Brendon considered.

“I confess the idea occurred to me as soon as we had your brother’s offer; but seeing the terms, I couldn’t press for it,” he said.  “Now I agree and, what’s more, I think it would be very desirable if nobody—­not even the household—­knew I was here.”

“That can be done.  If you send your car away and say you’ll report to-morrow, then the police won’t trouble us any more till we see what next.  You can go up to the tower and get into the big case I keep my flags and odds and ends in.  There are holes bored for ventilation at the height of a man’s head from the ground, and if you’re packed in there, you can see and hear everything and pop out in five seconds if my life is threatened.”

Brendon nodded.

“That’s all right,” he said.  “I’m considering what follows.  Your brother goes free presently; and no doubt Mrs. Pendean will only wait until he is off to come up to you.  I can’t stop all night in the cupboard.”

“It don’t matter a button after he’s gone,” answered Bendigo.  “If you tell your car to go, that’s all that signifies for the minute.  And all anybody but ourselves will believe is that you’ve gone back to Dartmouth, and won’t be here again until to-morrow morning.”

Mark fell in with this plan.  He dismissed the car and directed that Inspector Damarell should be told to do nothing more until further information reached him.  Then, with the old sailor, he climbed to the tower room, inspected the great cupboard, and found that he could follow the course of events very comfortably from within.  Holes of the size of a half-penny piece were bored in each door of this erection and, with a three-inch support under his feet, Brendon found his eyes and ears at the needful level.

“The point is to know how I get clear afterward,” considered Brendon, returning to the sequel.  “As soon as your brother has left the house, it is certain that Mrs. Pendean, probably Doria also, will hasten to know what has happened and what you have determined.”

“Afterward nothing matters,” repeated Bendigo.  “I’ll go down to the door with Robert and you can follow me and slip out as soon as he has got clear.  Or else you can appear when he has gone and reveal yourself and tell Jenny that it was your own wish to stop without letting anybody know it but myself.  That’ll be the best way; and as soon as she finds you are here, she’ll see that you have comfortable quarters for the rest of the night.”

Brendon approved of this plan and when the launch returned, her uncle informed Jenny that the detective had left, to make certain inquiries, but would return early on the following morning.  She expressed surprise that he had gone but declared that it would in any case have been necessary for him to do so before the fugitive arrived.

“We left the letter, the lamp, and the food and drink exactly where he indicated,” she said, “on a forlorn spot, above that ancient, raised beach, where the great boulders are.”