The heath was covered with golden patches of flowering gorse, gleaming magnificently in the light of the bright spring sunshine.  Behind one of these clumps I took up my position, so as to command both the gateway of the Hall and a long stretch of the road upon either side.  It had been deserted when I left it, but now I saw a cyclist riding down it from the opposite direction to that in which I had come.  He was clad in a dark suit, and I saw that he had a black beard.  On reaching the end of the Charlington grounds, he sprang from his machine and led it through a gap in the hedge, disappearing from my view.

A quarter of an hour passed, and then a second cyclist appeared.  This time it was the young lady coming from the station.  I saw her look about her as she came to the Charlington hedge.  An instant later the man emerged from his hiding-place, sprang upon his cycle, and followed her.  In all the broad landscape those were the only moving figures, the graceful girl sitting very straight upon her machine, and the man behind her bending low over his handle-bar with a curiously furtive suggestion in every movement.  She looked back at him and slowed her pace.  He slowed also.  She stopped.  He at once stopped, too, keeping two hundred yards behind her.  Her next movement was as unexpected as it was spirited.  She suddenly whisked her wheels round and dashed straight at him.  He was as quick as she, however, and darted off in desperate flight.  Presently she came back up the road again, her head haughtily in the air, not deigning to take any further notice of her silent attendant.  He had turned also, and still kept his distance until the curve of the road hid them from my sight.

I remained in my hiding-place, and it was well that I did so, for presently the man reappeared, cycling slowly back.  He turned in at the Hall gates, and dismounted from his machine.  For some minutes I could see him standing among the trees.  His hands were raised, and he seemed to be settling his necktie.  Then he mounted his cycle, and rode away from me down the drive towards the Hall.  I ran across the heath and peered through the trees.  Far away I could catch glimpses of the old gray building with its bristling Tudor chimneys, but the drive ran through a dense shrubbery, and I saw no more of my man.

However, it seemed to me that I had done a fairly good morning’s work, and I walked back in high spirits to Farnham.  The local house agent could tell me nothing about Charlington Hall, and referred me to a well known firm in Pall Mall.  There I halted on my way home, and met with courtesy from the representative.  No, I could not have Charlington Hall for the summer.  I was just too late.  It had been let about a month ago.  Mr. Williamson was the name of the tenant.  He was a respectable, elderly gentleman.  The polite agent was afraid he could say no more, as the affairs of his clients were not matters which he could discuss.