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WET AND WINDY NIGHT

"WELL," said Dimble, " there&039;s no one here"

"He was here a o," said Denniston

"You&039;re sure you did see someone?" said Dimble

"Hush! Listen!" said Jane

"That&039;s only the old donkey," said Di about at the top"

There was another silence

"He seeant with hisat the trodden earth in the firelight "One would expect a tramp---"

"On the other hand," said Diht a box of matches with hi at thishis torch Now he suddenly straightened himself "Look," he said, " there have been several people here Look Can&039;t you see, sir?"

"Aren&039;t they our own footprints?" said Di way Look at that- and that"

"Might they be the tramp himself?" said Dimble "If it was a tramp"

"He couldn&039;t have walked up that path without our seeing him," said Jane

Come," said Dimble "Let&039;s follow them up to the top

As they reached the lip of the hollow, rass under foot and the footprints disappeared It had turned into a fine night: Orion dominated the whole sky

The Deputy Director hardly ever slept When it beca, but the necessity was rare, for the mode of consciousness he experienced atceased to be exactly like what otherThe manner and outward attitude which he had adopted half a century ago were now an organisation which functioned alramophone While the brain and lips carried on his work, and built up day by day for those around hiue and formidable personality which they kneell, his inmost self was free to pursue its own life A detachment of the spirit not only from the senses but even from the reason was now his

Hence he was still, in a sense, awake an hour after Frost had left him His eyes were not shut The face had no expression; the realwhatever such souls do suffer, enjoy, or inflict when the cord that binds them to the natural order is stretched out to its ut at his elbow he took up the receiver without a start

"This is Stone, sir," came a voice "We have found the chamber"

"Yes"

"It was empty, sir"

"Are you sure, ht place ? It is possible"

"Oh yes, sir Stonework and some Roman brick And a kind of slab in the middle, like an altar or a bed"

"And an of occupation?"

"Well, sir, it seemed to us to have been recently disturbed"

"Pray be as explicit as possible, Mr Stone"

"Well, sir, there was an exit-Iout of it to the south We went up this tunnel at once It coht hundred yards away, outside the area of the wood We got out to the open air But so had been smashed-up there quite recently It looked as if it had been done by explosives As if the end of the tunnel had been walled up and had some depth of earth on top of it, and as if someone had recently blasted his way out"

"Continue, Mr Stone What did you do next?"

"I used the order you had given me, sir, to collect all the police available and have sent off search-parties for the man you described"

"I see And how did you describe him to the beard, probably in unusual clothes It occurred to ht have no clothes at all"

"Why did you add that, Mr Stone?"

"Well, sir, I didn&039;t kno long he&039;d been there, and I&039;d heard about clothes preserved in a place like that and falling to pieces as soon as the air was adine for ayou don&039;t choose to tell ht, Mr Stone," said Wither, " in thinking that anything reht have the most disastrous consequences And what did you instruct your search-parties to do on finding any such-er-person?"

"Well, sir, I sent my assistant Father Doyle, with one party, because he knows Latin And I gave Inspector Wrench the ring you gave e of the second The best I could do for the third party was to see that it contained someone who knew Welsh"

"Well, Mr Stone, I am, on the whole, and with certain inevitable reservations, moderately satisfied with your conduct of this affair I believe that I ues If only I could persuade-say Miss Hardcastle and Mr Studdock-to share my appreciation of your very real qualities, you would need to have no apprehensions about your career or-ah-your security"

"But what do you wantfriend, there are only two errors which would be fatal to one placed in the peculiar situation which certain parts of your previous conduct have unfortunately created for you On the one hand, anything like a lack of initiative or enterprise would be disastrous On the other, the slightest approach to unauthorised action ht have consequences fro as you keep quite clear of these two extre unofficially) why you should not be safe" Without waiting for a reply, he hung up the receiver

"Oughtn&039;t we to be nearly at the gate we clihter now that the rain had stopped, but the wind had risen and was roaring about theain as if they were lashing the bright stars

"It&039;s a good deal longer than I remembered," said Denniston

"Hullo!" said Jane sharply "What&039;s this?"

All listened Because of the wind, the unidentified noise which they were straining to hear seemed quite distant at one moment, and then, next reat brute!" and the like, all were shrinking back into the hedge as the plosh-plosh of a horse cantering on soft ground passed close beside theobbet of mud struck Denniston in the face

"Oh, look! Look!"cried Jane "Stop him Quick!"

"Stop hi to clean his face "What on earth for?"

"Oh, shout out to hiony of impatience "Come on Run! Didn&039;t you see?"

"See what?"

"There&039;s a asped Jane She was tired and out of breath and had lost a shoe

"A ht Look, look there! Against the skyto your left"

"We can&039;t overtake him," said Dimble

"Hi! Stop! Come back! Friends-amis-amid," bawled Denniston

Dimble was not able to shout for the et his breath all the others suddenly cried "Look " : for high aed, the shape of the horse appeared as it leaped a hedge soarure of aback over his shoulder as though he hted on the far side; and then nothing but wind and starlight again

"You are in danger," said Frost, when he had finished locking the door of Mark&039;s cell, " but you are also within reach of a great opportunity"

"I gather," said Mark, "I am at the Institute and not in a police station"

"Yes That er The Institute will soon have official powers of liquidation It has anticipated theest and Carstairs have both been liquidated"

"If you are going to kill e?"

"Before going on," said Frost, "I must ask you to be objective Resentment and fear are both chemical phenomena Our reactions to one another are ches in yourself in an objective manner Do not let them distract your attention fro while he said it- trying to sound at once faintly hopeful and slightly sullen, ready to be worked upon But within, his new insight into Belbury kept him resolved not to believe one word the other said, not to accept (though he n acceptance) any offer he ainst you and the alternations in your treatramme with a well defined end in view," said Frost "It is a discipline through which everyone is passed before ado Mark would have sed any hook with that bait on it; and even now

"I don&039;t quite see the purpose of it," he said aloud "It is to proether by subjective feelings ofwould be useless Those are chemical phenomena

They could all, in principle, be produced by injections In so far as there s between members of the circle it is, perhaps, better that they should be feelings of dislike There is less risk of their being confused with the real nexus"

"The circle?" said Studdock, acting a treerness But it was perilously easy for him to act it

"Yes," said Frost "You have been selected as a possible candidate for adain admission, or if you reject it, it will be necessary to destroy you"

" it-it seems rather a formidable decision," said Mark

"That is merely a proposition about the state of your own body at the ive you the necessary infor you that neither the Deputy Director nor I are responsible for shaping the policy of the Institute"

"The Head?" said Mark

"No Filostrato and Wilkins are quite deceived about the Head They have, indeed, carried out a remarkable experiment But Alcasan&039;s mind is not the mind we are in contact hen the Head speaks"

"Do you mean Alcasan is reallydead?"

"In the present state of our knowledge," said Frost, " that question has no ans in Alcasan&039;s head are used by a different mind And now, attend carefully You have probably not heard of macrobes"

"Microbes?" said Mark in bewilderment "But of course--"

"I did not say microbes, I said macrobes The formation of the word explains itself Below the level of anianisms Their actual results on hue part of history"

"Go on," said Mark Ravenous curiosity was uard

"I have now to inforanisms above the level of ani biologically I y, and have greater intelligence"

"They must be pretty nearly human, then"

"You have misunderstoodthe ent than Man"