Five minutes later the detective walked from the house with Belle Demona's words of thanks and her good-night ringing in his ears, and sought the little corner where his bunk was.
This was in a small house not far from the main dwelling, but separate from it.
The other guards were his companions, but when he entered the place he found them all sound asleep, and their snores told him that he would have plenty of music through the night.
But it was not to sleep that the menaced detective sought the hard grass pillow of his couch.
He believed that the message received by Merle concerned his escape from the pit in Melbourne.
He felt assured that it told the hunted man that it was empty, and perhaps the letter was from Old Danny himself.
Broadbrim thought the whole matter over as the night wore on.
He recalled the face on the porch in the vines, and wondered what it meant.
Whose face was it and from whence had it come?
Midnight passed and he was not asleep.