"Mr. Fairfax," said he, "I labour under the fear that you cannot understand my position. Can you realize what it is like to feel shut up in the dark, waiting and longing always for only one thing? Could you not let me come to Paris with you to-morrow?"
"Impossible," I said. "It is out of the question. It could not be thought of for a moment!"
"But why not? I can see no difficulty in it?"
"If for no other reason because it would destroy any chance of my even getting on the scent. I should be hampered at every turn."
He heaved a heavy sigh.
"Blind! blind!" he said with despair in his voice. "But I know that I shall meet him some day, and when I do----"
His ferocity was the more terrible by reason of his affliction.
"Only wait, Mr. Kitwater," I replied. "Wait, and if I can help you, you shall have your treasure back again. Will you then be satisfied?"
"Yes, I'll be satisfied," he answered, but with what struck me as almost reluctance. "Yes, when I have my treasure back again I'll be satisfied, and so will Codd. In the meantime I'll wait here in the dark, the dark in which the days and nights are the same. Yes, I'll wait and wait and wait."
At that moment Miss Kitwater made her reappearance in the garden, and I rose to bid my clients farewell.