"He's on duty to-night," said Jack. "He's got something on his mind, and he wants me to help him out with it. I say, old chap, we don't keep a life-saving station up here. Get out with your nonsense."
"There was some one with him when he was here this afternoon," Esmée forced herself to say.
"Has Tip been here before?"
"Yes, Jack. But a man was with him—a young, strange man. It was about four o'clock, perhaps five; it was getting dusk. I had been asleep, and I was so frightened. He knocked and knocked. I thought he would never stop knocking. He came to my window, and tried to get in, but the sash was frozen fast." Esmée paused, and caught her breath. "And I heard a dog scratching and whining."
"Did you not see the man?"
"I did. I saw him," gasped Esmée. "It was all quiet after a while. I thought he had gone. I came out into the room, and there he stood close by that window, staring in; and the dog was with him. It was Tip."
"And you did not open the door to Tip?"
"Jack dear, have you not told me that I was never to open the door when you were away?"
"But didn't you speak to the man? Didn't you ask him who he was or what he wanted?"
"How could I? He did not speak to me. He stared at me as if I were a ghost, and then he went away."