Rudolph did not answer immediately. Then he said slowly:
“I wonder what he has come for?”
Mabin stared at him stupidly. As they stood silent in the quiet garden, they both heard a slight rustling of the leaves, a cracking of the branches, near the wall which divided the garden from the lane.
CHAPTER VII.
A STRANGE FANCY.
“What was that?” asked Mabin with a shiver.
She and Rudolph had both turned instinctively toward the spot from which the rustling noise had come.
“A cat, most likely,” answered Rudolph.
But Mabin shook her head.
“I saw something,” whispered she. “It was not a cat, it was not an animal at all; it was a man.”
Perhaps Rudolph had his suspicions, for he expressed no surprise. Before he could answer her they heard the crackling and rustling again, but at a little distance. The intruder was making his way through the shrubbery.