“He will do now.  Come.”

The man by his side grunted.

“I am going to make sure of him,” he said thickly.  Again he heard that clear voice from behind, this time a little raised.  The words failed to reach his brain, but the tone was one of cold and angry dissent, followed by an imperative order.  Then once more his senses seemed to be leaving him.  He passed into the world which seemed to consist only of himself and a youth in fisherman’s oilskins, who was sometimes Furley, sometimes his own sister, sometimes the figure of a person who for the last twenty-four hours had been continually in his thoughts, who seemed at one moment to be sympathising with him and at another to be playing upon his face with a garden hose.  Then it all faded away, and a sort of numbness crept over him.  He made a desperate struggle for consciousness.  There was something cold resting against his cheek.  His fingers stole towards it.  It was the flask, drawn from his own pocket and placed there by some unseen hand, the top already unscrewed, and the reviving odour stealing into his nostrils.  He guided it to his lips with trembling fingers.  A pleasant sense of warmth crept over him.  His head fell back.

When he opened his eyes again, he first turned around for the tea by his bedside, then stared in front of him, wondering if these things which he saw were indeed displayed through an upraised blind.  There was the marsh—­a picture of still life—­winding belts of sea creeping, serpent-like, away from him towards the land, with broad pools, in whose bosom, here and there, were flashes of a feeble sunlight.  There were the clumps of wild lavender he had so often admired, the patches of deep meadow green, and, beating the air with their wings as they passed, came a flight of duck over his head.  Very stiff and dazed, he staggered to his feet.  There was the village to his right, red-tiled, familiar; the snug farmhouses, with their brown fields and belts of trees; the curve of the white road.

And then, with a single flash of memory, it all came back to him.  He felt the top of his head, still sore; looked down at the stretch of shingle, empty now of any reminiscences; and finally, leaning heavily on his stick, he plodded back to the cottage, noticing, as he drew near, the absence of the motor-car from its place of shelter.  Miles Furley was seated in his armchair, with a cup of tea in his hand and Mrs. West fussing over him, as Julian raised the latch and dragged himself into the sitting room.  They both turned around at his entrance.  Furley dropped his teaspoon and Mrs. West raised her hands above her head and shrieked.  Julian sank into the nearest chair.

“Melodrama has come to me at last,” he murmured.  “Give me some tea—­a whole teapotful, Mrs. West—­and get a hot bath ready.”

He waited until their temporary housekeeper had bustled out of the room.  Then he concluded his sentence.