And Jicks is to see it." I said nothing to Oscar, at the time, but I felt some secret uneasiness on the way home--an uneasiness inspired by the appearance of the two men in the neighborhood of Browndown.
It was impossible to say how long they might have been lurking about the outside of the house, before the child discovered them.

They might have heard, through the open window, what Oscar had said to me on the subject of his plates of precious metal; and they might have seen the heavy packing-case placed in the cart.

I felt no apprehension about the safe arrival of the case at Brighton; the three men in the cart were men enough to take good care of it.

My fears were for the future.

Oscar was living, entirely by himself, in a lonely house, more than half a mile distant from the village.