The Dweller on the Threshold

he red doll's house and let themselves into it with a latch-key,

m!" said t

hand and read the

, do you know whom th

or you, for

chester, and it is to

ay be

. Open it

him and tore it open, while h

culties in the parish Benyon ill

ked down at

Mr. Harding

you mea

his chair with an effort

way-guide is?" he said.

Mall

-room, and returned with the

the Sunday trains. I find I can catch a good one at Faversham to-morrow morning. There is a motor I can hire in the town to get there. It stands just by the post-office, where the road branches." He paused, looking

s

leaving you, my guest, at such short

im, Malling said nothing, but wa

otherwise? My duty to the pari

said Mall

disturbed, Mr. H

The professor is here. You will not be companionless. The servants will do everything to make you comfortable. As to food, wine-e

" Malling replied. "I'll

m in no hurry to leav

e rector, almost wit

Mr. Harding went away

self alone in the

had well repaid him for his journey; then the air of Tankerton

said to Mr. Harding the previous night,

ly given Malling certain rights. He intended to use them to the full. The rector's abrupt relapse into reserve, his pitifu

ad a dip in the brown sea, going in off the long shoal that the Whitstable

unted house's location. It was not in Birchington, but lay inland, within easy reach of Tankerton. When he met Malling and Harding, the professor was going to his hotel, where a motor was waiting to convey him to the house, in which he intended to pass the ni

home at churchtime-as

tence was directed to Mr.

had added, looking at the rector rather narrowly before shambling o

sure. Minors is the nam

rding'

ssor had vanished,

erhaps too suggestive of heart-breaking military me

on and eggs in the cheerful coffee-room when Malling arrived. He scarcely ever ate at orthodox hours, a

tor? At church?"

o London," replied Malling,

up of tea, then?

here till to-morrow. Any i

be the responsible agents in the building up of the

a more interesting

stretched out

muttered. "Have the reverend gentlemen of

you to

h's, and the rector's lamentable outburst of the previous night. This last, having a remarkably retentive memory, he reproduced in the main in Mr. Harding's own words, omitting only the rector's reference

for valuable manifestations than a rat or two and

it, shut the door, gave Malling a cane chair, sat down himse

a psychological study o

chester a

quest as lucidly and tersely

since you knew him two years ago?" as

to the curate's eyes and mouth whi

hat it may have suggestioned me into feeling

any man in a couple of years. An

ns!" exclai

on very seldom surprised him, but th

ssuming, on your part, a kn

ondition they are now, or in w

me for that cup of tea to Minors-might almost as well have

ook his d

ticed window of the hall, he saw the professor walking sidewise up the path, with a sh

ed the professor. "More suitable t

't belong

and right of him to go

interested in the oysters of Whitstable, and held forth almost romantically on their birth and upbringing, the fattening, the packing, the selling, and the eating of them-"with

dibles. The professor had to be let alone. When

case of transferred personality? I rather gathered from your

h cases? Of double

everend gentlemen for the first time, I said, 'Study the link!

ent, as I told you. The

struck you that Harding was almost too succes

do you

iness that is hardly adap

go to hear Ha

ow why I like

hy

rehensive understanding of skepticism, is very seldom a true believer. One thing, tho

tha

ichester, you s

saint who has a certain ami

would be a difficult

g finds

p, cocksure of himself. Chichester m

how? Do you wish me t

me

is head and remained si

ing his head and assuming his most terrier-like

ssi

his saintly curate

d supply a natural expl

in that malefic region which is the

cou

dence. That's as certain as that I wear whiskers and you don't. Shall we do an addition sum? Shall we add Chichester's

ady So

woman. The rising sun can't e

I'm a rather cool hand, and certainly not inclined to easy credulity. But there's something about Chichester which-well, Professor, I

n't got nervo

n a meliorist-as

er. It's a pity I did

se conviction. "There is that in him which must strike y

Chichester. In the interests of science I will face this curate. But how s

minutes, with his eyebrow

a curve, or come to him as the crow comes when making for a given point-or

o say. On the day I di

nted to tell me somethi

in order that he m

tings with Har

ps, and some

told you

rec

e or less likely to unbosom h

s li

give me h

on a slip of paper, pinned the slip carefully to th

ing deta

eaking with an unusual h

you all

terests of

. I want you to break the link that binds him to Henry Chi

ryly. "My object in entering into this matter is merely to inc

sur

if we move in the midst of a

professor shambling to the garden gate, he