There was nothing more I could do

　　"He was outside the window, Mr. Holmes, with his face pressedagainst the glass. I have told you that I looked out at the night.When I did so I left the curtains partly open. His figure was framedin this gap. The window came down to the ground and I could see thewhole length of it, but it was his face which held my gaze. He wasdeadly pale- never have I seen a man so white. I reckon ghosts maylook like that; but his eyes met mine, and they were the eyes of aliving man. He sprang back when he saw that I was looking at him,and he vanished into the darkness.

　　"There was something shocking about the man, Mr. Holmes. It wasn'tmerely that ghastly face glimmering as white as cheese in thedarkness. It was more subtle than that- something slinking,something furtive, something guilty- something very unlike thefrank, manly lad that I had known. It left a feeling of horror in mymind.

　　"But when a man has been soldiering for a year or two with brotherBoer as a playmate, he keeps his nerve and acts quickly. Godfrey hadhardly vanished before I was at the window. There was an awkwardcatch, and I was some little time before I could throw it up. Then Inipped through and ran down the garden path in the direction that Ithought he might have taken.

　　"It was a long path and the light was not very good, but it seemedto me something was moving ahead of me. I ran on and called hisname, but it was no use. When I got to the end of the path therewere several others branching in different directions to variousouthouses. I stood hesitating, and as I did so I heard distinctlythe sound of a closing door. It was not behind me in the house, butahead of me, somewhere in the darkness. That was enough, Mr. Holmes,to assure me that what I had seen was not a vision. Godfrey had runaway from me, and he had shut a door behind him. Of that I wascertain.

　　"There was nothing more I could do, and I spent an uneasy nightturning the matter over in my mind and trying to find some theorywhich would cover the facts. Next day I found the colonel rathermore conciliatory, and as his wife remarked that there were someplaces of interest in the neighbourhood, it gave me an opening toask whether my presence for one more night would incommode them. Asomewhat grudging acquiescence from the old man gave me a clear day inwhich to make my observations. I was already perfectly convincedthat Godfrey was in hiding somewhere near, but where and whyremained to be solved.