Yet it was there he spent the night.

He had scarcely slept all the week.

It was a comfort to think that this vigil was a useful one.
Severino slept fitfully, and Langholm had never a long stretch of uninterrupted thought.
But before morning he had decided to give Steel a chance.

It was a vague decision, dependent on the chance that Steel gave him when they met, as meet they must.

Meanwhile Langholm had some cause for satisfaction with the mere resolve; it defined the line that he took with a somewhat absurd but equally startling visitor, who waited upon him early in the forenoon, in the person of the Chief Constable of Northborough.
This worthy had heard of Langholm's quest, and desired to be informed of what success, if any, he had met with up to the present.