Inspector Frith spoke with some warmth; he had little for which to thank the popular Press.

Within an hour the four departed, and it was understood that they should not be disturbed until they themselves cared to reappear.

Mannering remained with Sir Walter and Lennox.  He was dejected and exceedingly anxious.  But the others did not share his fears.  The younger, indeed, felt hopeful that definite results might presently be recorded, and he went to his bed very thankful to get there.  But Sir Walter, now calm and refreshed by some hours of sleep during the afternoon, designed to keep his own vigil.

“Poor May lies in my library to-night,” he said, “and I shall watch beside him.  Mary also wishes to do so.  It seems a proper respect to pay the dead.  The inquest takes place to-morrow, and he will be buried in his parish.  We must attend the funeral, Mary and I.”

“If ever a man took his own life, that man did!” declared the doctor.

CHAPTER IX

THE NIGHT WATCH

Though a room had been prepared for Dr. Mannering, he did not occupy it long.  The early hours of night found him in a bad temper, and suffering from considerable exacerbation of nerves.  He troubled little for himself, and still less concerning the police, for he was human, and their indifference to his advice annoyed him; but for Sir Walter he was perturbed, and did not like the arrangements that he had planned.  The doctor, however, designed to go and come and keep an eye upon the old man, and he hoped that the master of Chadlands would presently sleep, if only in his study chair.  For himself he suffered a somewhat unpleasant experience toward midnight, but had himself to thank for it.  He rested for an hour in his bedroom, then went downstairs, to find Mary and her father sitting quietly together in the great library.  They were both reading, while at the farther end, where a risen moon already frosted the lofty windows above him, lay Septimus May in his coffin.  Mary had plucked a wealth of white hothouse flowers, which stood in an old Venetian bowl at his feet.

Sir Walter was solicitous for the doctor.

“Not in bed!” he exclaimed.  “This is too bad, Mannering.  We shall have you ill next.  You have been on your feet for countless hours and much lies before you to-morrow.  Do be sensible, my dear fellow, and take some rest—­even if you cannot sleep.”

“There is no sleep to-night for me.  Lord knows how soon I may be wanted by those fools playing with fire upstairs.”

“We cannot interfere.  For myself a great peace has descended upon me, now that initiative and the need for controlling and directing is taken out of my hands.  I began to feel this when poor Hardcastle arrived; but that composure was sadly shattered.  I am even prepared for the needful publicity now.  I can face it.  If I erred in the matter of this devoted priest, I shall not question the judgment of my fellow-men upon me.”