He began to think that the only solution of the matter was the return of Aaron alone.  The watching man would immediately realize that he had made some mistake, that he, Gordon, was in the house, or had been left at the home of a patient.  He could have no possible reason for molesting the man.  He would probably slip aside into a shadow, then make his way back to the road.  In such a case Gordon determined that he and Aaron would follow him to make sure that no harm came to James and Clemency.  So Gordon stood motionless waiting, in absolute silence, except for the frequently recurring mutter of fear and rage of the dog.  As time went on he became more and more uneasy.  It seemed to him finally that Aaron should have been back long before.  He moved stealthily across the room, and consulted his watch by the low light of the hearth fire.  Aaron had been gone an hour.  He should have returned, for the mare was a good roadster when she did not balk.  Gordon shook his head.  He began to be almost sure that the mare had balked.  He returned to the window.  His every nerve was on the alert.  The moment that James and Clemency should drive into the yard, he made ready to spring, but the horrible fear lest it should be entirely unavailing haunted him.  If only Aaron would come.  Then the man would slip into cover of the shadows, and steal out into the road, and Gordon would jump into the buggy, and he and Aaron would follow him.  He knew the man well enough to be sure that he would never venture an attack upon James and Clemency with witnesses.  If only Aaron would come!  Gordon became surer that the mare had balked.  He vowed within himself that she should be shot the next day if she had.  Every moment he thought he heard the sound of wheels and horse’s hoofs.  His nervous tension became something terrible.  Once he thought of stealing through the house, and out by the front door, and walking to meet James and Clemency so as to warn them.  But that would leave the helpless woman upstairs alone.  He dared not do that.

He thought then of going to the front of the house, and watching there, and endeavoring to intercept James and Clemency before they turned into the driveway.  But he felt that he could not for one second relax his watch upon the watching man, and he had no guarantee whatever that, at the first sound of wheels, the man himself would not make for the front of the house.  Then he thought, as always, of not disturbing the sick woman whose room faced the road.  It seemed to him that his only course was to remain where he was and wait for the return of Aaron before James and Clemency.  He knew now that the horse must have balked.  His only hope was that James and Clemency, since it was such a fine night, and time is so short for lovers, might take such a long drive that even the balky mare might relent.  Always he heard at intervals the trot of a horse, which only existed in his imagination.  He began to wonder if he should know when Aaron, or Clemency and James, actually did