"Keep playing the game
you're at and don't worry about trying to keep a lookout at nights.
That's being done already, and though I don't believe the fellows are
much use--not with such crafty devils against them--you can't do anything
to help 'em. Getting out at night is too risky, and you're too far away
at the house. Your game is to work it from the other end. Sooner or later
they are absolutely bound to give you a clue."
His spirit and my little discovery of the morning sent me back in a
distinctly more hopeful mood.
VII
A REMINISCENCE
Next day I set out in the early afternoon to pay my call. The fine
weather still held, bright sunshine with a nip in the air and the road
underfoot firm with frost, and I strode along in a wonderfully confident
mood, all things considered. For to tell the truth, I had been funking
this visit. Instinctively I did not trust myself with Miss Jean Rendall.
If she had any suspicions and if she turned on to me the art of her sex
and the charms of her particular self, I was well aware that Thomas
Sylvester would have a bad time of it. In fact I really dared not answer
for the fellow's nerve. He being both critical and susceptible, a girl
with Jean's distinctive aroma was dangerous company with a job of this
kind on hand. And playing the whisky-enfeebled fool in a dirty black
beard ceased entirely to amuse me when the other party was Miss Rendall.
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