Page:Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps (Grosset Dunlap, 1915).djvu/28

 thought I had muddied my trail some, and was feeling pretty happy. Then. . ."

The recollection seemed to upset him, and he gulped down some more whisky.

"Then I saw a man standing in the street outside this block. I used to stay close in my room all day, and only slip out after dark for an hour or two.  I watched him for a bit from my window, and I thought I recognized him. . . .  He came in and spoke to the porter. . . .  When I came back from my walk last night I found a card in my letter-box.  It bore the name of the man I want least to meet on God's earth."

I think that the look in my companion's eyes, the sheer naked scare on his face, completed my conviction of his honesty. My own voice sharpened a bit as I asked him what he did next.

"I realized that I was bottled as sure as a pickled herring, and that there was only one way out. I had to die.  If my pursuers knew I was dead they would go to sleep again."

"How did you manage it?"