At the risk of encountering man-traps I gave the lodge
a wide berth and came out in sight of the wall at a point much nearer
the lawns of the house than that from which I had entered.
What it was that prompted me to turn and take a final look at the
house I cannot say, but before commencing to make my way through the
wilderness of the kitchen-garden, I know that I stood and looked back
towards the ancient Saxon tower which uprose, silvered by the
moonlight, above the trees that obscured from my view all the rest of
the house.
Right to the embrasured crest it was sharply outlined by the brilliant
moon--and as I looked I felt my heart leap suddenly; and then, almost
holding my breath, I crouched, distrusting the very shadows which
afforded me shelter.
For leaning out through one of the embrasures at the top of the tower,
I clearly saw the figure of a man!
At first so whitely was his face lighted up by the moon that I had no
doubt of the figure being that of a man, but he remained so still,
seeming always to look in a fixed way in the same direction, that now,
momentarily I doubted, until a slight movement betrayed the fact that
my first impression had been correct.
Who he was I could not possibly tell from that distance, but of his
occupation I became assured at the moment that he moved; for the
moonlight glittered brightly on the lenses of the binoculars through
which he had been surveying some point visible only from that
elevation.
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