"Quite right," said he.
"For I felt sure it couldn't just be a gentleman coming to see you, sir, or he wouldn't have gone into the trees."
"Of course not," he agreed briefly. "Nobody came to see me."
Mary looked at him doubtfully and hesitated for a moment.
"Didn't you even hear anything, sir?" she asked in a lowered voice.
Her master's quick glance made her jump.
"Why?" he demanded.
"Because, sir, I found footsteps in the gravel this morning—where it's soft with the rain, sir, just under the library window."
Mr. Rattar looked first hard at her and then at his plate. For several seconds he answered nothing, and then he said:
"I did hear some one."