search for me was continuing. Two lights were moving about among the shrubberies. Suddenly one of them stopped; there was a cry from the holder of the lantern--cry that I could easily recognise as coming from Ivory, and the next moment he was rapidly moving forward in my direction. He had found my track at last!