He knew there must be something unusual about
the proceeding, because it was contrary to the habits of his whole
life not to be asleep at this hour on the mat in front of the fire. He
kept looking up into his master’s face, as door after door was tried,
with an expression of intelligent sympathy, but at the same time a
certain air of disapproval. Yet everything his master did was good in
his eyes, and he betrayed as little impatience as possible with all
this unnecessary journeying to and fro. If the doctor was pleased to
play this sort of game at such an hour of the night, it was surely not
for him to object. So he played it too; and was very busy and earnest
about it into the bargain. After an uneventful search they came down again to the study, and here
Dr. Silence discovered Smoke washing his face calmly in front of the
fire. The saucer of milk was licked dry and clean; the preliminary
examination that cats always make in new surroundings had evidently
been satisfactorily concluded. He drew an arm-chair up to the fire,
stirred the coals into a blaze, arranged the table and lamp to his
satisfaction for reading, and then prepared surreptitiously to watch
the animals. He wished to observe them carefully without their being
aware of it. Now, in spite of their respective ages, it was the regular custom of
these two to play together every night before sleep. Smoke always made
the advances, beginning with grave impudence to pat the dog’s tail, and
Flame played cumbrously, with condescension. It was his duty, rather
than pleasure; he was glad when it was over, and sometimes he was very
determined and refused to play at all. And this night was one of the occasions on which he was firm. The doctor, looking cautiously over the top of his book, watched
the cat begin the performance. It started by gazing with an innocent
expression at the dog where he lay with nose on paws and eyes wide open
in the middle of the floor. Then it got up and made as though it meant
to walk to the door, going deliberately and very softly. Flame’s eyes
followed it until it was beyond the range of sight, and then the cat
turned sharply and began patting his tail tentatively with one paw. The tail moved slightly in reply, and Smoke changed paws and tapped
it again. The dog, however, did not rise to play as was his wont, and
the cat fell to patting it briskly with both paws. Flame still lay
motionless. This puzzled and bored the cat, and it went round and stared hard into
its friend’s face to see what was the matter. Perhaps some inarticulate
message flashed from the dog’s eyes into its own little brain, making
it understand that the programme for the night had better not begin
with play. Perhaps it only realised that its friend was immovable. But,
whatever the reason, its usual persistence thenceforward deserted it,
and it made no further attempts at persuasion. Smoke yielded at once to
the dog’s mood; it sat down where it was and began to wash. But the washing, the doctor noted, was by no means its real purpose;
it only used it to mask something else; it stopped at the most busy
and furious moments and began to stare about the room. Its thoughts
wandered absurdly. It peered intently at the curtains; at the shadowy
corners; at empty space above; leaving its body in curiously awkward
positions for whole minutes together. Then it turned sharply and stared
with a sudden signal of intelligence at the dog, and Flame at once
rose somewhat stiffly to his feet and began to wander aimlessly and
restlessly to and fro about the floor. Smoke followed him, padding
quietly at his heels. Between them they made what seemed to be a
deliberate search of the room. And, here, as he watched them, noting carefully every detail of
the performance over the top of his book, yet making no effort to
interfere, it seemed to the doctor that the first beginnings of a
faint distress betrayed themselves in the collie, and in the cat the
stirrings of a vague excitement. He observed them closely. The fog was thick in the air, and the
tobacco smoke from his pipe added to its density; the furniture at the
far end stood mistily, and where the shadows congregated in hanging
clouds under the ceiling, it was difficult to see clearly at all; the
lamplight only reached to a level of five feet from the floor, above
which came layers of comparative darkness, so that the room appeared
twice as lofty as it actually was. By means of the lamp and the fire,
however, the carpet was everywhere clearly visible. The animals made their silent tour of the floor, sometimes the dog
leading, sometimes the cat; occasionally they looked at one another
as though exchanging signals; and once or twice, in spite of the
limited space, he lost sight of one or other among the fog and the
shadows. Their curiosity, it appeared to him, was something more than
the excitement lurking in the unknown territory of a strange room;
yet, so far, it was impossible to test this, and he purposely kept his
mind quietly receptive lest the smallest mental excitement on his part
should communicate itself to the animals and thus destroy the value of
their independent behaviour. They made a very thorough journey, leaving no piece of furniture
unexamined, or unsmelt. Flame led the way, walking slowly with lowered
head, and Smoke followed demurely at his heels, making a transparent
pretence of not being interested, yet missing nothing. And, at length,
they returned, the old collie first, and came to rest on the mat
before the fire. Flame rested his muzzle on his master’s knee, smiling
beatifically while he patted the yellow head and spoke his name; and
Smoke, coming a little later, pretending he came by chance, looked from
the empty saucer to his face, lapped up the milk when it was given him
to the last drop, and then sprang upon his knees and curled round for
the sleep it had fully earned and intended to enjoy. Silence descended upon the room. Only the breathing of the dog upon the
mat came through the deep stillness, like the pulse of time marking
the minutes; and the steady drip, drip of the fog outside upon the
window-ledges dismally testified to the inclemency of the night beyond. And the soft crashings of the coals as the fire settled down into the
grate became less and less audible as the fire sank and the flames
resigned their fierceness. It was now well after eleven o’clock, and Dr. Silence devoted himself
again to his book. He read the words on the printed page and took
in their meaning superficially, yet without starting into life
the correlations of thought and suggestion that should accompany
interesting reading. Underneath, all the while, his mental energies
were absorbed in watching, listening, waiting for what might come. He was not over sanguine himself, yet he did not wish to be taken
by surprise. Moreover, the animals, his sensitive barometers, had
incontinently gone to sleep.