Page:Walpole--portrait of man with red hair.djvu/280

 "It's all right, do you see? You can't hurt me because you can't find me. I'm hiding. I don't know where to find myself, so that it isn't likely you will find me. You can't hurt nothing, you know. You can't indeed."

He laughed and laughed and laughed—gently enjoying his own joke. There was a sudden knocking at the door.

"Come in!" he said in a whisper. "Come in!"

His heart stood still with fear.

The door opened, splashing into the darkness a shower of light like water flung from a bucket. In the centre of this the two Japanese were standing.

"Master says please come. If you ready he ready."

At sight of the Japanese a marvellous thing had happened. All his fear had on the instant left him, his beastly physical fear. It fell from him like an old suit of clothes, discarded. He was himself, clear-headed, cool, collected, and in some strange new way, happy.

Harkness followed them.

Harkness followed, conscious only of one thing, his sudden marvellous and happy deliverance from fear. He could not analyse it—he did not wish to. He did not consider the probable length of its duration. Enough that for the present Crispin might