Maunders rose suddenly and spoke with great earnestness. "I assure you that Gail knows nothing more than that Hest asked me to stay as his guest. He will be here soon, and I beg of you to say nothing to him of what you have discovered. I shall explain everything to your satisfaction before you leave this house."
"On that condition," said Vernon, making a sign that Towton should be silent, "we will say nothing to the Professor. I believe I hear footsteps, so no doubt he is coming." Vernon moved away from the door. "If you try to escape, Maunders, I'll break your leg with a bullet," and he pulled out a neat revolver which he kept concealed in his hip pocket.
"Rather melodramatic," sneered Maunders with a shrug; "However, you need not be afraid. I'll sit here quietly enough."
"You have more cause to be afraid than I have. Hush! Here is the Professor coming," and as he spoke the door opened to admit the old actor. "Mr. Maunders has just come in to keep us company while we wait for Mr. Hest," said Vernon in an easy tone.
"Yes," said Maunders, who by this time had recovered his composure. "We are old friends and have much to talk about, so don't let us keep you from your afternoon sleep, Professor."
"If you will not think me lacking in courtesy," said Gail in his stately manner, "I shall certainly retire. The brain," he tapped his forehead, "needs rest, and I have invariably found that sleep, as Shakespeare says, 'knits up the ravelled sleeve of care.' Wil you have any refreshment, gentlemen?"
"No, thank you," replied Vernon politely; "but it is growing dark, so perhaps you will order lights."
"Yonder lamp is ready for use," said the Professor, pointing to the corner near the fireplace, "and certainly it is growing unusually dark, although it is scarcely five o'clock. A fog is descending on the verdant earth." He went to the window and looked out. "Yes, a dense fog. Have you noted, Mr. Maunders, how rapidly these autumnal fogs descend on London?"
"Yes. But I should have thought that you were too far away to have them here," replied Maunders in an easy conversational tone, which did great credit to his powers of self-control. "No, sir; no. The fuliginous haze does not spare even our rural suburb, if I may so term it." He swept aside the curtain with a tragic gesture. "Mark how the cloudy mists, darkened with smoke, swallow up house after house and road after road; mark how a brown pall is drawn over the fair green looks of earth and how the----"