"I shall miss Bela at every turn," remarked the judge, turning
with a sad smile as he finally pulled the door open. "This is an
unaccustomed effort for me. Excuse my awkwardness."

Something in his attitude, something in the way he lifted his hand
to push back a fallen lock from his forehead, impressed itself
upon the sergeant's mind so vividly that he always remembered the
judge as he appeared to him at that minute. Certainly there were
but few men like him in the country, and none in his own town. Of
a commanding personality by reason of his height, his features
were of a cast to express his mental attributes and enforce
attention, and the incongruity between his dominating figure and
the apprehensions which he displayed in these multiplied and
extraordinary arrangements for personal security was forcible
enough to arouse any man's interest.

The sergeant was so occupied by the mystery of the man and the
mystery of the house that they had passed the first gate (which
the judge had unlocked without much difficulty) before he realised
that there still remained something of interest for him to see and
to talk about later. The two dark openings on either side, raised
questions which the most unimaginative mind would feel glad to
hear explained. Ere the second gate swung open and he found
himself again in the street, he had built up more than one theory
in explanation of this freak of parallel fences with the strip of
gloom between.

Would he have felt the suggestion of the spot still more deeply,
had it been given him to see the anxious and hesitating figure