I evacuated Sanstead House unostentatiously, setting off on footdown the long drive. My luggage, I gathered, was to follow me tothe station in a cart. I was thankful to Providence for the smallmercy that the boys were in their classrooms and consequentlyunable to ask me questions. Augustus Beckford alone would havehandled the subject of my premature exit in a manner calculated tobleach my hair.

　　It was a wonderful morning. The sky was an unclouded blue, and afresh breeze was blowing in from the sea. I think that somethingof the exhilaration of approaching spring must have stirred me,for quite suddenly the dull depression with which I had started mywalk left me, and I found myself alert and full of schemes.

　　Why should I feebly withdraw from the struggle? Why should I givein to Smooth Sam in this tame way? The memory of that wink cameback to me with a tonic effect. I would show him that I was stilla factor in the game. If the house was closed to me, was there notthe 'Feathers'? I could lie in hiding there, and observe hismovements unseen.

　　I stopped on reaching the inn, and was on the point of enteringand taking up my position at once, when it occurred to me thatthis would be a false move. It was possible that Sam would nottake my departure for granted so readily as I assumed. It wasSam's way to do a thing thoroughly, and the probability was that,if he did not actually come to see me off, he would at least makeinquiries at the station to find out if I had gone. I walked on.

　　He was not at the station. Nor did he arrive in the cart with mytrunk. But I was resolved to risk nothing. I bought a ticket forLondon, and boarded the London train. It had been my intention toleave it at Guildford and catch an afternoon train back toStanstead; but it seemed to me, on reflection, that this wasunnecessary. There was no likelihood of Sam making any move in thematter of the Nugget until the following day. I could take my timeabout returning.

　　I spent the night in London, and arrived at Sanstead by an earlymorning train with a suit-case containing, among other things, aBrowning pistol. I was a little ashamed of this purchase. To theBuck MacGinnis type of man, I suppose, a pistol is as commonplacea possession as a pair of shoes, but I blushed as I entered thegun-shop. If it had been Buck with whom I was about to deal, Ishould have felt less self-conscious. But there was somethingabout Sam which made pistols ridiculous.

　　My first act, after engaging a room at the inn and leaving mysuit-case, was to walk to the school. Before doing anything else,I felt I must see Audrey and tell her the facts in the case ofSmooth Sam. If she were on her guard, my assistance might not beneeded. But her present state of trust in him was fatal.

　　A school, when the boys are away, is a lonely place. The desertedair of the grounds, as I slipped cautiously through the trees, wasalmost eerie. A stillness brooded over everything, as if the placehad been laid under a spell. Never before had I been so impressedwith the isolation of Sanstead House. Anything might happen inthis lonely spot, and the world would go on its way in ignorance.