CHAPTER II.
VALENTINE INVOKES THE PHANTOMS OF THE PAST.
_Oct.

7th, Midnight_.

I was so fortunate as to get away from Spotswold this morning very soon after the completion of my researches in the vestry, and at five o'clock in the afternoon I found myself once more in the streets of Ullerton.

Coming home in the train I meditated seriously upon the unexpected appearance of Horatio Paget at the head-quarters of this Haygarthian investigation; and the more I considered that fact, the more I felt inclined to doubt my patron's motives, and to fear his interference.

Can his presence in Ullerton have any relation to the business that has brought me here?
That is the question which I asked myself a hundred times during my journey from Spotswold; that is the question which I ask myself still.
I have no doubt I give myself unnecessary trouble; but I know that old man's Machiavellian cleverness only too well; and I am inclined to look with suspicion upon every action of his.