It stood up just high enough to catch the full force of every blast
that blew, and not quite high enough to get a really fine view. There was
too much bleak foreground, so that one got no value from the site
whatever so far as I could see. And, lord, it was draughty!
My only company was the doctor, and he was out most of the day. Even at
nights I began to find him a curiously moody companion. There were
moments when my suspicions revived again; he used to glance at me
furtively, leave the room mysteriously for half an hour at a time, and do
little more than grunt when he was spoken to. And then next day he would
be such a pleasant, sensible, downright sort of fellow that I could only
remember his simple telling of the tale of my own visit, and dismiss him
from my calculations.
And so life went on for some three weeks uneventfully enough for a
desperate and disguised adventurer. I received several letters from my
uncle, and I was thankful it had been arranged I should not answer them.
The dear man had evidently such a twopenny-coloured conception of the
hazardous life I was leading that a truthful recital of my adventures
might have brought him down in person to stir things up. But there was
nothing to stir; I could only wait.
VI
THE SPECTACLED MAN
It was, I remember, on a rare day of bright, still, frosty weather, that
Mr.
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