He glanced at his watch as he spoke.

"I must be going," he said.
They left the house together, but branched off at the gate--Dr.Ravenshaw to visit a fisherman's dying wife, and Barrant to seek the _Three Jolly Wreckers_ for supper before returning to Penzance.
From the kitchen window Thalassa watched them go: the doctor walking across the cliffs with resolute stride, the detective making for the path over the moors with bent head and slower step, as though his feet were clogged by the weight of his thoughts.

Thalassa watched their dwindling forms until they disappeared, and then stood still, in a listening attitude.

The sound of the lawyer stirring in the study overhead seemed to rouse him from his immobility.

He closed the door, and stood looking up the staircase with the shadow of indecision on his face..