Seeing no one about, he approached the farmhouse, walking without once straightening his legs, glanced in at the open door, then round the yard, and, after hesitating a moment, entered the room.  Mr. Trenchard’s desk, open and strewn with papers, stood against the wall to the left. Noakes walked to it, and had just bent down, apparently with the object of looking over the farmer’s correspondence, when a muffled sound from the neighbourhood of the fireplace caused him to start guiltily and turn half round.