then moved over a chair and pressed the top rung up and under the knob.
He removed his coat, tossed his cap on the floor and lay back on the bed with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand pressing against his eyeballs.
He had much to do and little time to do it in. He reviewed the trip to Holland. It was a wild project, if ever there was one. The only real thing in the entire matter was the crinkling Bank of England notes in his pockets and the knowledge that he was free to pass the door which led from his room. He rose swiftly, crossed the floor, and pulled away the chair. The binding bars of Dartmoor were still about him. The constriction of closed places got on his nerves.
He summed the situation up as he stood behind a lace curtain and stared at the courtyard. His keen, gray-crowned head was poised like a quick bird as the events of the two days flashed over his brain.
From the moment of his release he had been haunted by the thought of shadows. They reached and groped for him despite every effort he had made to throw them off. He knew of the wide-flung power of Scotland Yard. It never let a man go!
Then, for what reason, he argued, had they let him run scot-free? Had a net already been spread into which he was bound to stumble? Or was it the flicker of fortune’s wheel that had turned his way at last?
He examined the lock of the little black bag, reached for his cap and overcoat, and strode out of the room. The yielding door was so unlike the iron horror at Dartmoor! He whistled gayly as he ran down the
ancient steps and burst out and into the glad light of day.
The actor in him came to the fore. He thought the part he was playing. It was no matter of studied gestures and halting steps. He was English of the English! He strode into the town’s better part with the step of a conqueror. He looked the British tourist to perfection. His plaid cap, his well-fitting overcoat, his square-toed shoes were his passport.
He modified his walk to a saunter. His eyes fixed upon nothing in general, but they saw everything with that vividness which is given to prisoners on parole and those who have been denied the wine of life and living.