"Highly--it's just the plan to appeal to me," said Carstairs, still smiling infectiously; and Chloe rose from her couch and coming to his chair seated herself on the arm and rested her hand on his shoulder.
"I know why the plan appeals to you, Leo! It recalls your schoolboy days, when you pretended to go to bed and then stole out to skate by moonlight!"
"Hush, hush, Chloe! Never tell tales out of school," commanded the Major in mock alarm; but Anstice noticed how the man's brown fingers closed round his wife's hand, and suddenly he felt as though this spectacle of their reunion was too tantalizing to be pleasant to a sore heart like his own.
He rose rather abruptly, and both the others looked at him with a little surprise.
"You're not going, Anstice? Surely you'll stay to dinner? My little daughter will be sorely disappointed if you run away now!"
"Do stay, Dr. Anstice!" Chloe rose too, and her eyes, like two beautiful blue jewels, shone kindly into his. "Our scheme will have to be discussed further, won't it? We mustn't take the field with an ill-prepared plan, must we, Leo?"
"Indeed we must not," returned her husband quickly. "Especially as I was going to ask a very big favour of you. Dr. Anstice! Seeing how more than good you have been in interesting yourself in this affair, I have been wondering whether you wouldn't conceivably like to be in at the death, so to speak. In plain words, I was going to ask you if you would care to be my fellow-conspirator in this nefarious plot we have hatched between us!"
"You mean--will I sit up with you to-night?" Anstice spoke eagerly, and Chloe smiled.
"Well, you're not annoyed by the suggestion, anyway! I needn't say I should appreciate your company--though after all, it is a big thing to ask a man of your calling to sacrifice the rest he must need pretty badly!" He spoke rather dubiously.
"Oh, not a bit of it, Major Carstairs!" Anstice's eyes brightened at the thought of the adventure. "In a matter of this kind two witnesses are better than one; and there is always a chance that even a woman may turn nasty when she finds herself cornered--especially one who is half a foreigner," he added with a smile.
"Then you'll come? It's awfully good of you----"
"Not at all, sir. You forget I'm an interested party," said Anstice quickly. "It is as much to my interest to clear the matter up as to yours, now. Well, what about details? Where--and how--shall we meet, and how do we get into the house without anyone knowing?"