Datasets:

NicholasSynovic
/

Modified-VEAA

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (2)

train · 42.9k rows

text stringlengths 1.96k 5.76k	author int64 1 50
t have stood it said it was pleasant to be out in the open air once more but they were in the pine groves of before had quite shaken off the gloom of that dark ghost haunted house after all you are only twenty seven she remarked as they walked up from the station she had a way a of occasionally taking a subject by the middle in that way what then dear when was only twenty seven i don t suppose he knew he was going to do all this no i don t suppose so and his wife if he were married then would feel as i do to you no doubt then what have i that you won t do it after all do what why turn out a second hear me swear i cried frank and they turned laughing into their own little at the the last note of the young married couples may feel that two is company and three is none but there comes a little noisy intruder to break into their sweet intimacy the coming of the third is the beginning of a new life for them as well as for it a life which is more useful and more permanent but never so concentrated as before that little pink thing with the eyes will divert some of the love and some of the attention and the very trouble which its coming has caused will set its mother s heart yearning over it not so the man some vague resentment with his pride of and his wife s sufferings in his memory when she has herself forgotten them his pity his fears his helplessness and his discomfort give him a share in the domestic tragedy it is not without cause that in some societies it is the man and not the woman who receives the and the sympathy there came a time when was bad and a there came months when she waa better and then there were indications that a day waa approaching the very thought of which was a shadow upon her husband s life for her part with the steadfast gentle courage of a woman she faced the future with a sweet serenity but to him it was a nightmare an actual nightmare which brought him up damp and quivering in those gray hours of the dawn when dark shadows fall upon the spirit of man he had a steady nerve for that which himself a nerve which would keep him quiet and motionless in a s chair but what philosophy or can steel one against the pain which those whom we love liave to endure he fretted and and always with the absurd delusion that his and were successfully concealed a hundred failures never convince a man how impossible it is to deceive a woman who him watched him and made her plans do you know dear said she one evening if you can get a week of your holidays now i think it would be a very good thing for you to accept that invitation of mr s and spend a few days in at frank stared at her open eyed what i now i the last note of the yes dear now at once but now of all times looked at him with that glance of absolute obvious which a woman never uses unless she has intent to deceive yes dear but only next week i thought it would brace you up for well for the week afterwards you think the week afterwards yes dear it would help me so if i knew that you were in your best form i what can it matter what form i am in but in any case it is out of the question but you could get leave oh yes easily enough then do go and leave you at such a time no no you would be back you can t be so sure of that no i should never forgive myself such an idea would never enter my head but for my sake that s enough it is settled master frank had a heavy foot when he did bring it down and his wife recognised a decisive this time with a curious double current of feeling she was pleased and disappointed at the same time but more pleased than disappointed bo kissed the of plots an obstinate old boy it is but of course you know and i should much rather have you at home as you say one can be certain in a conflict of wits the woman may a battle but the odds are that she will win the campaign the man over many things while she upon the one had made up her mind absolutely upon one and she meant to attain it she tried here she tried there through a friend through her mother but frank was still immovable the ordeal coming upon herself never disturbed her for ao instant but the thought that frank would suffer was he put herself in his place and what it would be to him if he were in the house at such a time with many cunning devices she tried to him off but still in his stubborn way he refused to be and then suddenly she that it was too late it was early one morning that the conviction came home to her but he at her side knew of it he came up to her before he left for the city you have not eaten anything dear i the last note of the no frank i am not hungry perhaps after you get up well dear i thought of staying in bed you are not what nonsense dear i i want to keep very quiet until next week when i may need all my strength i ear girl i would gladly give ten years of my life to have next	4
week past old boy i but i do think it would be wiser if i were to keep in bed yes yes do i have a little headache nothing to speak of but just a little don t you think dr had better give you something for it do you think so well just as you like you might call as you pass and tell him to step up and so upon a false mission the doctor was summoned to her side but found a very real mission waiting for him when he got there she had vn a note for frank the moment that he had left the house and he found both it and a conspiracy of silence waiting for him when he returned in the late afternoon the note was upon the hall table and he eagerly tore it open a my dear boy said my head is still rather bad and dr thought that it would be wiser if i were to have an undisturbed rest but i will send down to you when i better until then i had best perhaps remain alone mr sent round to say that he would come to help you to pot the so that will give you something to do don t bother about me lor i only want a little rest ma it seemed very unnatural to him to come back and not to bear the swift rustle of the dress which followed always so quickly upon the of his latch key that they might have been the same sound the hall and dining room seemed without the bright face he wandered about in a discontented fashion upon his and then looking through the window he saw his neighbour coming up the path with a straw basket in his hand he opened the door tor him with his finger upon his lips don t make a row said he my s bad whistled softly not no no not that only a headache but she is not to be disturbed we expect that next the last note of the week in here and smoke a pipe with me it was very kind of you to bring the i am going back for some more wait a little you can go back presently sit down and light your pipe there is some one moving about upstairs it must be that i hope she won t wake up i suppose one must expect such attacks at such a time yes my wife was just the same no thank you i ve just had some tea you look worried don t take things too hard i can t get the thought of next week out of my head if anything goes wrong well there what can i do i never knew how a man s nerves may be before and she is such a saint such an absolutely unselfish saint i you never guess what she tried to do what then she knew what it would mean to me what it will mean to me to sit here in while she goes through this horrible business she guessed in some extraordinary way what my secret feelings were about it and she actually tried to deceive me as to when it was to occur tried to get me out of the house on one pretext or another it was all over that was her plot and by jove she tried it so cleverly that she would have managed it if something had not put me on my guard she was a little too eager so and i saw through her game but think of it the absolute of it to consider me at such a time and to face her trouble alone and in order to make it easier for me she wanted me to go to and play she must have thought you pretty to be led away so easily yes it was a hopeless attempt to deceive me on such a point or to for an instant that my instincts would not tell me when she had need of me but none the less it was beautiful and characteristic you don t mind my talking of these things my dear chap it is just what you need you have been things up too much your health will break down under it after all it not serious as all that the danger is very much exaggerated you think so i ve had the experience twice now yoa ii go to the city some fine morning and when you come back the whole thing will be over indeed it won t i have made arrangements at the office and from the hour that she i k the last note of the seems bad i will never stir from the house for all she may say i know very well that it gives her strength and courage to feel that i am there you may not know that it is coming on frank laughed we ll see about that said he and you think from your experience that it is not so very bad after all oh no it soon passes soon what do you mean by soon was there six hours the first time gk od god six hours frank wiped his forehead they must have seemed six years they were rather long i kept on working in the garden that s the tip keep on doing something and it helps you along wonderfully that s a good suggestion what a curious smell there is in the air do you notice a sort of low kind of scent well perhaps it s my imagination i dare say that my nerves are a bit strung up these days but that is a capital idea of yours about having some work to do i should like to work madly for those hours have everything up out of the back	4
owe you an apology for i had done you an injustice meanwhile your son is about to be dressed and there is hardly room for three men in one bedroom so frank went down into the darkening room below and mechanically lighting his pipe he sat with his elbows upon his knees and stared out into the gathering gloom where one bright evening star in a violet sky the gentle hush of the waa around him and some late bird was calling outside amongst the above he heard the shuffling of feet the murmur of voices and then amid it all those thin l the last note of the cries ms voice the voice of this new man with all a man s possibilities for good and for evil who had taken up his dwelling with them and as he listened to those cries a gentle sadness was mixed with his joy for he felt that things were now for ever changed that whatever sweet of life might still be awaiting him from this hour they might form themselves into the and loveliest of but it must always be as a and never as the dear of the past x the extract from a letter to the author from mrs frank it is very singular that you should say with such confidence that you know that our baby is a splendid one and further on you say that in some ways it from any other baby it is so true but neither frank nor i can imagine how you knew we both think it so clever of you to have found it out when you write to us do please tell us how you discovered it i want to tell you something about baby since you so kindly ask me but says there is no use my beginning as there is only one of paper in the house as a matter of fact i shall be quite short which is not because i have not plenty to you cannot think what a dear he is but because he may wake up at any moment after that happens i can only write with one hand while i wave a feather fan with the other and it is so difficult then to say exactly what you mean in any case you know that i the have not the habit of collecting and writing down my ideas so please forgive me if this seems a stupid letter frank could have done it splendidly but he has so many sweet and quite remarkable ways that i ought to be able to put some of them down for you it will be easier perhaps if i imagine a day of him and one of his days is very much like another no one could ever say that he was irregular in his habits first thing in the morning i go over to his cot to see if he is awake yet though of course i know that he can t be for he always lets us know the darling however i go over all the same and i find everything quiet and nothing visible of baby but a tiny turned up nose it is so exactly frank s nose only that his is curved the other way then as i bend over his cot there is a small sigh such a soft comfortable sound then a sort of earthquake takes place imder the down and a tightly clenched fist appears and is waved in the air he has such a pleasant cheerful way of waving his fists then one eye is half opened as if he were looking round to see if it were safe to open the other one and then he gives a long sorrowful wail as he that his bottle is not where he left it when he went to sleep in a moment a lie ia in my arms and quite happy again with the lace round the neck of my pink when he finds that his nice warm bath is all ready for him he becomes quite jovial and laughs and to himself something awfully funny must have happened to liim before ever he came into this world at all for nothing that has occurred since could account for the intense expression of amusement that one can often see in his eyes when he laughs frank says that he looks like some jolly old ao and he takes the greatest interest in everything in the room watches the nurse moving about looks out of the window and my hair and my dress very he loves to see hair and a bright tie or a will often catch his eye and make him smile his smile is the most wonderful thing as he lies gazing with his great serious blue eyes his whole face suddenly lights up his mouth turns up at one comer in the most irresistible way and his cheeks all go oft into he looks so sweet and and at the same time bo humorous and wicked that his foolish mother wants to laugh at him and to weep over him at the same time then comes his bath and there is a sad display of want of faith upon his part he l the the process but he is convinced that only his own exertions keep him from drowning so his little fists are desperately clenched his legs kick up and down the whole time and he watches every movement of mother and nurse with suspicion he being dressed and smiles at first and then he suddenly remembers that he has not had his breakfast then the smiles vanish the small round face grows so red and angry and all covered with little wrinkles and there is a dismal wailing poor darling if the bottle is not instantly he will howl loudly and beat the air with his fists he	4
the life of the illustrious colonel clay by grant with over sixty illustrations by s fifth edition daily it is not often that the story of this class can be made as attractive and as exciting as are many of the colonel a let us be thankful for these and hasten to commend an african to the notice of all s we imagine no book of the season more suitable for an afternoon in a or a day in the and the illustrations an dozen of on their way daily news for for for a sense of the comedy of the situation and for pluck to carry it through it would be to find a more entertaining scoundrel than colonel clay mr james in the london this book is a good example of mr grant talents it is only a collection of tales describing bow a very rich man is and again by the same adventurer but it has not only plenty of dramatic incident but of shrewd and wise reflection such as ia seldom foimd in the modem an j african etc s second of the l who b t of which u we the the idiot by w c morrow s of describing wilt a keen ia ta a e od mr praise far m grant i lam a wide ai we feel on and other people the i u a strange and le s ai in i glass appeared id print in the of the tbe of the french term bin true heart being passages in the life of scholar and telling of his wanderings and adventures his intercourse with people of consequence to their age and how he came through a time of strife by author of the black mass i the of two etc s i daily ch hon a very and able niece of work a vision a sin of mr to life and result li of you you true heart k j poor human nature by elizabeth of diamonds etc s d r a noble pity for poor human ft for its weakness and its an understanding of poor souls struggling to the light raise the book r above the dull ot common sun it is the charm of simplicity of quaint and above of literary distinction miss is a powerful rather than a clever writer and there is a perfect lady like restraint in every line she does not appeal to the passions but to the highest feelings of our nature the wheel of by author of etc s pall here at any rate we have a novel of real power displaying a breadth of treatment and which marks it out from the passing of the day there is an irish pathos in it too which keeps the reader s interest at melting point almost throughout if this is reaction then the among i we will not attempt to the plot of this well written and admirably conceived study in the and and and of a great hearted quick irish girl in her through a life too full of hard and experiences mary s own character is firmly drawn throughout and the book is full of fine sketches indeed at the end it is surprising how many of its people remain in the a striking testimony to the vivid way in which they have been without in a single case any or deliberate analysis the scenes in in america in the english county town and in the london are all excellent work an original powerful study of life with well varied circumstances all interesting press a remarkably of womanhood of today we would heartily recommend this brief record of a yearning woman to wide perusal and even to close study it is delightful as a piece of writing and as a study of the present day it is deep suggestive and earnest gifts not possessed in equal by any other woman writer of our time so rich in promise capital in performance and so and suggestive a very humour it pathos that the reader as great emotion finely expressed a curious power of calling tip scenes and people from the past and making us glad or sad with the george writes of life as one knowing life as one who has come to close quarters with it on her every page there is the impress of truth to as she sees and feels the truth aunt s island a comedy of and kin by f c author of the curse of intellect s pall a most engaging novel a feat of true comedy academy keen observation of life in many of society ripe experience understanding of human nature and a kindly amused of little good humour and an active wit these qualities have gone liberally to the making of aunt s island add to them a very unusual gift of bright a care ol use of words and a preference for incident above talk and you see that s island is no novel to day it is a book containing the wit and delicate satire of a scholar and observer and of an author with the pen of a ready writer who has been almost too of his powers the individuality of character the quaint personal never forced but always natural and striking and the extraordinary range of render the publication one of the most remarkable the time daily brilliantly entertaining from its first page to its last daily this is a jolly book s circular the story is a daring piece of work the actor manager by mr that ii it mr a proof of of mm i for on of he the of f a i b well to of mob knowledge is a of fu one man s view a novel by s d d a era	4
u up ihe tbe felt ud ad an tbe in book tm tbe hero b c guardian mr i l d li and he can touch being coarse or one i view u keenly one man s view is one of those ran in which without a touch out and il from the cattle man by g b author of i i man s marriage s little maid etc mr de tbe cattle it h bright it is a men has the merit of bis of u and ei th hero of iu k u to w to i and da i told with b talk ur hat ha o people i ir of s uttle maid st has just produced a for i d lie spirit we mr tbe li real tin n of own old man s marriage b s standard mr s best com to tha la d man s marriage miss has nearly as much individuality as any one in the story which is saying a deal for ns to gather round all the characters in of the romance that belongs to them as the story is fresh and foil oi charm daily mr s humour is both shrewd and kindly and hit book should welcome as a breath of fresh air to the weary readers of mr in the star old man s marriage is told with such high spirit simplicity and the reader is mused and entertained from the first page to the last once i had begun it i had to go on to the end when i put it down it was with a sigh to with such excellent as thoroughly and written a story as has been for a long time guardian it would be difficult to speak too of the and humour of this beautiful sketch of a choice friendship in humble life study at once simple and subtle and the dignity and of natural mr writes only lor the entertainment of his and la holiday time they ought to be very much obliged to him we lor more books uke old s marriage and we hope oar thirst may soon be the of being the personal history of commonly called by with cover designed by the author s this the and to him much that it is well that those interested in black blood and its social religious and political workings should know has all the qualities that go to make a popular and i enduring fame it is pathetic and often dealing as it does with the of the west indian islands it us to characters and the like of a black rogue to eyes in petty and i have never met before in fiction one charm at the outset this book the charm of the new and unknown mr leads us into an almost country and we are introduced to a strange the of the west whom meet know only by and the new writer is so delightfully thorough in his methods mr may be declared to have made a very interesting and the of a background is almost the greatest kindness that a can bestow on a reader and when on the background are painted figures whidi if not new are as lively s they are the reader need not his of gratitude we san recall nothing in fiction which with him the negro half as and completely as ne is here dealt with is of more than common excellence ns to expect something very considerable firom its author pall this book is strong other excellent things you will find you will find a series of pictures laid on with a vivid and bold brush you will find powerful but strong and effective told with a broad grin it is a vigorous book by a man with him will live in the reader s memory the beginning a tale of an eastern i land by author of in court and studies in brown humanity etc su i by hia characters ned and ihe the ot li and by of a deeply tragic and l foil of power hi and such a carries it a double charm t which is ever in a well novel and the never which the would all reader will thai it is in court and being tales aod sketches of native life in the by large crown vo s d in mr cliff has achieved i considerable ana ins which for food or le fact that with di is id si r n j i m u ne the mt u li be la the of leaves and c es the of fa and passion but as we h e said r which i if the ig if in b the i as giving a t wish thai of studies in brown humanity being and in white and yellow by s the h mr always with force and manner has in with thai of mr t l nature of his subject la far a mere and his od tbe i r le life ih in i deeply ai they ar thing as he has his pages phrase of the day not one of thi these and are of the interest as reveal mr c rt i knowledge mi is a bom who draw la dull most of ar ol the wild life of b er with a from the grip of law tie i and as while in move our the laughter of jove a novel s post there are not a few pleasant and well written in th the book the sketches of the a brother and sister well contrasted	4
and iso of the eccentric father observation and knowledge of the of human nature the author is nothing if not thorough there is much cleverness in the laughter of jove to the point of keenly and full of a rather bitter wisdom the book is strikingly modem alike in its merits and its defects is so much wit insight and thought in the laughter of that we shall look with interest for the next work of its clever author novel by and robert with eight illustrations by l wood s d it will do more to preach the to the ignorant than all the leaders that were ever written or all the that were ever foe people will read it as they read it s never too late to mend ana behind the of its story they will find the answer to the question is our prison system brutal gross the answer is yes and these authors write it in letters of scarlet this book it is a great tale which will be read by many thousands a vivid picture of the interior of a prison and of the suffering inflicted upon is not a book to be lightly passed over circular the joint authors of this novel of prison life are to be congratulated on having produced a story which from beginning to end the book is one of the most powerful of the present prison system but it is much more it is not only a human document of interest but in construction is worthy of the marriage a london and paris book by s of a marriage is a book of the heroine is more like a than a mortal woman the whole of the story us if not to at least to a region in which the whole of the of the ufe of every day is shot through and through with ow hues of fancy novels of adventure novels with a purpose and novels which are of society all these are enough but a marriage stands by itself alone there has possibly there will be nothing like it hereafter the book is as no other novel that has been published tor a long time daily an altogether and original work it is hardly a novel so much as a personal narrative it may be all fiction and if so it is ery good fiction but it reads more like the kind of fact which is so much more interesting than fiction we to read this exquisite book the by w t stead s a with a new introduction of considerable length of an old christmas number of the of long out of print in the tale mr stead made the experiment of the immediate future of a prominent is only veiled events have given that prophecy an extreme interest which mr stead s new greatly a tale or the temple courts by i r bell with cover and title pi designed by john s star i find iq it g hi bob lis ill d ut bell tut d and e and li more ion is enough to the mr bu and ai lime era of kind ha hai for ol l mood admirably and tha i he world as into b t and be a et deep but him ai a tha book that li in lu e and b happy h i ingenious and h the yellow a romance by m p cr vo cloth s third edition l f with which is no l g than of europe bj the coming wag predicted by the professor thk the portions of the book are those describe a and a and narrative be the book is with and of an and well packing up holiday i the danger to readers of m it wars quite k se n o an i a a of d youth the world from be pa es there the world mr has lo original and bat we unable lo allow it out of our hands from the time ven set his affections on and world to get john sank twenty million yellow men in the and destroyed one hundred and fifty more by mr lo m his own book has to a swift series of of and which i j the volumes i the in love in twelve j with six additional stories by r s with cover in colours by ii the papa papers and some t by r s bell with cover in colours by j size is d each vol copies also in doth s pall light and amusing withal u mr s sketch oi a young man suffering from the bitter sweet of an affection the seems to be a near relation of of the and the of his dialogue makes him worthy of the infinitely entertaining if the subsequent volumes of tiie series are up to this standard there need be no question of their success thb sun these pages are over with humour and are about as bright a little love as we can well ine taking it all in all the in is the very brightest of short the series i a tales of milton folk by r thb the book will interest every one who takes it up and it cannot but prove specially attractive to those familiar with the in which it moves world a book to be bought enjoyed and recommended to our friends thb we cannot give our readers better counsel than in them to without delay this charming and cheery volume ii the bargain by r not only are the sketches themselves full of charm and real literary value but the little volume is as pleasant to	4
les which i have written during the last six years a february i a contents the green flag captain i how the governor of st s came home n the dealings of captain with iii how banks captain the crime of the j the master the the lord of the striped chest a shadow before the king of the the three contents thb the of a foreign romance the green flag and other stories the green flag when jack of the irish shot gun the of the hills inner circle and the extreme left wing of the land league was shot by of the in a little moonlight near his twin brother joined the british army the had become too hot for him and as the seventy five shillings were wanting which might have carried him to america he took the only way handy of getting himself out of the way seldom has her majesty had a less promising for his hot blood with hatred against britain and all things british the however smiling complacently over his six feet of and his inch chest him off with a dozen other of the bo rs to the at whence in a few weeks they were sent on with the work taken out of their backs to the first of the royal at the top of the for foreign service lo the green flag ei c the royal at about that date were as strange a lot of men as ever were paid by a great empire to fight its battles it was the darkest of the land struggle when the one side came out with and ram by day and the other with mask and with shot gun by night men driven from their homes and patches found their way even into the service of the government to which it seemed to them that they owed their troubles and now and thai they did wild things before they came there were in the irish who would forget to answer to their own names so short had been their acquaintance with them of these the royal had their full share and while they still retained their fame as being one of the corps in the army no one knew better than their officers that they were dry with treason and with bitter hatred of the flag under which they served and the centre of all the was c company in which found himself they were and men of the tenant to a man and their whole experience of the british government had been an inexorable landlord and a who seemed to them to be always on the side of the rent was not the only in the ranks nor was he alone in having an intolerable family blood to his heart had in that veiled civil war a landlord with an iron weighing down upon him had small for his he did but take what the law allowed and yet with men like jim or or peter who had seen the roofs torn from their cottages and their folk huddled among the green flag their pitiable upon the roadside it was ill to argue about abstract law what matter that in that long and bitter struggle there was many another outrage on the part of the tenant and many another grievance on the side of the a stricken man can fed his own wound and the rank and file of the c company of the royal were sore and savage to the soul there were low in rooms and stealthy meetings in public house of from mouth to mouth and many other signs which made their officers right glad when the order came which sent them to foreign and better still to active service for irish have before now been and have at a distance looked upon the foe as though he might in truth be the but when they have been put face on to him and when their officers have dashed to the front with a wave and those rebel hearts have softened and their gallant blood has boiled with the mad joy of the fight until the slower have that they ever could have doubted the loyalty of their irish comrades so it would be again according to the officers and so it would not be if and a few others could have their way it was a march morning upon the eastern fringe of the desert the sun had not yet risen but a tinge of pink flushed up as far as the and the long strip of sea lay like a rosy ribbon across the horizon from the coast inland stretched dreary sand plains dotted over with thick of and patches of bush no tree broke the green flag etc the monotony of that vast desert the dull dusty hue of the and the yellow glare of the sand were the only colours save at one point where from a distance it seemed that a of snow white stones had shot itself across a low foot hill but as the traveller approached he saw with a thrill that these were no stones but the bones of a army with its dull tints its bushes its arid barren soil and this death streak across it it was indeed a nightmare country some eight or ten miles inland the rolling plain curved upwards with a slope until it ran into a line of red rock which from north to south itself up at one point into a fantastic on the summit of there stood upon that march morning three the of the who led the and who had come northward with his fighting men from the land of the they had all three just risen from their praying carpets and were peering out with fierce faces thrust forwards at the stretch of country revealed by the spreading dawn the red rim of the sun was pushing itself	4
hand murmured the captain said the boy they mean to like they nearly broke when the showed on the hill said the first man that my sword is through him cried loud enough to be heard by five on either side of him then in a lower voice it s a bitter drop to swallow but it s my duty to report what you think to the chief and have a company of put behind us he turned away with the safety of the square upon his mind and before he had reached his goal the square had ceased to exist in their march in front of what looked like a face of cliff they had come opposite to the mouth of the in which by and three thousand chosen under of the were crouching went the of three mounted in front of the left shoulder of the square and an instant later they were it for their lives crouching over the of their horses and over the with thirty or forty galloping at their heels rocks and and suddenly into life rushing black figures came and went in the of the bushes a howl that drowned the shouts of the officers a long yell burst from the two rolling firom the the green flag royal one crash from the screw gun firing and then before a second could be in a living glistening black wave tipped with steel had rolled over the gun the royal had been dashed back among the and a thousand were and in the heart of what had been the square the and in the centre more and more together as their leaders from the rush of the shut out the view of the other three faces who could only that the had got in by the upon which rose ever nearer and nearer amid the clouds of sand dust the struggling animals and the dense mass of swaying cursing men some of the fired back at the who had passed them as excited will and it is whispered among doctors that it was not always a bullet which was cut from a wound that day some rallied in little knots furiously with their at the rushing others turned at bay with their backs against the and others round the general and his staff who revolver in hand had flung themselves into the heart of it but the whole square was slowly away from the pushed back by the pressure at the shattered comer the officers and men at the other faces were glancing nervously to their rear uncertain what was going on and unable to take help to their comrades without breaking the formation by jove they ve got through the cried of the the have us ted said his brother his revolver the green el c the ranks were breaking and crowding towards private all talking together as the officers peered back through the veil of dust the sailors had run their out and she was death out of her five barrels into the flank of the rushing stream of savages oh this bloody gun shouted a voice she s again the fierce had ceased and her crew were straining and at the this damned feed cried an officer the the stand to your boys or they re into us his voice rose into a shriek as he ended for a spear had been buried in his chest a second wave of over the and burst upon the machine gun and the right of the line the sailors were in an instant but the with their fighting blood met the yell of the with an even cry and dropped two hundred of them with a single point blank the howling leaping crew away to the right and dashed on into the gap which had already been made for them but c company had mi no to stop that fiery rush the men leaned upon their some had even thrown them upon the ground was talking fiercely to those about him captain thrusting his way through the press rushed up to him with a revolver in his hand this is your doing you villain he cried if you raise your pistol your brains will be over your coat said a low voice at his side the green flag he saw that several were turned on him the two had pressed forward and were by his side what is it then he cried looking round from one fierce face to another are you are you soldiers what are you here for but to fight for your country england is no country of ours cried several you are not fighting for england you are fighting for ireland and for the empire of which it is part a black curse on the shouted private mc throwing down his rifle twas the that backed the man that me the roadside may me hand before i draw for it what s the to us captain and what s the to us cried a voice let the for her ay be god they d be better than a poor man s about his ears or his brother as they did mine it was the laid my mother by the her son will rot before he it and ye can put that in the charge sheet in the next martial in vain the three officers begged persuaded the square was still moving ever moving with the same bloody fight raging in its even while they had been speaking they had been shuffling backwards and the useless with her crew was already a good hundred yards from them and the pace was the mass of tormented and was trying by a common instinct to reach some clearer ground where they could re form three faces were still but the fourth had been in the green etc and badly without its comrades being able to the guards had met a fresh rush of	4
the and had blown back the with a and the cavalry had ridden over another stream of them as they out of the a litter of horses and men behind them showed that a on his face among the bushes can show some sport to the man who charges him but in spite of all the square was still swiftly backwards trying to shake itself clear of this torment which to its heart would it break or would it re form the lives of five and the honour of the flag upon the answer some at least were breaking the c company of the had lost all military order and was pushing back in spite of the haggard officers who cursed and and prayed in the vain attempt to hold them their captain and the were and while the men crowded towards private for their orders the confusion had not spread for the other companies in the dust and smoke and turmoil had lost touch with their comrades captain saw that even now there might be time to a disaster think what you are doing man he rushing towards the there are a thousand irish in the square and they are dead men if we break words alone might have had little effect on the old it is possible that in his brain he had already planned how he was to his irish together and lead them to the sea but at that moment the broke through the screen of which had them off there was a struggle a screaming i mule rolled over a wounded man sprang up the green flag in a with a spear through him and then through the narrow gap a stream of naked savages mad with battle drunk with slaughter spotted and with blood blood dripping from their their arms their faces their their their crouching darting figures the horrid energy of their spear made them look like a blast of from the pit and were these the of ireland were these the men who were to strike for her against her enemies s soul rose up in at the thought he was a man of firm purpose and yet at the first sight of those howling that purpose faltered and at the second it was blown to the winds he saw a huge coal black negro seize a shrieking driver and saw at his throat with a knife he saw a shock headed plunge his great spear through the back of their own little from he saw a dozen deeds of blood the murder of the wounded the of the and caught too in a glance the good wholesome faces of the faced about rear rank of the the too had faced about and in an instant had thrown himself into the heart of c company striving with the officers to form the men up with their comrades but the mischief had gone too far the rank and file had no heart in their work they had broken before and this last rush of savages was a hard thing for broken men to stand against they from the furious faces and dripping why should they throw away their lives for a flag for which they cared nothing why should their leader urge them to break and now shriek to them to re form they would the green flag etc not re form they wanted to get to the sea and to safety he flung himself among them with outstretched arms with words of reason with shouts with it was useless the tide was beyond his control they were out into the desert with their faces set for the coast will ye stand for this screamed a voice it was so ringing so that the breaking glanced backwards they were held by what they saw private had planted his rifle stock downwards in a bush from the fixed there fluttered a little green flag the harp god knows for what black for what signal of revolt that flag had been up within the s now its green stood amid the rush while three proud colours were slowly backwards what for the flag the private my heart s blood for it and mine and mine cried a score of voices god bless it the flag boys the flag c company were upon it the clutched at each other and pointed here o ran the close on the flag back to the flag the three standards backwards and the square strove for a dearer space where they could form their shattered ranks but c company grim and powder stained choked with enemies and falling fast still closed in on the uttle rebel that from the bush it was a good half hour before the square having itself from its difficulties and dressed its ranks began to slowly move forwards over the ground across which in its labour and anguish it had been driven the the green fi ag long trail of men and showed but too clearly the path they had come how many got into us asked the general tapping his snuff box i should put them down at a thousand or twelve hundred sir i did not see any get out again what the devil were the thinking about the guards stood well though so did the colonel reports that his front flank company was cut off sir why that s the company that was out of hand when we advanced colonel reports sir that the company took the whole of the attack and gave the square time to re form tell the to ride forward said the general and try if they can see anything of them there s no firing and i fear that the will want to do some let the square take ground by the right and then advance but the of the saw from his that the men with the big hats had rallied	4
and that they were coming back in the quiet business fashion of men whose work was before them he took counsel with the and the and a man was he when he learned that a third of his men were safe in the paradise so having still some signs of victory to show he gave the word and the desert warriors flitted off unseen and unheard even as they had come a red rock a few hundred and the green flag etc and a plain which for the second time was strewn with men was all that his day s fighting gave to the english general it was a of which came first to the spot where the rebel flag had waved a dense litter of dead marked the place within the flag waved no longer but the rifle still stood in the bush and round it with their wounds in front lay the private and the silent ranks of his sentiment is not an english failing but the captain raised his in a salute as he rode past the blood soaked ring the british general sent home to his government and so did the chief of the to his though the style and manner differed somewhat in each the of the people to the chosen of homage and greeting began the latter know by this that on the fourth day of this moon we gave battle to the who call themselves having with us the chief with ten thousand of the faithful by the blessing of we have broken them and chased them for a mile though indeed these are different from the dogs of egypt and have slain very many of our men yet we hope to them again ere the new moon be come to which end i trust that thou wilt send us a thousand from in token of our victory i send you by this messenger a flag which we have t en by the colour it might well to have belonged to those of the true faith but the gave their blood freely to save it and so we think that though small it is very dear to them captain i how the governor of st s came home when the great wars of the spanish succession had been brought to an end by the treaty of the vast number of which had been fitted out by the parties found their occupation gone some took to the more peaceful but less ways of ordinary commerce others were absorbed into the fishing and a few of the more reckless hoisted the jolly at the and the bloody flag at the main declaring a private war upon their own account against the whole human race with mixed fi om every nation they the seas disappearing occasionally to in some lonely or putting in for a at some port where they dazzled the inhabitants by their and them by their on the coast at in the african waters and above all in the west indian and american seas the were a constant menace with an insolent luxury they would their by the comfort of the seasons new england in the summer and dropping south again to the tropical islands in the winter they were the more to be dreaded because they had the green flag etc none of that discipline and restraint which made their the both formidable and respectable these of the sea rendered an account to no man and treated their prisoners according to the drunken whim of the moment flashes of grotesque generosity with longer stretches of inconceivable ferocity and the who fell into their hands might find himself dismissed with his cargo after serving as boon companion in some hideous or might sit at his cabin table with his own nose and his lips served up with and salt in front of him it took a stout seaman in those days to his calling in the gulf such a man was captain john of the ship morning star and yet he breathed a long sigh of relief when he heard the splash of the falling anchor and swung at his within a hundred yards of the guns of the of st s was his final port of call and early next morning his would be pointed for old england he had had enough of those robber haunted seas ever since he had left upon the main with his full of sugar and red he had at every which over the violet edge of the tropical sea he had up the islands touching here and there and assailed continually by stories of and outrage captain of the gun happy delivery y had passed down the coast and had it with vessels and with murdered men dreadful anecdotes were current of his grim and of his ferocity from the to the captain i main his coal black with the name had been with death and many things which are worse than death so nervous was captain with his new full ship and her full and valuable that he struck out to the west as far as bird s island to be out of the usual track of commerce and yet even in those solitary waters he had been unable to shake off sinister traces of captain one morning they had raised a single adrift upon the face of the ocean its only was a seaman who hoarsely as they hoisted him aboard and showed a dried up tongue like a black and wrinkled at the back of his mouth water and nursing soon transformed him into the strongest and sailor on the ship he was from in new england it seemed and was the sole of a which had been by the dreadful for a week for that was his name had been adrift beneath a tropical sun had ordered the remains of his late captain to be thrown into the boat as provisions for	4
the voyage but the seaman had at once committed it to the deep lest the temptation should be more than he could bear he had lived upon his own huge frame until at the last moment the morning star had found him in that madness which is the of such a death it was no bad find for captain for with a short handed crew such a seaman as this big new was a prize worth having he vowed that he was the only man whom captain had ever placed under an obligation the green flag etc now that they lay under the guns of all danger from the was at an end and yet the thought of him lay heavily upon the seaman s mind as he watched the agent s boat shooting out from the custom house lay you a said he to the first mate that the agent will speak of in the first hundred words that pass his lips well captain have you a silver dollar and chance it said the rough old man beside him the negro shot the boat alongside arid the linen clad sprang up the ladder welcome captain he cried have you heard about the grinned at the mate what has he been up to now he asked youve not heard then why we ve got him safe imder lock and key here at he was tried last wednesday and he is to be hanged tomorrow morning captain and mate gave a shout of joy which an instant later was taken up by the crew discipline was forgotten as they scrambled up through the break of the to hear the news the new was in the front of them with a radiant face turned up to heaven for he came of the stock to be hanged he cried you don t know master agent if they lack a do you stand back cried the mate whose outraged sense of discipline was even stronger than his interest at the news pay that dollar captain with the heart that ever i paid a yet how came the villain to be taken y why as to that he became more than his own comrades could abide and they took such a horror of him that they would not have him on the ship so they him upon the little to the south of the m bank and there he was found by a who brought him in there was talk of sending him to to be tried but our good little governor sir charles would not hear of it he s my meat said he and i claim the cooking of it if you can stay till to morrow morning at ten you ll see the joint swinging i wish i could said the captain wistfully but i am sadly behind time now i should start with the evening tide that you can t do said the agent with decision the governor is going back with you the yes he s had a despatch from government to without delay the fly boat that brought it has gone on to virginia so sir charles has been waiting for you as i told him you were due before the rains well well cried the captain in some perplexity i m a plain seaman and i don t know much of and and their ways i don t remember that i ever so much as spoke to one but if it s in king george s service and he asks a cast in the morning star as far as london i ll do what i can for him there s my own cabin he can have and welcome as to the cooking it s and six days in the week but he can bring his own cook aboard with him if he thinks our too rough for his taste you need not trouble your mind captain the n the green fi ag etc said the agent sir charles is in weak health just now only clear of a and it is likely he will keep his cabin most of the voyage dr said that he would have sunk had the hanging of not put fresh life into him he has a great spirit in him though and you must not blame him if he is somewhat short in his speech he may say what he likes and do what he likes so long as he does not come my when i am working the ship said the captain he is governor of st s but i am governor of the morning star and by his leave i must weigh with the first tide for i owe a duty to my employer just as he does to king george he can scarce be ready to night for he has many things to set in order before he leaves the early morning tide then very good i shall send his things aboard to night and he will follow them to morrow early if i can prevail upon him to leave st s without seeing do the rogue s his own orders were instant so it may be that he will come at once it is likely that dr may attend him upon the journey left to themselves the captain and mate made the best preparations which they could for their illustrious passenger the largest cabin was turned out and adorned in his honour and orders were given by which barrels of fruit and some cases of wine should be brought off to vary tlie plain food of an ocean going in the evening the governor s baggage began to arrive great ant proof trunks and official tin packing cases with other strange shaped which suggested the cocked hat or the sword within and then there came captain a note with a device upon the big red seal to say that sir charles made his compliments to captain and that	4
he hoped to be with him in the morning as early as his duties and his would permit he was as good as his word for the first grey of dawn had hardly begun to into pink when he was brought alongside and with some difficulty up the ladder the captain had heard that the governor was an eccentric but he was hardly prepared for the curious figure who came feebly down his his steps supported by a thick cane he wore a wig all twisted into little tails like a s coat and cut so low across the brow that the large green glasses which covered his eyes looked as if they were hung from it a fierce of a nose very long and very thin cut the air in front of him his had caused him to his throat and chin with a broad linen and he wore a loose gown secured by a cord round the waist as he advanced he carried his nose high in the air but his head turned slowly from side to side in the helpless manner of the and he called in a high voice for the captain you have my things he asked yes sir charles have you wine aboard i have ordered five cases sir and tobacco there is a of you play a hand at well sir the green flag etc then up anchor and to sea there was a fresh wind so by the time the sun was fairly through the morning haze the ship was down from the islands the governor still the deck with one guiding hand upon the quarter rail you are on government service now captain said he they are counting the days till i come to westminster i promise you have you all that she will carry every inch sir charles keep her so if you blow the sails out of her i fear captain that you will find a blind and broken man a poor companion for your voyage i am honoured in enjoying your s society said the captain but i am sorry that your eyes should be so afflicted yes indeed it is the cursed glare of the sun on the white streets of which has gone far to bum them out i had heard also that you had been by a yes i have had a which has reduced me much we had set aside a cabin for your surgeon ah the rascal there was no him for he has a snug business amongst the merchants but hark he raised his ring covered hand in the air from far there came the low deep thunder of cannon it is from the island cried the captain in astonishment can it be a signal for us to put back the governor laughed you have heard that the is to be captain hanged this morning i ordered the to salute when the rascal was kicking his last so that i might know of it out at sea there s an end of there s an end of cried the captain and the crew took up the cry as they gathered in knots upon the deck and stared back at the low purple line of the vanishing land it was a cheering omen for their start across the western ocean and tlie invalid governor found himself a popular man on board for it was generally understood that but for his upon an immediate trial and sentence the villain might have played upon some more judge and so escaped at dinner that day sir charles gave many anecdotes of the deceased and so was he and so skilful in his conversation to men of lower degree that captain mate and governor smoked their long pipes and drank their as three good comrades should and what figure did cut in the dock asked the captain he is a man of some presence said the governor i had always understood that he was an ugly devil remarked the mate well i he could look ugly upon occasions said the governor i have heard a new say that he could not forget his eyes said captain they were of the blue with red was that not so sir charles alas my own eyes will not permit me to know much of those of others but i remember now that the general said that he had such an eye as you j green flag etc describe and added that the jury were so foolish as to be visibly when it was turned upon them it is well for them that he is dead for he was a man who would never forget an injury and if he had laid hands upon any one of them he would have stuffed him with straw and hung him for a figure head the idea seemed to amuse the governor for he broke suddenly into a high laugh and the two laughed also but not so heartily for they remembered that was not the last who sailed the western seas and that as grotesque a fate might come to be their own another bottle was to drink to a pleasant voyage and the governor would drink just one other on the top of it so that the were glad at last to off the one to his watch and the other to his but when after his four hours spell the mate came down again he was amazed to see the governor in his wig his glasses and his gown still seated at the lonely table with his pipe and six black bottles by his side i have drunk with the governor of st s when he was sick said he and god forbid that i should ever try to keep pace with him when he is well the voyage of the morning star was a successful one and in about three weeks she was at the mouth of the british	4
channel from the first day the governor had begun to recover his strength and before they were across the atlantic he was save only for his eyes as well as any man upon the ship those who the qualities of wine might point to him in triumph for never a night passed that he did captain not repeat the performance of his first one and yet he would be out upon deck in the early morning as fresh and brisk as the best of them peering about with his weak eyes and asking questions about the sails and the for he was anxious to learn the wa rs of the sea and he made up for the deficiency of his eyes by obtaining leave from the captain that the new england seaman he who had been cast away in the boat should lead him about and above all that he should sit beside him when he played cards and count the number of the for he could not tell the king from the it was natural that this do the governor willing service since the one was the victim of the vile and the other was his one could see that it was a pleasure to the big american to lend his arm to the invalid and at night he would stand with all respect behind his chair in the cabin and lay his great nailed forefinger upon the card which he should play between them there was little in the pockets either of captain or of the first mate by the time they sighted the and it was not long before they found that all they had heard of the high temper of sir fell short of the mark at a sign of opposition or a word of argument his chin would shoot out from his his nose would be cocked at a higher and more insolent angle and his cane would whistle up over his shoulder he cracked it once over the head of the carpenter when the man had accidentally him upon the deck once too when there was some grumbling and talk of a over the state of the pro the green flag etc visions he was of opinion that they should not wait for the dogs to rise but that they should march forward and set upon them until they had the out of them give me a knife and a bucket he cried with an oath and could hardly be withheld from setting forth alone to deal with the of the captain had to remind him that though he might be only to himself at st s killing became murder upon the high seas in politics he was as became his official position a stout of the house of and he swore in his cups that he had never met a without him where he stood yet for all his and his violence he was so good a companion with such a stream of strange anecdote and that and had never known a voyage pass so pleasantly and then at length came the last day when after passing the island they had struck land again at the high white cliffs at head as evening fell the ship lay rolling in an calm a league off from with the long dark of out in front of her next morning they would pick up their pilot at the and sir might meet the king s ministers at westminster before the evening the had the watch and the three friends were met for a last turn of cards in the cabin the faithful american still serving as eyes to the governor there was a good stake upon the table for the sailors had tried on this last night to win their losses back from their passenger suddenly he threw his cards down and swept all the money into the pocket of his silken waistcoat captain the game s mine said he sir charles not so fast cried captain you have not played out the hand and we are not the sink you for a liar said the governor i tell you that i hate played out the hand and that you are a he whipped off his wig and his glasses as he spoke and there was a high bald forehead and a pair of blue eyes with the red of a bull good god cried the mate it s the two sailors sprang from their seats but the big american had put his huge back against the cabin door and he held a pistol in each of his hands the passenger had also laid a pistol upon the scattered cards in front of him and he burst into his high laugh captain is the name gentlemen said he and this is roaring ned the of the happy delivery we made it hot and so they us me on a dry and him in an boat you dogs you poor fond water hearted dogs we hold you at the end of our pistols you may shoot or you may not cried striking his hand upon the breast of his jacket if it s my last breath i tell you that you are a bloody and with a and in store for you there s a man of spirit and one of my own and he s going to make a very pretty death of it cried there s no one aft save the man at the wheel so you may keep your breath for you ll need it soon is the ned ay ay the green flag and the other boats i bored them all in three places then we shall have to leave you captain you look as if you hadn t quite got your bearings yet is there anything you d like to ask me i believe you re the devil himself cried the captain where is the governor of st	4
with an eye to secrecy so that there was no great danger the green flag etc so secure did the captains feel that it was not uncommon for them at such times to leave their ships under a sufficient guard and to start off in the long boat either upon a sporting expedition or more frequently upon a visit to some town where they turned the heads of the women by their gallantry or pipes of wine in the market square with a threat to pistol all who would not drink with sometimes they would even appear in cities of the size of and walk the streets with their an open scandal to the whole law abiding colony such visits were not always paid with it was one of them for example which provoked lieutenant to hack off s head and to spear it upon the end of his but as a rule the and and without let or it was time for him to go back to his ship once more there was one however who never crossed even the skirts of and that was the sinister of the happy delivery it may have been from his and solitary temper or as is more probable that he knew that his name upon the coast was such that outraged humanity would against all odds have thrown themselves upon him but never once did he show his face in a settlement when his ship was laid up he would leave her under the charge of ned her new england and would take long voyages in his boat sometimes it was said for the purpose of burying his share of the plunder and sometimes to shoot the wild oxen of which when dressed and pro captain provisions for his next voyage in the latter case tlie would come round to some pre arranged spot to pick him up and take on board what he had shot there had always been a hope in the islands that might be taken on one of these occasions and at last there came news to which seemed to justify an attempt upon him it was brought by an elderly who had fallen into the s hands and in some of drunken benevolence had been allowed to get away with nothing worse than a nose and a his account was recent and definite the happy delivery was at on the south west of with four men was on the island of la the blood of a hundred murdered was calling out for vengeance and now at last it seemed as if it might not call in vain sir edward the high red faced governor sitting in solemn with the and the head of the was sorely puzzled in his mind as to how he should use this chance there was no man of war nearer than and she was a clumsy old fly boat which could neither the on the seas nor reach her in a shallow there were and both at and port royal but no soldiers available for an expedition a private e might be fitted out and there were many who had a blood with but what could a private venture do the were numerous and desperate as to taking and his four companions that of course would be easy if they could get at them but how were they to get at them the green flag etc on a large well wooded island like la full of wild hills and impenetrable a reward was offered to whoever could find a solution and that brought a man to the front who had a singular plan and was himself prepared to carry it out had been that most formidable person the gone wrong sprung from a decent family his ill doing seemed to be a from the of their religion and he brought to vice all the physical strength and energy with which the virtues of l ds ancestors had endowed him he was ingenious fearless and exceedingly of purpose so that when he was still young his name became notorious upon the american coast he was the same who was for his life in virginia for the of the chief and though he escaped it was well known that he had the witnesses and the judge afterwards as a and even as it was hinted as a he had left an evil name behind him in the of finally he had returned to with a considerable fortune and had settled down to a life of sombre this was the man gaunt austere and dangerous who now waited upon the governor with a plan for the of sir edward received him with little enthusiasm for in spite of some of and he had always regarded him as an sheep who might taint tiie whole of his little flock saw the governor s under his thin veil of formal and restrained courtesy you ve no call to fear me sir said he a captain changed man from what you ve known i ve seen the light again of late after losing sight of it for many a black year it was through the of the rev john of our own people sir if your spirit should be in need of you would find a very sweet in his discourse the governor cocked his nose at him you came here to speak of master said he the man is a vessel of wrath said his wicked horn has been exalted over long and it is borne in upon me that if i can cut him off and utterly destroy him it will be a goodly deed and one which may for many in the past a plan has been given to me whereby i may his destruction the governor was keenly interested for there was a grim and practical air about the man s face which showed that he was in earnest	4
after all he was a seaman and a and if it were true that he was eager to for his past no better man could be chosen for the business this will be a dangerous task master said he if i meet my death at it it may be that it will the memory of an ill spent life i have much to for the governor did not see his way to contradict him what was your plan he asked you have heard that s the happy delivery came from this very port of it belonged to mr and it was taken by the green flag the green flag e c who his own and moved into her because she was faster said sir edward yes but it may be that you have never heard that mr has a sister ship the rose which even now in the harbour and which is so like the that if it were not for a white paint line none could tell them apart ah and what of that asked the governor keenly with the air of one who is just on the edge of an idea by the help of it this man shall be delivered into our hands and how i will paint out the streak upon the white rose and make it in all things like the happy delivery then i will set sail for the island of la where this man is the wild oxen when he sees me he will surely mistake me for his own vessel which he is awaiting and he will come on board to his own it was a simple plan and yet it seemed to the governor that it might be effective without hesitation he gave permission to carry it out and to take any steps he liked in order to further the object which he had in view sir edward was not very sanguine for many attempts had been made upon and their results had shown that he was as cunning as he was but this gaunt with the evil record was cunning and also the contest of wits between two such men as and appealed to the governor s acute sense of sport and though he was inwardly convinced that the chances were against him he backed his man with captain i the same loyalty which he would have shown to his horse or his cock haste was above all things necessary for upon any day the might be finished and the out at sea once more but there was not very much to do and there were many willing hands to do it so the second day saw the white rose beating out for the open sea there were many in the port who knew the lines and of the and not one of them could see the slightest difference in this her white side line had been painted out her and yards were smoked to give them the dingy appearance of the weather beaten and a large diamond shaped patch was let into her fore her crew were many of them being men who had sailed with before the mate an old had been his in many voyages and came now at the bidding of his chief the sped across the sea and at the sight of that patched the little craft which they met flew left and right like frightened in a pool on the fourth evening point bore five miles to the north and east of them on the fifth they were at anchor in the bay of at the island of la where and his four men had been hunting it was a well wooded place with the palms and growing down to the thin of silver sand which skirted the shore they had hoisted the black flag and the red but no answer came from the shore strained his eyes hoping every instant to see a boat shoot out to them with seated in the sheets but the night the green flag etc passed away and a day and yet another night without any sign of the men whom they were endeavouring to trap it looked as if they were already gone on the second morning went ashore in search of some proof whether and his men were still upon the island what he found reassured him greatly close to the shore was a of green wood such as was used for preserving the meat and a great store of of ox flesh was hung upon lines all round it the ship had not taken off her provisions and therefore the hunters were still upon the island why had they not shown themselves was it that they had detected that this was not their own ship or was it that they were hunting in the interior of the island and were not on the for a ship yet was still hesitating between the two when a indian came down with information the were in the island he said and their camp was a day s march from the sea they had stolen his wife and the marks of their were still pink upon his brown back their enemies were his friends and he would lead them to where they lay could not have asked for anything better so early next morning with a small party armed to the teeth he set off under the guidance of the all day they struggled through and over rocks pushing their way further and further into the desolate heart of the island here and there they found traces of the hunters the bones of a slain ox or the marks of feet in a and once towards evening it seemed to some of them that they heard the distant rattle of guns captain that night they spent under the trees and pushed on again with the earliest light about noon they came to the huts of bark which the	4
told them were the camp of the hunters but they were silent and deserted no doubt their occupants were away at the hunt and would return in the evening so and his men lay in in the around them but no one came and another night was spent in the forest nothing more could be done and it seemed to that after the two days absence it was time that he returned to his ship once more the return journey was less difficult as they had already blazed a path for themselves before evening they found themselves once more at the bay of palms and saw their ship riding at where they had left her their boat and oars had been hauled up among the bushes so they launched it and pulled out to the no luck then cried the mate looking down with a pale face from the his camp was empty but he may come down to us yet said with his hand on the ladder somebody upon deck began to laugh i think said the mate that these men had better stay in the boat why so if you come aboard sir you will understand it he spoke in a curious hesitating fashion the blood flushed to s gaunt face how is this master he cried springing up the side what mean you by giving orders to my boat s crew but as he passed over the with one foot upon the deck and one knee upon the rail a tow bearded man whom he had never before observed aboard his tlie green flag etc vessel suddenly at his pistol clutched at the fellow s but at tlie same instant his mate snatched the from his side what is this shouted looking furiously around him but the crew stood in little knots about the deck laughing and amongst themselves without showing any desire to go to his assistance even in that hurried glance noticed that they were dressed in the most singular manner with long riding coats full skirted velvet gowns and coloured at their knees more like men of fashion than as he looked at their grotesque figures he struck his brow with his clenched fist to be sure that he was awake the deck seemed to be much than when he had left it and there were strange sun blackened faces turned upon him from every side not one of them did he know save only had the ship been captured in his absence were these s men who were around him at the thought he broke furiously away and tried to climb over to his boat but a dozen hands were on him in an instant and he was pushed aft through the open door of his own cabin and it was all different to the cabin which he had left the floor was different the ceiling was different the furniture was different his had been plain and austere this was and yet dirty hung with rare velvet curtains with wine and with costly woods which were witli pistol marks on the table was a great of the sea and beside it with in his hand sat a pale faced man with a fur cap and a coloured coat of turned white under captain his as he looked upon the long thin high nose and the red eyes which were turned upon him with the fixed humorous gaze of the master player who has left his opponent without a move i cried s thin lips opened and he broke into his high laugh you fool he cried and leaning over he s shoulder again and again with his you poor dull fool would you match yourself against me it was not the pain of the wounds but it was the contempt in s voice which turned into a savage madman he flew at the roaring with rage striking kicking and foaming it took six men to drag him down the floor amidst the remains of the table and not one of the six who did not bear the prisoner s mark upon him but still surveyed him with the same contemptuous eye from outside there came the crash of breaking wood and the of startled voices what is that asked they have stove the boat with cold shot and the men are in the water let them stay there said the now you know where you are you are aboard my ship the happy delivery and you lie at my mercy i knew you for a stout seaman you rogue before you took to this long shore your hands then were no than my own will you sign articles as has done and join us or shall i heave you over to follow your ship s company the green flag etc where is my ship asked in the bay and the hands in the bay too then i m for the bay also him and heave him over said many rough hands had dragged out upon deck and the had already drawn his to him when came from his cabin with an eager face we can do better with the hound he cried sink me if it is not a rare plan throw him into the sail room with the irons on and do you come here that i may tell you what i have in my mind so bruised and wounded in soul and body was thrown into the dark sail room so that he could not stir hand or foot but his northern blood was running strong in his veins and his grim spirit only to make such an ending as might go some way towards for the evil of his life all night he lay in the curve of the listening to the rush of the water and the straining of the which told him that the ship was at sea and driving fast in the early morning came crawling	4
to him in the darkness over the heaps of sails here s rum and said the voice of his late mate it s at the risk of my life master that i bring them to you it was you who me and caught me as in a cried how shall you answer for what you have done captain what i did i did with the point of a knife my blade bones god forgive you for a coward how came you into their hands why master the ship came back from its upon the very day that you left us they laid us aboard and short handed as we were with the best of the men ashore with you we could offer but a poor defence some were cut down and they were the happiest the others were killed afterwards as to me i saved my life by on with them and they my ship they her and then and his men who had been watching us from the came off to the ship his main yard had been cracked and last voyage so he had suspicions of us seeing that ours was whole then he thought of laying the same trap for you which you had set for him groaned how came i not to see that main yard he muttered but whither are we bound we are running north and west north and west i then we are heading back towards with an eight knot wind have you heard what they mean to do with me i have not heard if you would but sign the articles enough i have risked my soul too often as you wish i have done what i could farewell all that night and the next day the happy delivery the green flag etc ran before the trades and lay in the dark of the sail room working patiently at his wrist irons one he had slipped off at the cost of a row of broken and bleeding but do what he would he could not free the other and his ankles were securely fastened from hour to hour he heard the of the water and knew that the must be driving with all set in front of the trade wind in that case they must be nearly back again to by now what plan could have in his head and what use did he hope to make of him set his teeth and vowed that if he had once been a villain from choice he would at least never be one by on the second morning became aware that sail had been reduced in the vessel and that she was slowly with a light breeze on her beam the slope of the sail room and the sounds from the deck told his practised senses exactly what she was doing the short reaches showed him that she was near shore and making for some definite point if so she must have reached but what could she be doing there and then suddenly there was a burst of hearty cheering from the deck and then the crash of a above his head and then the answering of guns from far over the water sat up and strained his ears was the ship in action only the one gun had been fired and though many had answered there were none of the which told of a shot coming home then if it was not an action it must be a salute but who would salute the it could only be another ship which would do so so lay back again with a groan and continued to work at the which still held his right wrist but suddenly there came the shuffling of steps outside and he had hardly time to wrap the loose links round his free hand when the door was and two came in got your hammer carpenter asked one whom recognised as the big knock off his leg then better leave the he s safer with them on with hammer and the carpenter loosened the irons what are you going to do with me asked come on deck and you ll see the sailor seized him by the arm and dragged him roughly to the foot of the companion above him was a square of blue sky cut across by the with the colours flying at the peal but it was the sight of those colours which struck the breath from s lips for there were two of them and the british was flying above the jolly the flag above that of the rogue for an instant stopped in amazement but a brutal push from the behind drove him up the companion ladder as he stepped out upon deck his eyes turned up to tlie main and there again were the british colours flying above the red and all the and were with had the ship been taken then but that was impossible for there were the in o the green flag etc along the port and waving their hats in the air most prominent of all was the mate standing on the head and wildly looked over the side to see what they were cheering at and then in a flash he saw how critical was the moment on the port bow and about a mile off lay the white houses and of port royal with flags breaking out everywhere over their roofs right ahead was the opening of the leading to the town of not more than a quarter of a mile ofl was a small working out against the very slight wind the british was at her peak and her was all decorated on her deck could be seen a dense crowd of people cheering and waving their hats and the gleam of scarlet told that there were officers of the garrison among them in an instant with the quick perception of a man of action saw	4
through it with that cunning and audacity which were among his main characteristics was the part which would himself have played had he come back victorious it was in his honour that the were firing and the flags flying it was to him that this ship with the governor the and the chiefs of the island were approaching in another ten minutes they would all be under the guns of the happy delivery and would have won the greatest st e that ever a played for yet bring him forward cried the captain as appeared between the carpenter and the keep the ports but clear away the port captain l guns and stand by for a another two and we have them they are away said the i think they smell us that s soon set right said turning his eyes upon stand there you right there where they can recognise you with your hand on g y wi wave your hat to them quick or your brains will be over your coat put an inch of your knife into him ned now will you wave your hat try him again then hey shoot him i stop him but it was too late upon the the had taken his hands for a moment off s arm in that instant he had off the carpenter and amid a of pistol bullets had sprung the and was swimming for his life he had been hit and hit again but it takes many pistols to kill a resolute and powerful man who has his mind set upon doing something before he dies he was a strong and in spite of the red trail which he left in the water behind him he was rapidly increasing his distance from the give me a cried with a savage oath he was a famous shot and his iron nerves never failed him in an emergency the dark head appearing on the crest of a and then down on the other side was already half way to the dwelt long upon his aim before he fired with the crack of the gun the reared himself up in the water waved his hands in a gesture of warning and roared out in a voice which rang over the bay then as the the green flag etc swung round her head sails and the fired an impotent smiling grimly in his death agony sank slowly down to that golden couch which far beneath him iii how banks captain the were something higher than a mere band of they were a floating republic witli laws and discipline of their own in their endless and quarrel with the they had some semblance of right upon their side their bloody of the cities of the main were not more barbarous than the of spain upon the or upon the in these same american lands the chief of the were he english or french a or a was still a responsible person whose country might countenance him or even praise him so long as he refrained from any deed which might shock the century conscience too some of them were touched with religion and it is still remembered how threw the overboard upon the sabbath and daniel a man before the altar for in but there came a day when the of the no longer at the and the solitary and took their place yet even with him the tradition of restraint and of discipline still lingered and among the early the the and the there remained some respect for human captain sentiment they were more dangerous to the merchant than to the seaman but they in turn replaced by more savage and desperate men who frankly recognised that they would get no quarter in their war with the human race and who swore that they would give as little as they got of their histories we know little that is they wrote no and left no trace save an occasional blackened and adrift upon the face of the atlantic their deeds could only be from the long roll of ships who never made their port searching the records of history it is only here and there in an old world trial that the veil that them seems for an instant to be lifted and we catch a glimpse of some amazing and grotesque behind was the breed of ned low of the and of the infamous whose coal black the happy delivery was known from the banks to the mouths of the as the dark of misery and of death there were many men both among the islands and on the main who had a blood with but not one who had suffered more bitterly than banks of banks had been one of the leading sugar merchants of the west indies he was a man of position a member of the council the husband of a and the cousin of the governor of virginia his two sons had been sent to london to be educated and their mother had gone over to bring them back on their return voyage the ship the of fell into the hands of and the whole family met with an infamous death the green flag etc banks said little when he heard the news but he sank into a and enduring melancholy he neglected his business avoided his friends and spent much of his time in the low of the and there amidst riot and he sat silently at his pipe with a set face and a eye it was generally supposed that his had shaken his wits and his old friends looked at him for the company which he kept was enough to bar him from honest men from time to time there came of over the sea sometimes it was from some which had seen a great flame upon the horizon and approaching to offer help to the burning ship had	4
steward whose head split with his glass because he had been too slow in the filling of it the had slipped s pistols away from him for it was an old joke with him to fire them cross handed under the table and see who was the man it was a which had cost his tlie green flag etc his so now when the table was cleared they would s weapons away from him on the excuse of the heal and lay them out of his reach the captain s cabin of the harry was in a deck house upon the and a stem gun was mounted at the back of it round shot were round the wall and three great of powder made a stand for dishes and for bottles in this grim room the five sang and roared and drank while the silent steward still filled up their glasses and passed the box and the candle round for their tobacco pipes hour after hour the talk became the voices the curses and more until three of the five had closed their blood shot eyes and dropped their swimming heads upon the table banks and were left face to face the one because he had drunk e least the other because no amount of liquor would ever shake his iron nerve or warm his blood behind him stood the watchful steward for ever filling up his glass from without came the low of the tide and from over the water a sailor s from the in the tropical night the words came clearly to their ears a sailed from town wake her up shake her up try her with the a sailed from town with a of gold and a velvet gown ho the bully jack waiting with his yard out upon the sea the two boon companions sat listening in silence captain then banks glanced at the steward and the man took a of rope from the shot rack behind him captain said banks do you remember the of from london which you took and s three years ago off the curse me if i can bear their names in mind said we did as many as ten ships a week about that time there were a mother and two sons among the passengers maybe that will bring it back to your mind captain back in thought with his huge thin of a nose upwards then he burst suddenly into a high laugh he remembered i he said and he added details to prove it but bum me if it had not slipped from my mind he cried how came you to think of it it was of interest to me said banks for the woman was my wife and the lads were my only sons stared across at his companion and saw that the fire which always in his eyes had burned up into a lurid flame he read their menace and he his hands to his empty belt then he turned to seize a weapon but the of a rope was cast round him and in an instant his arms were bound to his side he fought like a cat and screamed for help ned he ned wake up here s damned help ned help but the three men were far too deeply sunk in their sleep for any voice to wake them round and round went the rope until was like a the green etc from ankle to neck they him stiff and helpless against a powder barrel and they him with a handkerchief but his red eyes still looked curses at them the dumb man in his exultation and for the first time when he saw the empty mouth before him he understood that vengeance slow and patient had dogged him long and clutched him at last the two had their plans all arranged and they were somewhat elaborate first of all they stove the heads of two of the great powder barrels and they heaped the contents out upon the table and floor they piled it round and under the three drunken men until each in a heap of it then they carried to the gun and they him sitting over the with his body about a foot from the as he would he could not move an inch either to right or left and the dumb man him up with a sailor s cunning so that there was no chance that he should work free now you bloody devil said banks softly you must listen to what i have to say to you for they are the last words that you will hear you are my man now and i have bought you at a price for i have given all that a man can give here below and i have given my soul as well to reach you i have had to sink to your level for two years i strove against it hoping that some other way might come but i learnt that there was no other way robbed and i have murdered worse still i have laughed and lived with you and all for the one end and now my time has come and you mil die as i would captain have you die seeing the shadow creeping slowly upon you and the devil waiting for you in the shadow could hear the hoarse voices of his singing their over the water where is the of town wake her up shake her up every stick a bending where is the of town his gold s on the his blood s on his gown all for bully jack reaching on the weather tack right across the sea the words came clear to his ear and just outside he could hear two men pacing backwards and forwards upon the deck and yet he was helpless staring down the mouth of the nine unable to move an inch or to	4
utter so much as a groan again there came the st of voices from the deck of the so up and it s over to bay pack it on crack it on try her with the sails it s off on a to bay where the liquor is good and the are gay waiting for their bully jack watching for him sailing back right across the sea to the dying the jovial words and tune made his own fate seem the but there was no softening in his blue eyes g banks had brushed away the of the gun and had sprinkled fresh powder over the touch hole then he had taken up the candle and cut it to the length of about an inch this he placed upon the loose powder at the breach of the gun then he scattered powder thickly over the floor beneath that when the fell at the it must the green flag etc the huge pile in which the three were you ve made others look death in the face said he now it has come to be your own turn you and these swine here shall go together he lit the as he spoke and blew out the other lights upon the table then he passed out with the dumb man and locked the cabin door upon the outer side but before he closed it he took an look backwards and received one last curse from those eyes in the single dim circle of light that ivory white face with the gleam of moisture upon the high bald forehead was the last that was ever seen of there was a alongside and in it banks and the dumb steward made their way to the beach and looked back upon the riding in the moonlight just outside the shadow of the palm trees they waited and waited watching that dim light which shone through the stem port and then at last there came the dull of a gun and an instant later the crash of the explosion the long sleek black the sweep of white sand and the fringe of nodding sprang into dazzling light and back into darkness again voices screamed and called upon the bay then banks his heart singing within him touched his companion upon the shoulder and they plunged together into the lonely of the im the crime of the in all the great hosts of france there was only one officer towards whom the english of s army retained a deep steady and hatred there were among the french and men of violence and all these could be forgiven for others of their were to be found among the ranks of the english but one officer of s force had committed a crime which was unspeakable of abominable only to be alluded to with curses late in the evening when a second bottle had loosened the tongues of men the news of it was carried to england and country gentlemen who knew little of the details of the war grew crimson with passion when they heard of it and of the raised fists to heaven and swore and yet who should be the of this dreadful deed but our friend the of the of gay riding tossing the darling of the ladies and of the six of light cavalry but the strange part of it is that this gallant gentleman did this hateful thing and made himself the most man in the without ever knowing that he had done a crime for which there is hardly a name amid all the resources of our language he died of old age and never once in that self confidence hie green etc which adorned or his character knew that so many thousand englishmen would gladly have hanged him with their own hands on the contrary he numbered this adventure among those other exploits which he has given to the world and many a time he chuckled and himself as he it to the eager who gathered round him in that humble where between his dinner and his he would tell amid tears and laughter of that inconceivable past when france like an angel of wrath rose up splendid and terrible before a continent let us listen to him as he tells the in his own way and from his own point of view you must know my friends said he that it was towards the end of the year eighteen hundred and ten that i and and the others pushed back wards we had hoped to drive him and his army into the but when we were still twenty five miles from we found that we were betrayed for what had this englishman done but build an enormous line of works and at a place called so that even we were unable to get through them they lay across the whole and our army was so far from home that we did not dare to risk a reverse and we had already learned at that it was no child s play to fight against these people what could we do then but sit down in front of these lines and them to the best of our power there we remained for six months amid such anxieties that said afterwards that he had not one hair which was not white upon his body for my own part i did not worry much about our tlie crime of the tion but i looked after our horses who were in great need of rest and green for the rest we drank the wine of the country and passed the time as best we might there was a lady at but my lips are sealed it is the part of a gallant man to say nothing though he may indicate that he could say a great deal one day sent for me and i found him in his	4
tent with a great plan pinned upon the table he looked at me in silence with that single piercing eye of his and i felt by his expression that the matter was serious he was nervous and ill at ease but my bearing seemed to him it is good to be in contact with brave men colonel said he i have always heard that you are a very gallant and officer it was not for me to confirm such a report and yet it would be folly to deny it so i my spurs together and saluted you are also an excellent rider i admitted it and the best in the six of light cavalry was famous for the accuracy of his information now said he if you will look at this plan you will have no difficulty in understanding what it is that i wish you to do these are the lines of you will perceive that they cover a vast space and you will that the english can only hold a position here and there once through the lines you have twenty five miles of open wliich lie between them and it is very important to me to learn how s troops are dis o the green flag etc throughout that space and it is my wish that you should go and ascertain his words turned me cold sir said i it is impossible that a colonel of light cavalry should condescend to act as a spy he laughed and clapped me on the shoulder you would not be a if you were not a said he if you will listen you will understand that i have not asked you to act as a spy what do you think of that horse he had conducted me to the opening of his tent and there was a who led up and down a most admirable creature he was a grey not very tall a little over fifteen hands perhaps but with the short head and splendid arch of the neck which comes with the blood his shoulders and were so muscular and yet his legs so fine that it thrilled me with joy just to gaze upon him a fine horse or a woman i cannot look at them unmoved even now when seventy have chilled my blood you can think how it was in the year lo this said is the horse in our army what i desire is that you should start tonight ride round the lines upon the make your way across the enemy s rear and return upon the other bringing me news of his dispositions you will wear a uniform and will therefore if captured be safe fix m the death of a spy it is probable that you will get through the lines for the posts are very scattered once through in daylight you can anything which you meet and if you keep off the roads you may escape entirely unnoticed if you have not the crime of the reported yourself by to morrow night i will understand that you are taken and i will offer them colonel in exchange ah how my heart swelled with pride and joy as i sprang into the saddle and galloped this grand horse up and down to show the the mastery which i had of him he was magnificent we were both magnificent for clapped his hands and cried out in his delight it was not i but he who said that a gallant beast deserves a gallant rider then when for the third time with my and my streaming behind me i thundered past him i saw upon his hard old face that he had no longer any doubt that he had chosen the man for his purpose i drew my raised the to my lips in salute and galloped on to my own quarters already the news had spread that i had been chosen for a mission and my little came out of their tents to cheer me ah it brings the tears to my old eyes when i think how proud they were of their colonel and i was proud of them also they deserved a dashing leader the night promised to be a stormy one which was very much to my liking it was my desire to keep my departure most secret for it was evident that if the english heard that i had been detached from the army they would naturally conclude that something important was about to happen my horse was taken therefore beyond the line as if for watering and i followed and mounted him there i had a map a compass and a paper of instructions from the and with these in the bosom of my and my at my side i set out upon my adventure k green flag the green flag etc a thin rain was falling and there was no moon so you may imagine that it was not very cheerful but my heart was light at the thought of tiie honour which had been done me and the glory which awaited me this should be one more in that brilliant series which was to change my into a ah how we dreamed we foolish fellows young and drunk with success i could i have foreseen that night as i rode the chosen man of sixty thousand that i should spend my life planting on a hundred a month oh my youth my hopes my comrades but the wheel turns and never stops forgive me my friends for an old man has his weakness my route then lay across the face of the high ground of then over a past a which had been burned down and was now only a then through a forest of young cork oaks and so to the of san which marked the left of the english position here i turned south and rode quietly over the	4
downs for it was at this point that thought that it would be most easy for me to find my way unobserved through the position i went very slowly for it was so dark that i could not see my hand in front of me in such cases i leave my bridle loose and let my horse pick its own way went confidently forward and i was very content to sit upon his back and to peer about me avoiding every light for three hours we advanced in this cautious way until it seemed to me that i must have left all danger behind me i then pushed on more briskly for i wished to be in the rear of the whole army by daybreak there are many in these parts which in winter become the crime of the open plains and a finds few difficulties in his way but had the cunning of these english y for it appears that there was not one line of defence but three and it was the third which was the most formidable through which i was at that instant passing as i rode elated at my own success a lantern flashed suddenly before me and i saw the of polished gun barrels and the gleam of a red coat who goes there cried a voice such a voice i to the right and rode like a madman but a dozen of e came out of the darkness and the bullets all round my ears that was no new sound to me my friends though i will not talk like a foolish and say that i have ever liked it but at least it had never kept me from thinking dearly and so i knew that there was nothing for it but to gallop hard and try my luck elsewhere i rode round the english and then as i heard nothing more of them i concluded rightly that i had at last come through their for five miles i rode south striking a from time to time to look at my pocket compass and then in an instant i feel the pang once more as my memory brings back the moment my without a sob or fell stone dead beneath me i had not known it but one of the bullets from that infernal had passed through his body the gallant creature had never nor weakened but had gone while life was in him one instant i was secure on the most graceful horse in s army the next he lay upon his side worth only the price of his hide and i stood there that most helpless most th greek flag etc of creatures y a dismounted what could i do with my boots my spurs my trailing i was far inside the enemy s lines how could i hope to get back again i am not ashamed to say that i sat upon my dead horse and sank my face in my hands in my despair already the first streaks were the lt m half an it would be that should have won my way past every ol and then at this last instant be left at the mercy of my enemies my mission ruined and myself a prisoner was it not enough to break a soldier s heart but courage my friends we have these moments of weakness the of us but i have a spirit like a slip of steel for the more you bend it the higher it springs one of despair and then a brain of ice and a heart of fire all was not yet lost i who had come through so many would come through this one also i rose from my horse and considered what had best be done and first of all it was certain that i could not get back long before i could pass the lines it would be broad daylight i must hide myself for the day and then devote the next night to my escape i took the saddle and bridle from poor and i concealed them among some bushes so that no one finding him could know that he was a french horse then leaving him lying there i wandered on in search of some place where i might be safe for the day in every direction i could see camp fires upon the sides of the hills and already figures had begun to move around them i must hide quickly or i was lost but where was i to hide it was a in the crime of the which i found m the poles of the vines still but the plants gone there was no cover there i should want some food and water before another night had come i wildly through the darkness trusting that chance would be my friend and i was not disappointed q is a woman my friends and she has her eye always upon a gallant well then as i stumbled through the something loomed in fix nt of me and i came upon a great square house with another long low building upon one side of it three roads met there and it was easy to see that this was the or wine shop there was no light in the windows and everything was dark and silent but of course i knew that such comfortable quarters were certainly occupied and probably by some one of importance i have learned however that the nearer the danger may really be the safer the place and so i was by no means inclined to trust myself away from this shelter the low building was evidently the stable and into this i crept for the door was the place was full of and sheep gathered there no doubt to be out of the of a ladder led to a and up this i climbed and concealed myself very among some of	4
hay upon the top this had a small open window and i was able to look down upon the front of the inn and also upon the road there i crouched and waited to see what would happen it was soon evident that i had not been mistaken when i had thought that this might be the quarters of some person of importance shortly after daybreak an english light arrived with a despatch and from the green flag etc then the place was in a turmoil officers continually riding up and away always the same name was upon their lips sir sir it was hard for me to lie there with a dry moustache and watch the great which were brought out by the landlord to these english officers but it amused me to look at their fresh coloured dean shaven careless faces and to wonder what they would think if they knew that so celebrated a person was lying so near to them and then as i lay and watched i saw a sight which filled me with surprise it is incredible the insolence of these english what do you suppose had done when he found that had him and that he could not move his army i might give you many you might say that he had raged that he had that he had brought his troops together and spoken to them about glory and the before leading them to one last battle no did none of these things but he sent a fleet ship to england to bring him a number of fox dogs and he with his officers settled himself down to chase the fox it is true what i tell you behind the lines of these mad englishmen made the fox chase three days in the week we had heard of it in the camp and now i was myself to see that it was true for along the road which i have described there came these very dogs thirty or forty of them white and brown each with its tail at the same angle like the of the old guard my faith but it was a pretty sight and behind and amidst them there rode three men with caps and red coats whom i understood to he the hunters after them came many the crime of the with of various kinds along the roads in and talking together and laughing they did not seem to be going above a trot and it appeared to me that it must indeed be a slow fox which they hoped to catch however it was their affair not and soon they had all passed my window and were out of sight i waited and i watched ready for any chance which might offer presently an officer in a blue uniform not unlike that of our flying came down the road an elderly stout man he was with grey side whiskers he stopped and began to talk with an orderly officer of who waited outside the inn and it was then that i learned the advantage of the english which had been taught me i could hear and understand all that was said where is the meet said the officer and i thought that he was for his but the other answered him that it was near so i saw that it was a place of which he spoke you are late sir george said the orderly yes i had a court martial has sir cotton gone at this moment a window opened and a handsome young man in a very splendid uniform looked out of it said he these cursed papers keep me but i will be at your heels very good cotton i am late already so i will ride on you might order my groom to bring my said the young general at the window to the orderly below while the other went on down the road the green flag etc the orderly rode away to some and then in a few minutes there came a smart english groom with a in his hat leading by the bridle a horse and oh my friends you have never known the perfection to which a horse can attain until you have seen a first english hunter he was superb tall broad strong and yet as graceful and as a deer coal black he was in and his neck and his shoulder and his quarters and his how can i describe him all to you the sim shone upon him as on polished and he raised his hoofs in a little playful dance so lightly and prettily while he tossed his mane and with impatience never have i seen such a mixture of strength and beauty and grace i had often wondered how the english had managed to ride over the of the guards in the affair at but i wondered no longer when i saw the english horses there was a ring for at the door of the inn and the groom tied the horse there while he entered the house in an instant i had seen the chance which fate had brought to me were i in that saddle i should be better off than when i started even could not compare with this magnificent creature to think is to act with me in one instant i was down the ladder and at the door of the stable the next i was out and the bridle was in my hand i bounded into the saddle somebody the master or the man shouted wildly behind me what cared i for his shouts i touched the horse with my spurs and he bounded forward with such a spring that only a rider like myself could have sat him i gave him his head and let him go it did not matter to me where so long the crime of the as we left this inn	4
far behind us he thundered away across the and in a very few minutes i had placed miles between myself and my they could no longer tell in that wild country in which direction i had gone i knew that i was safe and so riding to the top of a small hill i drew my pencil and from my pocket and proceeded to make plans of those which i could see and to draw the outline of the he was a dear creature upon whom i sat but it was not easy to draw upon his back for every now and then his two ears would cock and he would start and quiver with impatience at first i could not understand this trick of his but soon i observed that he only did it when a peculiar noise came from somewhere among the oak woods beneath us and then suddenly this strange cry changed into a most terrible screaming with the frantic blowing of a horn instantly he went mad this horse his eyes blazed his mane he bounded from the earth and bounded again twisting and turning in a frenzy my pencil flew one way and my note book another and then as i looked down into the an extraordinary sight met my eyes the hunt was streaming down it the fox i could not see but the dogs were in full cry their noses down their tails up so dose together that they might have been one great yellow and white moving carpet and behind them rode the my faith what a sight consider every t which a great army could show some in hunting dress but the most in blue red red green gold and most of all red red the green etc red for the officers ride as hard as the cavalry such a crowd some well mounted some ill but all along as best they might the as good as the general and pushing and driving with every thought thrown to the winds save that they should have the blood of this absurd fox truly they are an extraordinary people the english but i had little time to watch the hunt or to marvel at these for of all these mad creatures the very horse upon which i sat was the you understand that he was himself a and that the crying of these dogs was to him what the call of a cavalry trumpet in the street yonder would be to me it thrilled him it drove him wild again and again he bounded into the air and then seizing the bit n his teeth he down the slope and galloped after the dogs i and and pulled but i was powerless this english general rode his horse with a only and the beast had a mouth of iron it was useless to pull him back one might as well try to keep a from a wine bottle i gave it up in despair and settling down in the saddle i prepared for the worst which could befall what a creature he was never have i felt such a horse between my knees his great gathered under him with every stride and he shot forward ever faster and faster stretched like a while the wind beat in my face and whistled past my ears i was wearing our jacket a uniform simple and dark in itself though some figures give distinction to any uniform and i had taken the precaution to remove the long from my the result was that amidst the crime of the the mixture of in the hunt there was no reason why mine should attract attention or why these men whose thoughts were all with the should give any heed to me the idea that a french officer might be riding with them was too absurd to enter their minds i laughed as i rode for indeed amid all the danger there was something of comic in the situation i have said that the hunters were very mounted and so at the end of a few miles instead of being one body of men like a charging regiment they were scattered over a considerable space the better well up to the dogs and the others trailing away behind now i was as good a rider as any and my horse was the best of them all and so you can imagine that it was not long before he carried me to the front and when i saw the dogs streaming over the open and the behind them and only seven or eight between us then it was that the strangest thing of all happened for i too went mad i in a moment it came upon me this spirit of sport this desire to this hatred of the fox accursed animal should he then defy us vile robber his hour was come ah it is a great feeling this feeling of sport my friends this desire to the fox under the hoofs of your horse i have made the fox chase with the english i have also as i may tell you some day fought the box fight with the of and i say to you that this sport is a wonderful thing full of interest as well as madness the farther we went the faster galloped my horse and soon there were but three men as near the dogs as j was all thought of fear of discovery had vanished the green flag etc my brain my blood ran hot only one thing upon earth seemed worth living for and that was to overtake this infernal fox i passed one of the a like myself there were only two in front of me now the one in a black coat the other the blue whom i had seen at the inn his grey whiskers streamed in the wind	4
but he rode for a mile or more we kept in this order and then as we galloped up a steep slope my lighter weight brought me to the front i passed them both and when i reached the crown i was riding level with the little hard faced english in front of us were the dogs and then a hundred paces beyond them was a brown of a thing the fox itself stretched to the the sight of him fired my blood we have you then i cried and shouted my encouragement to the i waved my hand to show him that there was one upon whom he could rely and now there were only the dogs between me and my prey these dogs whose duty it is to point out the game were now rather a than a help to us for it was hard to know how to pass them the felt the difficulty as much as i for he rode behind them and could make no progress towards the fox he was a swift rider but wanting in enterprise for my part i felt that it would be unworthy of the of if i could not overcome such a difficulty as this was to be stopped by a herd of it was absurd i gave a shout and my horse hold hard hold cried the he was uneasy for me this good old man but i the crime the q j reassured him by a wave and a smile the dogs opened in front of me one or two may have been but what would you have the egg must be broken for the i could hear the shouting his congratulations behind me one more effort and the dogs were all behind me only the fox was in front ah the joy and pride of that moment to know that i had beaten the english at their own sport here were three hundred all for the life of this animal and yet it was i who was about to take it i thought of my comrades of the light cavalry of my mother of the emperor of france i had brought honour to each and all every instant brought me nearer to the fox the moment for action had arrived so i my i waved it in the air and uie brave english all shouted behind me only then did i understand how difficult is this for one may cut again and again at the creature and never strike him once he is small and turns quickly from a blow at every cut i heard those shouts of encouragement from behind m and they me to yet another effort and then at last the supreme moment of my triumph arrived in the very act of turning i caught him fair such another back handed cut as that with which i killed the de camp of the emperor of russia he flew into two pieces his head one way and his tail i looked back and waved the blood stained in the air for the moment i was exalted superb ah how i should have loved to have waited to have received the congratulations of these generous enemies there were fifty of them in sight and not one who was the green flag etc not waving his hand and shouting they are not really such a race the english a gallant deed in war or in sport will always warm their hearts as to the old he was the nearest to me and i could see with my own eyes how overcome he was by what he had seen he was like a man his mouth open his hand with fingers raised in the air for a moment my inclination was to return and to embrace him but already the call of duty was sounding in my ears and these english in spite of all the which exists among would certainly have made me prisoner there was no hope for my mission now and i had done all that i could do i could see the lines of s camp no very great distance off for by a lucky chance the chase had taken us in that direction i from the dead fox saluted with my and galloped away but they would not leave me so easily these gallant i was the fox now and the chase swept bravely over the plain it was only at the moment when i started for the camp that they could have known that i was a frenchman and now the whole swarm of them were at my heels we were within of our before they would halt and then they stood in knots and would not go away but shouted and waved their hands at me no i will not think that it was in enmity rather would i fancy that a glow of admiration filled their breasts and that their one desire was to embrace the stranger who had carried himself so gallantly and well the master i mr robert was seated at his his head upon his hands in a state of the despondency before him was the open with the long columns of dr s at his elbow lay the wooden tray with the in various the cork box the of twisted wax while in front a rank of empty bottles waited to be filled but his spirits were too low for work he sat in silence with his fine shoulders bowed and his head upon his hands outside through the window over a of blackened brick and slate a line of enormous chimneys like pillars the lowering coloured cloud bank for six days in the week they smoke but to day the furnace fires were for it was sunday sordid and gloom hung over a district and by the of man there was nothing in the surroundings to cheer a soul but it was	4
more than his dismal which weighed upon the medical assistant his trouble was deeper and more personal the winter was approaching he should be back again at the university the last year which would give him his medical degree but alas he had not the money with which to pay his nor could he imagine how he the en flag etc could procure it sixty pounds were wanted to make his career and it might have been as many thousands for any chance there seemed to be of his obtaining it he was roused from his black meditation by the entrance of dr himself a large clean shaven respectable man with a manner and an austere face he had exceedingly by the support of the local interest and the rule of his life was never by word or action to run a risk of offending the sentiment which had made him his standard of respectability and of dignity was exceedingly high and he expected the same from his his appearance and words were always vaguely benevolent a sudden impulse came over the student he would test the reality of this i beg your pardon dr said he rising from his chair i have a great favour to ask of you the doctor s appearance was not encouraging mouth suddenly and his eyes fell yes mr you are aware sir that i need only one more to complete my course so you have told me it is very important to me sir naturally the dr would to about sixty pounds i am afraid that my duties call me elsewhere mr one moment sir i had hoped sir that perhaps if i signed a paper promising you interest upon your money you would advance this sum to me i will pay master you back sir i really will or if you like i will work it after i am qualified the doctor s lips had into a narrow line his eyes were raised again and sparkled indignantly your request is unreasonable mr i am that you should have made it consider sir how many thousands of medical students there are in this country no doubt there are many of them who have a difficulty in finding their am i to provide for them all or why should i make an exception in your favour i am grieved and disappointed mr that you should have put me into the painful position of having to refuse you he turned upon his heel and walked with offended dignity out of the the student smiled bitterly and turned to his work of making up the morning it was poor and unworthy work work which any might have done as well and this was a man of exceptional nerve and but such as it was it brought him his board and i a week enough to help him during the months and let him save a few pounds towards his winter keep but those where were they to come from he could not save them out of his scanty dr would not advance them he saw no way of earning them his brains were fairly good but brains of that quality were a in the market he only in his strength and where was he to find a customer for that but the ways of fate are strange and his customer was at hand look y said a voice at the door looked up for the voice was a loud and one a young man stood at the entrance a green flag thb green flag etc bull young in sunday and an he was a sinister looking figure with dark insolent eyes and the jaw and throat of a look y said he again why hast thou not sent t medicine as thy master ordered had become accustomed to the brutal frankness of the northern at first it had enraged him but a time he had grown to it and accepted it as it was meant but this was something different it was insolence brutal insolence with physical menace behind it what name he asked coldly happen i may give thee cause to mind that name man t wife s medicine this very moment look ye or it will be the worse for thee smiled a pleasant sense of relief thrilled softly through him what blessed safety was this through which his nerves might find some outlet the provocation was so gross the insult so that he could have none of those which take the edge off a man s he finished the bottle upon which he was occupied and he addressed it and placed it carefully in the rack look here said he turning round to the your medicine will be made up in its turn and sent down to you i don t allow folk in the wait outside in the waiting room if you wish to wait at all man said the thou s got to t wife s medicine here and now and quick while i wait and watch thee or else happen thou might need some medicine before all is over the master i shouldn t advise you to fasten a quarrel upon me was speaking in the hard of a man who is holding himself in with difficulty save trouble if you ll go quietly if you you ll be hurt ah you would take it then the blows were almost a savage swing which whistled past s ear and a straight drive which took the workman on the luck was with the assistant that single and the way in which it was delivered warned him that he had a formidable man to deal with but if he had his his had also him and had laid himself open to a fatal blow the s head had come with a crash against the comer of the shelves and he had dropped heavily the ground there he	4
lay with his legs drawn up and his hands thrown abroad the blood over the had enough asked the assistant breathing fiercely through his nose but no answer came the man was insensible and then the danger of his position came upon and he turned as white as his a sunday the dr with his pious connection a savage with a patient he would lose his situation if the facts came out it was not much of a situation but he could not get another without a reference and might refuse him one without money for his classes and without a situation what was to become of him it was absolute ruin but perhaps he could escape exposure after all he seized his insensible adversary dragged him out into the loo the green flag etc centre of the room loosened his collar and squeezed the over his face he sat up at last with a gasp and a thee thou s spoilt my said he up the water from his breast sorry i hit you so hard said thou hit me hard i could such fly all day twas this here press that cracked my for me and thou art a man to be able to boast as thou hast me and now be obliged to thee if thou wilt give me t wife s medicine gladly made it up and handed it to the you are weak still said he won t you stay awhile and rest t wife wants her medicine said the man and out at the door the assistant looking after him saw him rolling with an step down the street until a friend met him and they on arm in arm the man seemed in his rough northern fashion to bear no grudge and so s fears left him there was no reason why the doctor should know anything about it he wiped the blood from the floor put the in order and went on with his interrupted task hoping tiiat he had come out of a very dangerous business yet all day he was aware of a sense of vague uneasiness which sharpened into dismay when late in the afternoon he was informed that three had called and were waiting foi him in the a s a descent of an invasion of the loi angry relatives all sorts of possibilities rose to scare him with tense nerves and a rigid face he went to meet his visitors they were a very singular each was known to him by sight but what on earth the three could be doing together and above all what they could expect from him was a most inexplicable problem the first was the son of the owner of the he was a young blood of twenty heir to a fortune a keen and down for the from college he sat now upon the edge of the table looking in thoughtful silence at and twisting the ends of his small black moustache the second was the owner of the chief beer shop and well known as the local he was a coarse clean shaven man whose fiery face made a singular contrast with his ivory white bald head he had shrewd light blue eyes with lashes and he also leaned forward in silence from his chair a fat red hand upon either knee and stared at the young assistant so did the third visitor the who leaned back his long thin legs with their box cloth riding thrust out in front of him tapping his teeth with his riding whip with anxious thought in every line of his rugged bony face exquisite and were all three equally silent equally earnest and equally critical seated in the midst them looked from one to the other well gentlemen he observed but no answer came the position was embarrassing i the green flag etc no said the at last no it s off if s stand lad let s see thee it was the who spoke obeyed he would learn all about it no doubt if he were patient he stood up and turned slowly round as if in front of his tailor it s off it s cried the why mon the master would break him over his knee oh that be hanged for a said the young you can drop out if you like but i ll see this thing through if i have to do it alone i don t hedge a penny i like the cut of him a great deal better than i liked ted look at s shoulders mr isn t always strength give me nerve and fire and breed that s what wins ay sir you have it you have it said the fat red faced in a thick voice it s the same wi get em clean bred an fine an they ll the thick em out o their skins he s ten good on the light side growled the he s a weight anyhow a hundred and thirty a hundred and fifty if he s an well the master doesn t scale much more than that a hundred and seventy five that was when he was fat and living high work the out of him and i lay there s no great difference between them have you been weighed lately mr the io it was the first direct question which had been asked him he had stood in the midst of them like a horse at a fair and he was just beginning to wonder whether he was more angry or amused i am just eleven stone said he i said that he was a weight but suppose you was trained said the then i am always in training in a manner of no doubt he is always in remarked the but for work ain t the same as with a and i dare bet with all to your	4
opinion mr that there s half a stone of on him at this minute the young put his fingers on the assistant s upper arm then with his other hand on his wrist he bent the sharply and felt the as round and hard as a ball spring up under his fingers feel that said he the and felt it with an air of reverence good he ll do yet cried gentlemen said i think that you will acknowledge that i have been very patient with you i have listened to all that you have to say about my personal appearance and now i must really beg that you will have the goodness to tell me what is the matter they all sat down in their serious way that s easy done mr said the but before anything we had to wait and see whether in a way of there was green etc any need for us to say anything at all mr there is mr who has the same right to his opinion also a and one o the committee thinks the other way i thought him too light built and i think so now said the still tapping his prominent teeth with the metal head of his riding whip but happen he may pull through and he s a fine made chap so if you mean to back him mr which i do and you i ain t one to go back well i ll to my share of he purse and well i knew you would said for it would be new to find as a well then we make up the hundred for the stake among us and the fight stands always the man is excuse all this rot mr said the university man in a genial voice we ve begun at the wrong end i know but we ll soon it out and i h e that you will see your way to in with our views in the first place you remember the man whom you knocked out this morning he is the famous ted tm sure sir you may well be proud to have him in one round said the why it took lis the ten stone x champion a deal more trouble that before he put to sleep you ve done ne performance sir and happen you ll do a finer if give yourself the chance the i never heard of ted beyond seeing the name on a medicine said the assistant well you may take it from me that he s a said the you ve taught him a lesson that he needed for it was always a word and a blow with him and the word alone was worth five in a public court he won t be so ready now to shake his in the face of he meets however that s neither here nor there looked at them in bewilderment for goodness sake gentlemen tell me what it is you want me to do he cried we want you to fight better known as the master of but why because ted was to have fought him next saturday he was the champion of the coal and the other was the master of the iron folk down at the we d matched our man for a purse of a hundred against the but you ve our man and he can t face such a battle with a two inch cut at the back of his head there s only one thing to be done sir and that is for you to take his place if you can ted you may the master of ci but if you don t we re done for there s no one else who is in the street with him in this district it s twenty two gloves rules and a decision on points if you fight to the finish for a moment the absurdity of the thing drove every other thought out of s head but then there came a sudden a hundred pounds all he wanted to complete his education was lying there ready i the green flag etc to his hand if only that hand were strong enough to pick it up he had thought bitterly that morning that there was no market for his strength but here was one where his muscle might earn more in an hour than his brains in a year but a chill of doubt came over hint how can i fight for the coal said he i am not connected with them eh lad but thou art cried old we ve got it down in and it s clear enough anyone connected with the coal doctor is the club doctor thou art his assistant what more can they want yes that s right enough said the it would be a very sporting thing of you mr if you would come to our help when we are in such a hole of course you might not like to take the hundred pounds but i have no doubt that in the case of your winning we could arrange that it should take the form of a watch or piece of plate or any other shape which might suggest itself to you you see you are responsible for our having lost our champion so we really feel that we haye a claim upon you give me a moment gentlemen it is very unexpected i am afraid the doctor would never consent to my going in fact i am sure that he would not but he need never know not before the fight at we are not bound to give the name of our man so long as he is within the weight limits on the day of the fight that is all that concerns anyone the adventure and the profit would either of them have attracted the two combined were irresistible the master	4
io gentlemen said he i ll do it the three sprang from their seats the had seized his right hand the horse dealer his left and the him on the back good lad good lad the eh mon but if thou him thou ll rise in one day from being just a common doctor to the best known mon here and thou art a thou art and no mistake and if thou beat the master of thou ll find all the beer thou want for the rest of thy life waiting for thee at the four it is the most sporting thing i ever heard of in my life said young by george sir if you pull it off you ve got the in your pocket if you care to stand you know the in my garden next the road exactly i turned it into a for ted you ll find all you want there clubs bars dumb bells everything then you ll want a partner has been acting for but we don t think that he is class enough bears you no grudge he s a good hearted fellow though with strangers he looked upon you as a stranger this morning but he says he knows you now he is quite ready to with you for practice and he will come at any hour you will name thank you i will let you know the hour said and so the committee departed upon their way the medical assistant sat for a little time in the turning it over in his mind he had been trained originally at the university by the man who had been i the green flag etc middle weight in his day it was true that his teacher was long past his prime dow upon his feet and stiff in his joints but even so he was still a tough but had found at last that he more than hold his own with him he had won the university and his teacher who had trained so many students was emphatic in his opinion that he had never had one who was in the same with him he had been to go in for the amateur but he had no particular ambition in that direction once he had put on the gloves with hammer in a at a fair and had fought three rattling rounds in which he had the worst of it but had made the prize stretch himself to the there was his whole record and was it enough to encourage him to stand up to the master of he had never heard of the master before but then he had lost touch of the ring during the last few years of hard work after all what did it matter if he won there was the money which meant so much to him if he lost it would only mean a he could take punishment without of that he was certain if there were only one chance in a hundred of pulling it off it was worth his while to attempt it dr new come from church with an prayer book in his kid hand broke in upon his meditation you don t go to service i observe mr said he coldly no sir i have had some business to detain me it is very near to my heart that my household should set a good example there are so few educated people the in this district that a great responsibility upon us if we do not live up to the highest how can we expect these poor workers to do so it is a dreadful thing to reflect that the parish takes a great deal more interest in an approaching glove fight than in their religious duties a glove fight sir said i believe that to be the correct term one of my tells me that it is the talk of the district a local a patient of ours by the way is matched against a over at i cannot understand why the law does not step in and stop so degrading an exhibition it is really a prize fight a glove fight you said i am informed that a two glove is an by which they the law and make it difficult for the police to interfere they contend for a sum of money it seems dreadful and almost incredible does it not to think that such scenes can be within a few miles of our peaceful home but you will mr that while there are such influences for us to it is very necessary that we should live up to our highest the doctor s sermon would have had more effect if the assistant had not once or twice had occasion to test his highest and come upon it at humble it is always so particularly easy to compound for sins we re most to by those we have no mind to in any case felt that of all the men concerned in such a fight spectators it is the actual who holds the strongest and most honourable position his conscience gave him no concern upon the subject en to thb green flag etc and courage are virtues not vices and is at least better than there was a little tobacco shop at the comer of the street where got his bird s eye and also his local information for the was a soul who knew everything about the affairs of the district the assistant strolled down there after tea and asked in a casual way whether the had ever heard of the master of heard of him heard of the little man could hardly articulate in his astonishment why sir he s the first mon o the district an his name s as well known in the west riding as the o t but lor sir here he stopped and among a heap of papers they	4
are a fuss about him on account o his fight wi ted and so the herald has his life an record an here it is an thou read it for the sheet of the paper which he held up was a lake of print around an of illustration the latter was a coarse wood cut of a s head and neck set in a cross barred it was a sinister but powerful face the face of a hero clean shaven strongly keen eyed with a huge jaw and an animal beneath it the long obstinate cheeks ran flush up to the narrow sinister eyes the mighty neck came down square from the ears and curved into shoulders which had lost nothing at the hands of the local artist above was written and beneath the master of thou ll find all about him there sir said the he s a he is and we re i proud to have him in the county if he broke his leg he d have been champion of england broke his leg has he yes and it set badly they ca him k behind his for is how his two legs look but his arms well if they was both to a bench as the is i wonder where the champion of england would be then take this with me said and putting the paper into his pocket he returned home it was not a cheering record which he read there the whole history of the master was given in full his many his few bom in said the provincial better known in sporting circles as the master of is now in his year hang it i m only twenty three said to himself and read on more cheerfully having in his youth shown a surprising for the game he fought his way up among his comrades until he became the recognised champion of the district and won the proud title which he still holds ambitious of a more than local fame he secured a patron and fought his first fight against jack of in may at the old who fought at ten stone two at the time had the better of fifteen rattling rounds and gained an oh points against the having disposed of james of of and a youth named he was thought so highly of by the fancy that he was matched against at that time middle weight champion of the north of england and the green flag defeated him in a hard fought battle knocking him out in the tenth round after a contest at this period it looked as if the very highest honours of the ring were within the reach of the young but he was laid upon the shelf by a most unfortunate accident the kick of a horse broke his and for a year he was compelled to rest himself when he returned to his work the had set badly and his activity was much it was owing to this that he was defeated in seven rounds by the man whom he had previously beaten and afterwards by james of london though the latter acknowledged that he had found the customer of his career by his the master adapted the style of his fighting to his physical and resumed his career of victory the black and the latter a heavy weight two stone he fought a draw with the famous and afterwards for a purse of fifty pounds he defeated sam hare at the club london in a decision was given against him upon a foul when fighting a winning fight against j the middle weight and so was he by the decision that he withdrew from the ring since then he has hardly fought at all save to accommodate any local who may wish to learn the difference between a bar room scramble and a scientific contest the latest of these ambitious souls comes from the coal which have undertaken to put up a stake of and back their local champion there are various afloat as to who their is to be the name of ted being mentioned but the the master ii which is seven to one on the master against any man is a fair reflection of the feeling of the community read it over twice and it left him with a very serious face no light matter this which he had undertaken no battle with a rough and tumble who upon a local reputation the man s record showed that he was first or nearly so there were a few points in his favour and he must make the most of them there was age twenty three against forty there was an old ring proverb that youth will be served but the annals of the ring offer a great number of exceptions a hard full of cool and ring craft could give ten or fifteen years and a beating to most he could not rely too much upon his advantage in age but then there was the that must count for a great deal and lastly there was the that the master might his opponent that he might be in his training and refuse to abandon his usual way of life if he thought that he had an easy task before him in a man of his age and habits this seemed very possible prayed that it might be so meanwhile if his opponent were the best man who ever jumped the ropes into a ring his own duty was dear he must prepare himself carefully throw away no chance and do the very best that he could but he knew enough to the difference which exists in as in every sport between the amateur and the professional the coolness the power of above all the of taking punishment count for so much those like of the hardened will take without a blow which would n greek flag	4
etc leave another man on the ground such things are not to be acquired in a week but all that could be done in a week should be done the medical assistant had a good basis to start from he was feet inches tall enough for anything on two legs as the old ring men used to say and spare with the activity of a and a strength which had hardly yet ever found its his muscular development was finely hard but his power came rather from that higher nerve energy which counts for nothing upon a measuring he had the well curved nose and the widely opened eye which never yet were seen upon the face of a and behind everything he had the driving force whidi came from the knowledge that his whole career was at stake upon the contest the three rubbed their hands when they saw at work the ball in the next morning and the who had written to to hedge his sent a wire to the letter and to lay another fifty at the market price of seven to one s chief difficulty was to find time for his training without any interference from the doctor his work took him a large part of the day but as the visiting was done on foot and considerable distances had to be traversed it was a training in itself for the rest he the swinging ball and worked with the for an hour every morning and evening and twice a day with ted in the gaining as much profit as could be got from a rushing two handed was full of admiration for his cleverness and quickness but doubtful about his strength hard the was the feature of his own style and he it from others lord sir that s a poor for an man he would cry thou wilt have to hit harder than that afore t master will know that thou art ah s better mon s fine i he would add as his opponent lifted him across the room on the end of a right counter s how i likes to feel em happen thou lt pull through yet he chuckled with joy when knocked him into a comer eh mon thou art along grand thou hast fair me off my do it again lad do it again the only part of s training which came within the doctor s observation was his diet and that puzzled him considerably you will excuse my remarking mr that you are becoming rather particular in tastes such are not to be encouraged in one s youth why do you eat toast with every meal i find that it suits me better than bread sir it unnecessary work upon the cook i observe also that you have turned against potatoes yes sir i think that i am better without them and you no longer drink your beer no sir these and fancies are very much to be mr consider how many there are to whom these very potatoes and this very beer would be most acceptable no doubt sir but at present i prefer to do without them they were sitting alone at lunch and the assistant the green etc thought that it would be a good opportunity of asking leave for the day of the fight i should be glad if you could let me have leave for saturday doctor it is very inconvenient upon so busy a day i should do a double day s work on friday so as to leave everything in order i should hope to be back in the evening i am afraid i cannot spare you mr this was a if he could not get leave he would go it you will remember doctor that when i came to you it was understood that i should have a dear day every month i have never claimed one but now there are reasons why i wish to have a holiday upon saturday doctor gave in with a very bad grace of course if you insist upon your formal rights there is no more to be said mr though i feel that it shows a certain indifference to my comfort and the welfare of the practice do you still insist yes sir very good have your way the doctor was boiling over with anger but was a valuable assistant steady capable and hard working and he could not afford to lose him even if he had been prompted to advance those class for which his assistant had appealed it would have been against his interests to do so for he did not wish him to and he desired him to remain in his subordinate position in which he worked so hard for so small a there was something in the cool of the master the young man a quiet resolution in his voice as he claimed his saturday which aroused his curiosity i have no desire to interfere with your affairs mr but were you thinking of having a day in upon saturday no sir in the country yes sir you are very wise you will find a quiet day among the wild flowers a very valuable had you thought of any particular direction i am going over way well there is no prettier country when once you are past the iron works what could be more delightful than to lie upon the in the sunshine with perhaps some instructive and book as your companion i should recommend a visit to the ruins of st s church a very interesting of the early era by the way there is one objection which i see to your going to on saturday it is upon that date as i am informed that that glove fight takes place you may find yourself by the whom it will attract i will take my chance of that sir said the assistant on the	4
friday night which was the last before the fight s three assembled in the and their man as he went through some light exercises to keep his muscles he was certainly in splendid condition his skin shining with health and his eyes with energy and confidence the three walked round him and he s simply said the by the flag etc you ve come out of it splendidly you re as hard as a and fit to fight for your life happen he s a trifle on the fine side said the runs a bit light at the to my way of what weight to day ten stone eleven the assistant answered that s only three off in a week s said the he said right when he said that he was in condition well it s fine stuff all there is of it but i m none so sure as there is enough he kept his finger into as if he were one of his horses i hear that the master will scale a sixty odd at the ring side but there s some of that which he d like well to pull off and leave behind wi his shirt said i hear they ve had a rare job to get him to drop his beer and if it had not been for that great red headed of his they d never ha done it she fair the face off a that had brought him a firom t they say the is his partner as well as his sweetheart and that his poor wife is just her heart over it young un what do you want the door of the had opened and a lad about sixteen and black with and iron stepped into the yellow glare of the oil lamp ted seized him by the collar see here thou this is private and we want o thy but i speak to mr the young stepped forward well my lad what is it j the master it s t fight mr sir i wanted to tell your mon t we ve no time to listen to gossip my boy we know all about the master but thou sir nobody knows but me and mother and we thought as we d like thy mon to know sir for we want him to fair him oh you want the master fair do you so do we well what have you to say is this your mon sir well suppose it is then it s him i want to tell it t is blind o the left eye nonsense it s true sir not stone blind but rarely he keeps it secret but mother knows and so do i if thou slip him on the left side he can t thee thou ll find it right as i tell thee and mark him when he sinks his right tis his best blow his right upper cut t s they ca it at t works it s a blow when it do come home thank you my boy this is information worth having about his sight said how came you to know so much who are you i m his son sir whistled and who sent you to us my mother i get back to her again take this half crown no sir i don t seek money in here i do it suggested the i the green flag etc i for hate said the boy and darted off darkness seems to me t red headed may do him more harm than good after all remarked the and now mr sir you ve done enough for this an a nine hours sleep is the best before a battle happen this time to morrow night you ll be safe back again with your in your pocket work was struck at one o clock at the coal and the iron works and the fight was arranged for three from the firom s coal from the from the mills from the the workmen came each with his fox or his at his heels with labour and twisted by toil bent double by week long work in the cramped coal galleries or half blinded with years spent in front of white hot metal these men still gilded their harsh and hopeless lives by their devotion to sport it was their one relief the only thing which could their minds from sordid surroundings and give them an interest beyond the blackened circle which them literature art science all these things were beyond their horizon but the race the match the the fight these were things which they could understand which they could upon in advance and comment upon afterwards sometimes brutal sometimes grotesque the love of sport is still one of the great which make for the happiness of the our people it lies very deeply in the springs of our nature and when it has been educated out a higher more refined nature may be left but it will not be of that robust british type which has left its mark so deeply on the world every one of these workers with his dog at his heels to see something of the fight was a true of his race it was a may day with bright and driving showers worked all morning in the getting his medicine made up the weather seems so very unsettled mr remarked the doctor that i am inclined to think that you had better your little country excursion until a later date i am afraid that i must go to day sir i have just had an intimation that mrs at the other side of wishes to see me it is probable that i shall be there all day it will be extremely inconvenient to leave the house empty so long i am very sorry sir but i must go said the assistant the doctor saw that it would be useless	4
crumbling and forlorn with the light shining through the squares that s the old s factory that s where the fight is to be said how are you feeling now thank you i was never better in my life answered by i like your nerve said who was himself flushed and uneasy you ll give us a fight for om money come what may that place on the right is the office and that has been set aside as the dressing and weighing room the carriage drove up to it amidst the shouts of the folk upon the lines of empty carriages and traps curved down upon the winding road and a black crowd round the door of the ruined factory the seats as a huge announced were five shillings three shillings and a shilling with half price for dogs the expenses were to go to the and it was already evident that a larger stake the green flag etc than a hundred pounds was in question a of voices rose from the door the workers wished to bring their dogs in free the men the dogs the crowd was a whirling pool with a roar up to the narrow which was its only outlet the break with its salmon coloured and four horses stood empty before the door of the office and passed in there was a large bare room inside with square dean patches upon the walls where pictures and had once hung worn covered the floor but there was no furniture save some benches and a deal table with a and a basin upon it two of the corners were off in the middle of the room was a weighing chair a fat man with a salmon tie and a blue waistcoat with birds eye spots came bustling up to them it was the butcher and well known for miles round as a warm man and the most liberal patron of sport in the riding well well he in a thick voice you have come then got your man got your man here he is fit and well mr let me present you to mr glad to meet you sir happy to make your i make bold to say sir that we of admire your courage mr and that our only hope is a fair fight and no favour and the best man win that s our sentiment at and it is my sentiment also said the assistant well you can t say fairer than that mr you ve taken a large in hand but a large con the master j may be carried through sir as anyone that knows my dealings could testify the master is ready to weigh in i so am l you must weigh in the looked at the tall red headed woman who was standing gazing out of the window that s all right said get behind the curtain and put on your fighting he did so and came out the picture of an in white loose drawers canvas shoes and the of a well known round his waist he was trained to a hair his skin gleaming like silk and every muscle rippling down his broad shoulders and along arms as he moved them they into ivory or slid into long curves as he raised or lowered his hands what thou o that asked ted his second of the woman in the window she glanced contemptuously at the young it s but a poor kindness thou dost him to put a thread paper gentleman like yon against a mon as is a mon why my would him wi one lashed behind happen he may happen not said i have but in the world but it s on him every penny and no but here s t and rarely fine he do look the prize had come out fi om his curtain a formidable figure monstrous in chest and arms slightly on his distorted leg his skin had none of the freshness and clearness of s but was dusky and with one huge amid the mat of the green flag etc tangled black hair which his mighty breast his weight bore no relation to his strength for those huge shoulders and great arms with brown hammer fists would have fitted the heaviest man that ever threw his cap into a ring but his and legs were slight in proportion on the other hand was as as a greek statue it would be an encounter between a man who was specially fitted for one sport and one who was equally capable of any the two looked curiously at each other a and a dean each full of spirit how do you do how do the master grinned again and his three jagged front teeth gleamed for an instant the rest had been beaten out of him in twenty years of battle he upon the floor we have a rare fine day for t capital said that s the good i like the fat butcher good lads both of them prime lads hard meat an good bone there s no ill if he downs me bless said the master an if we down him interrupted the woman thy tongue said the master impatiently who art thou to put in thy word happen i might draw my hand across thy face the woman did not take the threat amiss wilt have enough for thy hand to do said she get quit o this man afore thou turn on me the lovers was interrupted by the entrance of a a gentleman with a fur overcoat and a very shiny top hat a top hat of a degree of the which is seen five miles from park this hat he wore at the extreme back of his head so that the lower surface of the brim made a kind of frame for his high bald forehead his keen eyes his rugged and yet	4
kindly face he in with the quiet air of possession with which the ring master enters the it s mr the from london said how do you do mr i was introduced to you at the big fight at the club in ah i said the other shaking hands fact is i m introduced to so many that i can t undertake to carry their names is it well mr glad to see you couldn t get a fly at the station and s why i m late i m sure sir said we should be proud that anyone so well known in the world should come down to little exhibition not at all not at all anything in the interests of all ready men weighed weighing now sir ah just as well i should see it done seen you before saw you fight second battle against you had beaten him once but he came back on you what does the say one hundred and sixty three pounds two off for tiie one hundred and sixty one now my lad you jump my goodness what colours are you wearing the club what right have you to wear them i belong to the myself flag i the green flag etc so do i you an amateur yes sir and you are fighting for a money prize yes i suppose you know what you are doing you that you re a professional from this and that if ever you fight again i ll never fight again happen you won t said the woman and the master turned a terrible eye upon her well i suppose you know your own business best up you jump one and one two one hundred and forty nine twelve difference but youth and condition on the other scale well the sooner we get to work the better for i wish to catch the seven o clock express at twenty rounds with one minute intervals and rules those are the conditions are they not yes sir very good then we may go across the two had thrown over their shoulders and the whole party seconds and the filed out of the room a police was waiting for them in the road he had a in his hand that terrible weapon which even the london i must take your names gentlemen in case it should be necessary to proceed for breach of peace you mean to stop the fight cried in a passion of indignation i m mr of the master i i and this is mr and we l be responsible that all is fair and as it should be i ll take the names in case it should be necessary to proceed said the but you know me well if you was a or even a judge it would be all the same said the it s the law and there s an end i ll not take upon myself to stop the fight seeing that gloves are to be used but i ll take the names of all concerned robert edward james of london who seconds i do said the woman yes you can stare but if s my job and no one else s s the name four a s johnson johnson if you him you can me who talked of ye fool growled the master on mr for i m fair sick o this the fell in with the procession and proceeded as they walked up the hill to bargain in his official capacity for a front seat where he could the interests of the law and in his private capacity to lay out thirty shillings at seven to one with mr through the door they passed down a narrow lane walled with a dense bank of humanity up a wooden ladder to a platform over a rope which was from comer and then that he was in that ring in which his immediate destiny was to be worked out on the stake at one comer there hung a blue and white led him across the overcoat dangling loosely from his shoulders and he green flag etc sat down on a wooden stool and another man both wearing white stood beside him the so called ring was a square twenty feet each way at the opposite angle was the sinister figure of the master with his red headed woman and a rough faced friend to look him at each comer were metal of water and during the and uproar of the entrance was too bewildered to take things in but now there was a few minutes delay for the had lingered behind and so he looked quietly about him it was a sight to haunt him for a lifetime wooden seats had been built in sloping upwards to the tops of the walls above instead of a ceiling a great flight of passed slowly across a square of grey cloud right up to the benches the folk were in fix nt aud behind faces turned everywhere upon him the grey of the pipes filled the building and the air was with the smell of cheap strong tobacco everywhere among the human faces were to be seen the heads of the dogs they growled and from the back benches in that dense mass of humanity one could hardly pick out individuals but s eyes caught the brazen gleam of the held upon the knees of the ten of his escort at the very edge of the platform sat the five of them three and two all the way from london but where was the all important there was no sign of him unless he were in the centre of that angry of men near the door mr had stopped to examine the gloves which were to be used and entered the building after master the he had started to come down that narrow lane with the human	4
walls which led to the ring but already it had gone abroad that the champion was a gentleman and that another gentleman had been appointed as a wave of suspicion passed through the folk they would have one of their own people for a they would not have a stranger his path was stopped as he made for the ring excited men flung themselves in front of him they waved their fists in his face and cursed him a woman howled vile names in his ear somebody struck at him with an umbrella go thou back to we want o thee go thou they with his shiny hat cocked backwards and his large forehead swelling from under it looked round him from beneath his brows he was in the centre of a savage and dangerous mob then he drew his watch from his pocket and held it dial upwards in his palm in three minutes said he i will declare the fight off they raged round him his cool face and that top hat irritated them hands were raised but it was difficult somehow to strike a man who was so absolutely indifferent in two minutes i declare the fight off they exploded into the breath of angry men smoked into his placid face a fist at the end of his nose we tell thee we want o thee get thou back where thou com st from in one minute i declare the fight off then the calm of the man conquered the swaying passionate crowd the green flag etc let him through mon happen there ll be no fight after let him through bill thou let him pass dost want the fight declared off make room for the room for the and half pushed half carried he was swept up to the ring there were two chairs by the side of it one for him and one for the he sat down his hands on his knees his hat at a more wonderful angle than ever but solemn with the aspect of one who his mr the butcher made his way into the ring and held up two fat hands sparkling with rings as a signal for silence gentlemen he and then in a shriek gentlemen and ladies cried somebody for indeed there was a fair of women among the crowd speak up man shouted another what price pork cried somebody at the back everybody laughed and the dogs began to bark waved his hands amidst the uproar as if he were conducting an at last the into silence gentlemen he the match is between whom we call the master of and robert of the coal the match was to be under eleven eight when they were weighed just now weighed eleven seven and ten nine the conditions of the contest are the best of twenty three minute rounds with two gloves should the master the fight run to its full length it will of course be decided upon points mr the well known london has kindly consented to see fair play i wish to say that mr and i the chief of the two men have every confidence in mr and that we beg that you will accept his without dispute he then turned from one to the other with a wave of his hand said he a great hush fell over the huge assembly even the dogs stopped one might have thought that the monstrous room was empty the two men had stood up the small white gloves over their hands they advanced from their comers and shook hands gravely with a smile then they fell into position the f d gave a long sigh the of a thousand excited the his chair on to its back legs and looked critical from the one to the other it was strength against activity that was evident from the first the master stood upon his k leg it gave him a tremendous one could hardly imagine his being knocked down and he could round upon it with extraordinary quickness but his advance or retreat was his frame however was so much larger and broader than that of the student and his brown massive face looked so resolute and menacing that the hearts of the party sank within them the green flag etc there was one heart however which had not done so it was that of robert any which he may have had completely passed away now that he had his work before him here was definite this hard faced to beat with a career as the price of beating he glowed with the joy of action it thrilled through his nerves he faced his man with little in and out steps breaking to the breaking to the right feeling his way while with a dull malignant eye slowly upon his weak leg his left arm half extended his right sunk low across the mark led with his left and then led again getting lightly home each time he tried again but the master had his counter ready and back from a harder blow than he had given the woman gave a shrill cry of and her man let fly his right under it and in an instant the two were in each other s arms break away break away said tiie the master struck upwards on the break and shook with the blow then it was time it had been a spirited opening round the people into comment and applause was quite fresh but the hairy of the master was rising and falling the man passed a over his head while the before him good good cried the crowd and cheered her the men were up again the master grimly as alert as a the master tried a sudden rush along with his awkward gait but coming faster one would think the student the master i slipped aside and avoided him	4
the master stopped grinned and shook his head then he with his hand as an invitation to to come to him the student did so and led with his but got a swinging right counter in the ribs in exchange the heavy blow staggered him and the master came in to complete his advantage but with his greater activity kept out of danger the call of time a tame round and the advantage with the master t s too strong for him said a to his ay but t other s a likely lad happen we ll see some sport yet he can rarely but t can stop and hit rarely happen he ll him when he gets his upon him they were up again the water glistening upon their faces led instantly and got his right home with a sounding upon the master s forehead there was a shout from the and silence order from the avoided the counter and with his left fresh applause and the upon his feet in indignation no comments gentlemen if j ou please during the rounds just bide a bit growled the master don t talk fight said the angrily rubbed in the point by a flush hit upon the mouth and the master back to his comer like an angry bear having had all the worst of the round where s seven to one shouted the i ll take six to one there were no the green flag etc five to one there were at that them in a tattered began to feel happy he lay back with his legs outstretched his back against the comer post and one hand upon each rope what a delicious minute it was between round if he could only keep out of harm s way he must surely wear this man out before the end of rounds he was so slow that all his strength went for nothing you re a fight a fight ted whispered in his ear go no chances you have him proper but the master was he had fought so many battles with his limb that he knew how to make the best of it and slowly he round stepping forward and yet again forward until he had backed him into his comer the student suddenly saw a flash of triumph upon the face and a gleam in the dull malignant eyes the master was upon him he sprang aside was on the ropes the master smashed in one of his terrible and half broke it with his guard the student sprang the other way and was against the other rope he was in the angle the master sent in another with a which spoke of the energy behind it but got a from the left upon the mark he closed with his man break away break away cried the disengaged and got a swinging blow on the ear as he did so it had been a round for him and the people were shouting their delight gentlemen i will have this noise the master roared i have been accustomed to at a and not at a bear garden this little man the hat and the forehead the whole assembly he was like a among his boys he glared round him and nobody cared to meet his eye had kissed the master when he resumed his seat good do t again cried the laughing crowd and the angry master shook his glove at her as she her in front of him was weary and a little sore but not depressed he had learned something he would not again be tempted into danger for three rounds the honours were fairly equal the s was the quicker the master s the harder by his lesson kept himself in the open and refused to be into a comer sometimes the master succeeded in rushing him to the side ropes but the younger man slipped away or closed and then disengaged the monotonous break break away of the broke in upon the quick low of rubber shoes the dull of the blows and the sharp hissing breath of two tired men the ninth round found both of them in fairly good condition s head was still singing from the blow that he had in the comer and one of his pained him and seemed to be the master showed no sign of a touch but his breathing was the more and a long line of upon the s paper showed that the student had a good show of points but one of this iron man s blows was worth three of his and be knew that without the gloves he the green etc could not have stood for three rounds him all the amateur work that he had done was the merest tapping and flapping when compared to those frightful blows from arms by the and the it was the tenth round and the fight was half over the now was only three to one for the champion had held his own much better than had been expected but those who knew the as well as the staying power of the old prize knew that the odds were still a long way in his have a care of him whispered as he sent his man up to the scratch have a he ll play thee a trick if he can but saw or imagined he saw that his was he looked and and his hands drooped a little from their position his own youth and condition were beginning to tell he sprang in and brought off a fine handed lead the master s return lacked his usual fire again led and again he got home then he tried his right upon the mark and the master guarded it downwards too low too low a foul a foul a thousand voices the rolled his eyes slowly seems to me this is full of said he	4
the people laughed and applauded but their favour was as to him as their anger no applause please this is not a theatre he was very pleased with himself his adversary was evidently in a bad way he was on bis points and a lead he might as well the make hay while the sun shone the master was looking all abroad one upon his blue and got away without a return and then the master suddenly dropped both his hands and began rubbing his ah i that was it was it he had muscular go in go in cried sprang wildly forward and the next instant was lying half senseless with his neck nearly broken in the middle of the ring the whole round had been a long conspiracy to tempt him within reach of one of those terrible upper cuts for which the master was famous for this the weary bearing for this the in the when had sprang in so hotly he had exposed himself to such a blow as neither flesh nor blood could stand l up from with a rigid arm which put the master s eleven stone into its force it struck him under the jaw he whirled half round and fell a helpless and half mass a vague groan and inarticulate too for words rose from the great audience with open mouths and staring eyes they gazed at the and quivering figure stand back stand right back shrieked the for the master was standing over his ready to give him the de as he rose stand back this instant repeated the master sank his hands and walked backwards to the rope with his ferocious eyes fixed upon his fallen the called the seconds if ten of them passed before rose to his feet the fight was ended ted wrung his hands and danced about in an agony in his comer the green flag etc as if in a dream a terrible nightmare the student could hear the voice of the three four five he got up on his hand six seven he was on his knee sick swimming faint but resolute to rise eight he was up and the master was cm him like a tiger savagely at him with both hands folk held their breath as watched those terrible blows and anticipated the pitiful end so much more pitiful where a game but helpless man refuses to accept defeat strangely is the human brain without without effort there shot into the memory of this bewildered staggering half man the one thing which could have saved him that blind eye of which the master s son had spoken it was the same as the other to look at but remembered that he had said that it was the left he to the left side half by a drive which lit upon his shoulder the master round upon his leg and was at him in an instant him him screamed the woman hold tongue said the slipped to the left again and yet again but the master was too quick and clever for him he struck round and got him on the face as he tried once more to break away s knees weakened under him and he fell with a groan on the floor this time he knew that he was done with bitter agony he as he blindly with his hands that he could not possibly raise himself far away and he heard amid die murmurs of the multitude the voice of the counting off the seconds one three four five six the master time said the then the pent up passion of the great assembly broke loose gave a deep groan of disappointment the were on their feet yelling delight there was still a chance for them in four more seconds their man would have been solemnly counted out but now he had a minute in which to recover the looked round with relaxed features and laughing eyes he loved this rough game this school for humble heroes and it was pleasant to him to as a ex at so dramatic a moment his chair and his hat were both at an extreme angle he and the smiled at each other ted and the other second had rushed out and thrust an arm each under s knee the other behind his and so carried him back to stool his head upon his shoulder but a of cold water sent a shiver through him and he started and looked round him he s a right cried the people round he s a rare brave lad good lad good lad poured some brandy into his mouth the mists a little and he where he was and what he had to do but he was still very weak and he hardly dared to hope that he could another round seconds out of the ring cried the time the master sprang eagerly off his stool keep clear of him go easy for a bit said and walked out to meet his man once more he had had two lessons the one when the master got him into his comer the other when he had been into mixing it up with so powerful an now he would be wary another blow would finish green flag etc him he could afford to run no risks the master was determined to follow up his advantage and rushed at him furiously right and left but was too young and active to be caught he was strong upon his legs once more and his wits had all come back to him it was a gallant sight the line of tr ring to pour its overwhelming into the and the always so as to avoid it the master tried all his ring craft he the student up by pretended he rushed at him	4
with furious rushes towards the ropes for three rounds he exhausted every in trying to get at him during all this time was conscious that his strength was minute by minute coming back to him the jar from an upper cut is overwhelming but he was losing all sense of it beyond a great of the neck for the first round his he had been content to be entirely on the only too happy if he could stall off the furious attacks of the master in the second he occasionally ventured upon a light counter in the third he was back merrily where he saw an opening his people their approval of him at the end of every round even the iron workers cheered him with that fine which true sport to most of them and the sight of this clean young rising above disaster and holding on while consciousness was in him to his appointed task was the greatest thing their experience had ever known but the master s naturally temper became more and more at this of his hopes three rounds ago the battle had been in his hands the master now it was all to do over again round by round his man was recovering his strength by the he was strong again in wind and limb but the saw something which encouraged her that in t ribs is telling on him she whispered why else should he be t brandy go in lad and thou hast him yet had suddenly taken the from s hand and had a deep pull at the contents then with his face a little flushed and with a curious look of purpose which made the stare hard at him in his eyes he rose for the sixteenth round game as a cried the as he looked at the hard set face mix it lad mix it cried the iron men to their master and then a hum of exultation ran through their ranks as they that their harder stronger man held the after all neither of the men showed much sign of punishment small gloves crush and but they do not cut one of the master s eyes was even more flush with his cheek than nature had made it had two or three livid marks upon his body and his face was haggard save for that pink spot which the brandy had brought into either cheek he rocked a little as he stood opposite his man and his hands drooped as if he felt the gloves to be an unutterable weight it was evident that he was spent and desperately weary if he received one other blow it must surely be fatal to him if he brought one home what power could there be behind it and what chance was there of its the in front of flag the green etc him it was the crisis of the fight this round must decide it mix it lad mix it the even the savage eyes of the were unable to restrain the excited crowd now at last the chance had come for he had learned a lesson from his more experienced rival why should he not play his own game upon him he was spent but not nearly so spent as he pretended that brandy was to call up his to let him have strength to take full advantage of the opening when it came it was thrilling and through his veins at the very moment when he was and rocking like a beaten man he acted his part admirably the master felt that there was an easy task before him and rushed in with activity to finish it once for all he away left and right up against the ropes swinging in his ferocious blows with animal which told of the vicious energy behind them but was too cool to fall a victim to any of those upper cuts he kept out of harm s way with a rigid guard an active foot and a head which was swift to duck and yet he contrived to present the same appearance of a man who is hopelessly done the master weary from his own shower of blows and fearing nothing from so weak a man dropped his hand for an instant and at that instant s right came home it was a magnificent blow straight dean crisp with the force of the and the back behind it and it landed where he had meant it to upon the exact point ot that blue chin flesh and blood could not stand such a blow in such a place neither nor can save the man to whom it comes the the master master fell backwards flat prostrate striking the ground with so a clap that it was like a falling from a wall a yell which no could control broke from the crowded benches as the giant went down he lay upon his back his knees a little drawn up his huge chest panting he aiid shook but could not move his feet once or twice it was no use he was done eight nine ten said the and the roar of a thousand voices with a clap like the of a ship told that the master of was the master no more stood half dazed looking down at the huge prostrate figure he could hardly that it was indeed all over he saw the motion towards him with his hand he heard his name in triumph from every side and then he was aware of rushing towards him he caught a glimpse of a flushed face and an of flying red hair a fist struck him between the eyes and he was on his back in the ring beside his while a dozen of his were endeavouring to secure the frantic he heard the angry shouting of the the screaming of the furious woman and the cries of	4
the mob then something seemed to break like an string and he sank into the deep deep mist abyss of the dressing was like a thing in a and so was a vision of the master with the grin of a upon his face and his three teeth he shook heartily by the hand i would have been rare pleased to shake thee by the lad a short while said he but i the green flag etc bear no ill again thee it was a rare that brought me down i have not had a better since my second light wi in h q pen thou might think o goin further wi this business if thou dost and want a there s not much inside t ropes as i don t know or happen thou might like to try it wi me old style and bare thou hast but to write to t to find me but any such ambition a canvas bag with his share one hundred and ninety sovereigns was handed to him of which he gave ten to the master who also received some share of the then with young him on one side on the other and carrying his bag behind he went in triumph to his carriage and drove amid a long roar which lined the highway like a hedge for the seven miles back to his starting point it s the greatest thing i ever saw in my life by george it s cried who had been left in a kind of ecstasy by the events of the day there s a chap over way who fancies himself a bit let us spring you on him and let him see what he can make of you we ll put up a purse won t we you shall never want a at his weight said the i m behind him i for twenty rounds and no age country or colour barred so am i cried middle weight champion of the world that s what he is here in the same carriage with us but was not to be no i have my own work to do now the master and what may that be i ll use this money to get my medical degree well we ve plenty of doctors but you re the only man in the riding that could the master off his legs however i suppose you know your own business best when you re a doctor you d best come down into these parts and you ll always find a job waiting for you at the coal had returned by ways to the the horses were smoking at the door and the doctor was just back from his long journey several had called in his absence and he was in the worst of suppose i should be glad that you have come back at all mr he when next you elect to take a holiday i trust it will not be at so busy a time i am sorry sir that you should have been yes sir i have been exceedingly here for the first time he looked hard at the assistant good heavens mr what have you been doing with your eye it was where had lodged her protest laughed it is nothing sir said he and you have a livid mark under your jaw it is indeed terrible that my representative should be going about in so a condition how did you receive these injuries well sir as you know there was a little glove fight to day over at and you got mixed up with that brutal crowd the flag etc i was rather mixed up with them and who you one of the which of them the master of good heavens perhaps you interfered with him well to tell the truth i did a little mr in such a practice as mine intimately associated as it is with the highest and most elements of our small community it is impossible but just then the of a player searching for his upon their ears and an instant later the brass band was in full cry with see the conquering hero comes outside the window there was a banner waving and a shouting crowd of what is it what does it mean cried the angry doctor it means sir that i have in the only way which was open to me earned the money which is necessary for my education it is my duty doctor to warn you that i am about to return to the university and that you should lose no time in my successor the it was in the when france s power was already broken upon the seas and when more of her three lay in the than were to be found in harbour but her and still the ocean closely followed ever by those of her rival at the ends of the earth these dainty vessels with sweet names of girls or of flowers and shattered each other for the honour of the four yards of which from the end of their it had blown hard in the night but the wind had dropped with the dawning and now the rising sun tinted the fringe of the storm as it into the west and on the endless of the long green waves to north and south and west lay a which was unbroken save by the of foam when two of the great atlantic seas dashed each other into spray to the east was a rocky island out into points with a few scattered of palm trees and a of mist streaming out from the bare hill which it a heavy surf beat upon the shore and at a safe distance from it the british gun captain a p johnson raised her black glistening side upon the crest of a wave or down into an valley dipping away	4
to the nor ard under easy the green flag etc sail on her snow white quarter deck stood a stiff lit brown faced man who swept the horizon with his glass mr he cried with a voice like a rusty a thin knock officer across the to him yes sir i ve opened the sealed orders mr a glimmer of curiosity shone upon the meagre features of the first lieutenant the had sailed with her the firom the week before and the admiral s orders had been contained in a sealed envelope we were to open them on reaching the deserted island of lying in north latitude eighteen west sixty three twenty eight bore four miles to the north east from our port bow when the gale cleared mr the lieutenant bowed he and the captain had been bosom friends from childhood they had gone to school together joined the navy together fought again and again together and married into each other s families but so long as their feet were on the the iron discipline of the service struck all that was human out of them and left only the superior and the subordinate captain johnson took from his pocket a blue paper which as he unfolded it the gun and captains a p johnson and james are to m the point at which these instructions are read to the mouth of the sea in the hope of the french la which has recently harassed our merchant ships in that quarter h m are also the directed to hunt down the craft known sometimes as the and sometimes as the hairy which has the british ships as per margin upon their she is a small carrying ten light guns with one twenty four pound forward she was last seen upon the rd to the north east of the island of signed james rear a h m s we appear to have lost our said captain johnson folding up his instructions and again sweeping the with his glass she drew away after we down it would be a pity if we met this heavy frenchman without the mr eh the lieutenant and smiled she has on the main and on the sir said the captain she carries four hundred to our two hundred and thirty one captain de is the man in the french service oh boy give my hopes of my flag to rub my side up against her he turned on his heel ashamed of his momentary lapse mr said he looking back sternly over his shoulder get those square sails shaken out and bear away a point more to the west a on the port bow came a voice from the a on the port bow said the lieutenant the captain sprang upon the and held on by the a strange little figure with flying skirts and eyes the lean lieutenant green flag etc his neck and whispered to the second while officers and men came up from below and clustered along the weather rail eyes with their hands for the tropical sim was already dear of the the strange lay at anchor in the throat of a and it was already obvious that she could not get out without passing under the guns of the a long rocky point to the north of her held her in keep her as she goes mr said the captain hardly worth while our clearing for action mr but the men can stand by the guns in case she tries to pass us cast loose the bow and send the men to the a british crew went to its quarters in those days with the quiet serenity of men on their daily routine in a few minutes without fuss or sound the sailors were knotted round their guns the were drawn up and leaning on their and the s pointed straight for her little victim is it the sir i have no doubt of it mr they don t seem to like the look of us sir the r ve cut their cable and are clapping on sail it was evident that the meant struggling for her freedom one little patch of canvas fluttered out above another and her people could be seen working like in the she made no attempt to pass her but headed up the the captain rubbed his hands she s making for water mr and we shall have to cut her out sir she s a little the but i should have thought a fore and after would have been more handy it was a sir ah indeed yes sir i heard of it at a bad business sir captain and two mates murdered this or hairy as they call him led the he s a sir and a cruel villain as ever walked his next walk will be to execution dock mr she seems heavily i wish i could take twenty out of her but they would be enough to corrupt the crew of the ark mr both officers were looking through their glasses at the suddenly the lieutenant showed his teeth in a grin while the captain flushed a deeper red that s hairy on the after rail sir the low impertinent he ll play some other before we are done with him could you reach him with the long eighteen mr another cable length will do it sir the as they spoke and as she came round a of smoke out from her quarter it was a pure piece of for the gun could scarce carry then with a swing the little ship came into the wind again and shot round a fresh curve in the winding channel the water s rapidly sir repeated the second lieutenant there s six by the four by the lead sir when we dear this point we shall see how we lie the green flag etc ha i thought as much lay her to mr	4
now we have got her at our mercy the was quite out of sight of the sea now at the head of this river like as she came round the the two shores were seen to at a point about a mile distant in the angle as near shore as she could get the was lying with her towards her and a of black cloth streaming from her the lean lieutenant who had reappeared upon deck with a to his side and two pistols into his belt peered curiously at the is it the jolly sir he asked but the captain was furious he may hang where his breeches are hanging before have done with him said he what boats will you want mr we should do it with the and the jolly boat take and make a dean job of it pipe away the at once and i ll work her in and help you with the long th a rattle of ropes and a creaking of blocks the four boats into the water their clustered thickly into them bare footed sailors stolid laughing and in the sheets of each the senior offices with their stem faces the captain his on the still watched the distant her crew were up the boarding dragging round the guns knocking new for them and making every preparation for a desperate resistance in the thick of it all a huge man bearded to the eyes with a red upon his head was the straining and stooping and the captain watched him with a sour smile and then snapping up his glass he turned upon his heel for an instant he stood staring call back the boats he cried in his thin creaking voice clear away for action there cast loose those main deck guns brace back the yards mr and stand by to go about when she has weigh enough round the curve of the was coming a huge vessel her great yellow and white winged figure head were out from the cluster of while high above them three immense with the flag floating from the she came the deep blue water under her fore foot until her long black side her line of shining copper beneath and of above and the thick of men who peered over her were all in full view her lower yards were her ports up and her guns run out all ready for action lying behind one of the of the island the men of the upon the shore had seen the de into which the british was headed so that captain de had served the as captain johnson had the but the splendid discipline of the british service was at its best in such a crisis the boats flew back their clustered aboard they were swung up at the and the fall ropes made fast were brought up and sent down ports and magazines opened the fires put out in the and the drums beat to quarters of men set the head sails and brought the round while the threw off the greek flag etc their and shirts their and ran out eighteen peering through the open at the stately frenchman the wind was very light hardly a ripple showed itself upon the dear blue water but the sails blew gently out as the breeze came over the wooded banks the frenchman had gone about also and both ships were now heading slowly for the sea under fore and aft canvas the a hundred yards in advance she up to cross the s bows but the british ship came round also and the two slowly on in such a silence that the ringing of the as the french drove home their charges quite loudly upon the ear not much sea room mr remarked the captain i have fought actions in less sir we must keep our distance and trust to our she is very heavily and if she got alongside we might find ourselves in trouble i see the of soldiers aboard of her two companies of light from now we have hard a port and let her have it as we cross her stem the keen eye of the httle commander had seen the surface ripple which told of a passing breeze he had used it to dart across the big frenchman and to her with every gun as he passed but once past her the had to come back into the wind to keep out of water the brought her on to the side of the frenchman and the trim little seemed to heel right over under the crashing which burst from the gaping ports a moment r i the later her were aloft to set her and and she strove to cross the s bows and her again the french captain however brought his s head round and the two rode side by side within easy pistol shot pouring into each other in one of those which could they all be recorded would our with blood in that heavy tropical air with so faint a breeze the smoke formed a thick bank round the two vessels from which the only neither could see an of its enemy save the of fire in the darkness and the guns were and trained and fired into a dense wall of on the and the the in two little red lines were pouring in their but neither they nor the could see what effect their fire was having nor indeed could they tell how far they were suffering themselves for standing at a gun one could but see that upon the right and the left but above the roar of the cannon came the sound of the shot the crashing of and the occasional heavy as or block came the deck the paced up and down the line of guns while captain johnson the smoke away with his cocked hat and peered eagerly out this is rare	4
said he as the lieutenant joined him then suddenly himself what have we lost mr our yard and our sir where s the flag gone overboard sir l o the green etc they ll think we ve struck lash a boat s on the arm of the cross jack yard yes sir a round shot dashed the to pieces between them a second knocked two into a bloody for a moment the smoke rose and the english captain saw that his adversary s heavier metal was producing a horrible effect the was a shattered wreck her deck was strewn with several of her were knocked into one and one of her eighteen guns had been thrown right back on to her and pointed straight up to the sky the thin line of still loaded and fired but half the guns were silent and their were piled thickly round them stand by to i the captain lads roared hold your till they touch i cried the captain of the huge loom of the frenchman was seen bursting through the smoke thick clusters of hung upon her sides and a final from her ports and the of the snapping short a few feet above the deck spun into the air and down upon the port guns killing ten men and putting the whole battery out of action an instant later the two ships scraped together and the bower anchor of the caught the chains of the upon the port side with a yell the black swarm of themselves for a spring but their feet were never to reach that blood stained deck from somewhere there came a well aimed l l of and another and another the english and waiting with and behind the silent guns saw with amazement the dark masses and away at the same time the port of the frenchman burst into a roar clear away the wreck roared the captain what the devil are they firing at get the guns panted the lieutenant we ll do them yet boys the was torn and and until first one gun and then another roared into action again the frenchman s anchor had been cut away and the had worked herself firom that fatal but now suddenly there was a up the of the and a hundred englishmen were shouting themselves hoarse they re running they re they re running and it was true the frenchman had ceased to fire and was intent only upon clapping on every sail that he could carry but that shouting hundred could not claim it all as their own as the smoke cleared it was not difficult to see the reason the ships had gained the mouth of the the fight and there about four miles out to sea was the s bearing down under full sail to the sound of the guns captain de had done his part for one day and presently the was drawing off swiftly to the north while the was along at her skirts rattling away with her bow until a hid them both from view but the lay sorely stricken with her gone her shattered her and the green flag the green flag etc shot away her sails like a beggar s rags and a hundred of her crew dead and wounded beside her a mass of floated upon the waves it was the stem post of a vessel and across it in white letters on a black ground was printed the by the lord i it was the that saved cried mr brought her into action with the frenchman and was blown out of the water by a the little captain turned on his heel and paced up and down the deck already his crew were the shot holes and and mending a he came back the lieutenant saw a softening of the stem lines about his eyes and mouth are they all gone every man they must have sunk with the wreck the two officers looked down at the sinister name and at the stump of which floated in the water something black washed to and fro beside a and a of it was the outrageous and near it a scarlet cap was floating he was a villain but he was a said the captain at last he lived like a dog but by god he died like a man the lord of it was in the days when the german armies had broken their way across france and when the shattered forces of the young republic had been swept away to the north of the and to the south of the three broad streams of armed men had rolled slowly but irresistibly from the now to the north now to the south dividing but all to form one great lake round paris and from this lake there out smaller streams one to the north one southward to and a third westward to many a german saw the sea for the first time when he rode his horse deep into the waves at black and bitter were the thoughts of when they saw this of across the fair face of their country they had fought and they had been that cavalry those countless the guns th y had tried and tried to make head against them in their were not to be beaten but man to man or ten to ten they were their equals a brave frenchman might still make a single german the day that he had left his own bank of the thus amid the battles and the there broke out another war ii rt ag etc a wax of individuals with foul murder upon the one side and brutal on the other colonel von of the th had suffered severely during this new development he in the little town of les and his stretched amid the and of the district round no french force was within fifty miles of him and yet	4
morning after morning he had to listen to a black report of found dead at their posts or of parties which had never returned then the colonel would go forth in his wrath and would blaze and villages tremble but next morning there was still that same dismal tale to be told do what he might he could not shake off his invisible enemies and yet it should not have been so hard for from certain signs in common in the plan and in the deed it was certain that all these came from a single source colonel von had tried violence and it had failed gold might be more successful he published it abroad over the that five hundred would be paid for information there was no response then eight hundred the were then on by a murdered he rose to a thousand and so bought the soul of farm whose was a stronger passion than his french hatred you say that you know who did these crimes asked the colonel with the rat faced creature before him yes colonel and it was the lord of those thousand colonel not a sou until your has been tested come who is it who has murdered my men it is count of you lie cried the colonel angrily a gentleman and a could not have done such crimes the peasant shrugged his shoulders it is evident to me that you do not know the count it is this way colonel what i tell you is the truth and i am not afraid that you should test it the count of is a hard man even at the best time he was a hard man but of late he has been terrible it was his son s death you know his son was under and he was taken and then in escaping from germany he met his death it was the count s only child and indeed we all think that it has driven him mad with his he follows the german armies i do not know how many he has killed but it is he who cuts the cross upon the for it is the of his house it was true the murdered had each had a cross across their brows as by a the colonel bent his stiff back and ran his forefinger over the map which lay upon the table the is not more than four he said three and a colonel you know the place i used to work there colonel von rang the bell give this man food and detain him said he to the the green flag etc why detain me colonel i can tell you no more we shall need you as guide as guide but the count if i were to fall into his hands ah colonel the commander waved him away send captain to me at said he the officer who answered the summons was a man of middle age heavy blue eyed with a yellow moustache and a brick red face which turned to an ivory white where his had sheltered it he was bald with a shining tightly stretched at the back of which as in a mirror it was a favourite of the to trim their as a soldier he was slow but and brave the colonel could trust him where a more dashing officer might be in danger you will proceed to to night captain said he a guide has been provided you will arrest the count and bring him back if there is an attempt at rescue shoot him at once how many men shall i take colonel well we are surrounded by and our only chance is to upon him before he knows that we are on the way a large force will attract attention oa the other hand you must not risk being cut off i might march north colonel as if to join general then i could turn down this road which i see upon your map and get to before they could hear of us in that case with twenty men very good captain i hope to see you with your prisoner to morrow morning the lord of it was a cold december night when captain marched out of les with his twenty and took the main road to the north west two miles out he turned suddenly down a narrow track and made swiftly for his man a thin cold rain was falling among the tall trees and rustling in the fields on either side the captain walked first with a beside him the s wrist was fastened to that of the french peasant and it had been whispered in his ear that in case of an the first bullet fired would be through his head behind them the twenty along through the darkness with their faces sunk to the rain and their boots in the soft wet day they knew where they were going and why and the thought them for they were bitter at the loss of their comrades it was a cavalry job they knew but the cavalry were all on with the advance and besides it was more fitting that the regiment should its own dead men it was nearly eight when they left les at half past eleven their guide stopped at a place where two high pillars crowned with some a huge iron gate the wall in which it had been the opening had away but the great gate still above the and weeds which had overgrown its base the made their way round it and advanced stealthily under the shadow of a of oak branches up the long avenue which was still by the leaves of last autumn at the top they halted and the black lay in front of them the moon the green etc had shone out between two rain clouds and threw ore old house into silver and shadow it was shaped k	4
an i with a low arched door in front and lines of small windows like the open ports of a man of war above was a dark roof breaking at the comers into little round overhanging the whole l silent in the with a drift of ragged clouds the heavens behind it a single light gleamed in one of the lower windows the captain whispered his orders to his men some were to creep to the front door some to the back some were to watch the east and some the west he and the stole on to the lighted window it was a small room into which they looked very furnished an elderly man in the dress of a was reading a tattered paper by the light of a candle he leaned back in his wooden chair with his feet upon a box while a bottle of white wine stood with a half filled upon a stool beside him the thrust his needle gun through the glass and the man sprang to his feet with a shriek silence for your life i the house is surrounded and you cannot escape come round and open the door or we will show you no mercy when we come in for god s sake don t shoot i will open it i will open it he rushed from tlie room with his paper still up in his hand an instant later with a groaning of old locks and a of bars the low door swung open and the poured into the stone passage where is count de my master he is out sir i v the lord of out at this time of night your life for a it is true sir he is out where i do not know doing what i cannot tell no it is no use your your pistol sir you may kill me but you cannot make me tell you that which i do not know is he often out at this hour frequently and when does he come home before daybreak captain out a german oath he had had his journey for nothing then the man s answers were only too to be true it was what he might have expected but at least he would search the house and make sure leaving a at the front door and another at the back the and he drove the trembling butler in front of them his shaking candle sending strange flickering shadows over the old and the low oak they searched the whole house from the huge stone kitchen below to the dining hall on the second floor with its gallery for and its black with age but nowhere was there a living creature up above in an they the elderly wife of the butler but the owner kept no other servants and of his own presence there was no trace it was long however before captain had satisfied himself upon the point it was a house to search thin stairs which only one man could ascend at a time connected lines of the green flag etc walls were so thick that each room was cut off from its neighbour huge yawned in each while the windows were six feet deep in the wall captain stamped with his feet and tore down curtains and struck with the of his sword if there were secret hiding places he was not fortunate to find them i have an idea said he at last speaking in german to the you will place a guard over this fellow and make sure that he with no one yes captain and you will place four men in at the front and at the back it is likely enough that about daybreak our bird may return to the nest and the others captain let them have their in the kitchen this fellow will serve you with meat and wine it is a wild night and we shall be better here than on the country road and yourself captain i will take my supper up here in the dining hall the logs are laid and we can light the fire you will call me if there is any alarm what can you give me for supper you alas there was a time when i might have answered what you wish but now it is all that we can do to find a bottle of new and a cold that will do very well let a guard go about with him and let him fed the end of a if he plays us any tricks captain was an old in the eastern provinces and before that in he had learned the art of himself upon the enemy the lord of i while the butler brought his supper he occupied himself in making his preparations for a comfortable night he lit the of ten candles upon the centre table the fire was burning up merrily and sending of blue smoke into the room the captain walked to the window and looked out the moon had gone in again and it was heavily he could hear the deep of the wind and see the dark loom of the trees all swaying in the one direction it was a sight which gave a zest to his comfortable quarters and to the cold fowl and the bottle of wine which the butler had brought up for him he was tired and hungry after his long tramp so he threw his sword his and his revolver belt down upon a chair and fell to eagerly upon his supper then with his glass of wine before him and his cigar between his lips he his chair back and looked about him he sat within a small circle of brilliant light which gleamed upon his silver shoulder and threw out his face his heavy eyebrows and his yellow moustache but outside that circle things were vague and shadowy in the old	4
dining hall two sides were oak and two were with faded across which and dogs and were still dimly streaming above the fireplace were rows of with the of the family and of its the fatal cross breaking out on each of them four paintings of old of faced the fireplace all men with hawk noses and bold high features so like each other that only the dress could distinguish the from the of the the green flag etc i t captain heavy with his lay back in his chair looking up at them through the clouds of his tobacco smoke and pondering over the strange chance which had sent him a man from the coast to eat his supper in the hall of these proud but the fire was hot and the captain s eyes were heavy his chin sank slowly upon his chest and the ten candles gleamed upon the broad white suddenly a slight noise brought him to his feet for an instant it seemed to his dazed senses that one of the pictures opposite had walked from its frame there beside the table and almost within arm s length of him was standing a huge man silent motionless with no sign of life save his fierce eyes he was olive with a pointed of black beard and a great fierce nose towards which all his features seemed to run ess cheeks were wrinkled like a last year s apple but his sweep of shoulder and bony hands told of a strength which was by age his arms were folded across his chest and his mouth was set in a fixed smile pray do not trouble yourself to look for your weapons he said as the cast a swift glance at the empty chair in which they had been laid you have been if you will allow me to say so a little to make so much at home in a house every wall of which is with secret passages you will be amused to hear that forty men were watching you at your supper ah i what then captain had taken a step forward with clenched fists the frenchman held up the revolver lord of which he grasped in his right hand while with the left he hurled the german back into his chair pray keep your seat said he you have no cause to trouble about your men they have already been provided for it is astonishing with these stone floors how httle one can hear what goes on beneath you have been relieved of your command and have now only to think of yourself may i ask what your name is i am captain of the th regiment your french is excellent though you incline like most of your countrymen to turn the p into a b i have been amused to hear them cry sur you know doubtless who it is who addresses you the count of precisely it would have been a misfortune if you had visited my and i had been unable to have a word with you i have had to do with many german soldiers but never with an officer before i have much to talk to you about captain sat still in his chair brave as he was there was something in this man s manner which made his skin creep with apprehension his eyes glanced to right and to left but his weapons were gone and in a struggle he saw that he was but a child to this gigantic adversary the count had picked up the bottle and held it to the tut tut said he and was this the best that could do for you i am ashamed to look you in the face captain we must improve upon this he blew a call upon a whistle which hung from his k green flag etc shooting jacket the old was in the room in an instant from bin i he cried and a minute later a grey bottle with was carried in as a nurse bears an infant the count filled two glasses to the brim drink said he it is the very best in my and not to be matched between and paris drink sir and be happy there are cold joints below there are two fresh from will you not venture upon a second and more supper the officer shook his head he drained the glass however and his host filled it once more pressing him to give an order for this or that dainty there is nothing in my house which is not at your disposal you have but to say the word well then you will allow me to tell you a story while you drink your wine i have so longed to tell it to some german officer it is about my son my only child who was taken and died in escaping it is a curious little story and i think that i can promise you that you will never forget it you must know then that my boy was in the a fine young fellow captain and the pride of his mother she died within a week of the news of his death reaching us it was brought by a brother officer who was at his side throughout and who escaped while my lad died i want to tell you all that he told me was taken at on the th of august the prisoners were broken up into and sent back into germany by different the lord of was taken upon the th to a village called where he met with kindness from the german officer in command this good colonel had the hungry lad to supper offered him the best he had opened a bottle of good wine as i have tried to do for you and gave him a cigar from his own case might i entreat you to take one from mine the again	4
only child of an old family and that his mother was in failing health he threw off the rope as i throw off this and he kissed him on either cheek as i kiss you and he bade him go as i bid you go and may every kind wish of that noble general though it could not off the fever which my son descend now upon your head and so it was tiiat captain blinded and bleeding staggered out into the wind and the rain of that wild december dawn the striped chest what do you make of her i asked my second mate was standing beside me upon the with his short thick legs for the gale had left a considerable swell behind it and our two nearly touched the water with every roll he his glass against the and he looked long and hard at this stranger every time she came up the crest of a and hung balanced for a few seconds before down upon the other side she lay so low in the water thai i could only catch an occasional glimpse of a green line of she was a but her had been snapped short off some ten feet above the deck and no effort seemed to have been made to cut away the which floated sails and yards like the broken wing of a wounded upon the water beside her the was still standing but the was flying loose and the were streaming out in long white in front of her never have i seen a vessel which appeared to have gone through handling but we could not be surprised at that there had been times during the last three days when it was a question whether our own would ever see land l the green flag etc again for thirty six hours we had kept her nose to it and if the mary had not been as good a sea boat as ever left the we could not have gone through and yet here we were at the end of it with the loss only of our and of part of the it did not astonish us however when the had cleared away to find that others had been less lucky and that this staggering about upon a blue sea and under a sky had been left like a blinded man after a lightning flash to tell of the terror which is past who was a slow and stared long and hard at the little craft while our lined the or clustered upon the to have a view of the stranger in latitude and which were about our bearings one becomes a little curious as to whom one meets for one has left the main hues of atlantic commerce to the north for ten days we had been over a solitary sea she s i m thinking said the second mate i had come to the same conclusion for i could see no sign of life upon her deck and there was no answer to the friendly from our the crew had probably deserted her imder the impression that she was about to founder she can t last long continued in his measured way she may put her nose down and her tail up any minute the water s up to the edge of her rail what s her flag i asked i m trying to make out it s got all twisted and tangled with the yes i ve got it now clear enough it s the flag but it s wrong side up the striped chest l l she had hoisted a signal of distress then before her people had abandoned her perhaps they had only just gone i took the mate s glass and looked round over the tumultuous face of the deep blue atlantic still and with white lines and of foam but nowhere could i see anything human beyond ourselves there may be living men aboard said i there may be muttered the second mate then we will run down upon her lee side and lie to we were not more than a hundred yards from her when we swung our and there we were the and the and bowing like two in a dance drop one of the quarter boats said l take four men mr and see what you can learn of her but just at that moment my first officer mr came on deck for seven bells had struck and it was but a few minutes off his watch it would interest me to go myself to this abandoned vessel and to see what there might be aboard of her so with a word to i swung myself over the side slipped down the falls and took my place in the sheets of the boat it was but a little distance but it took some time to and so heavy was the roll that often when we were in the of the sea we could not see either the we had left or the which we were approaching the sinking sun did not penetrate down there and it was cold and dark in the hollows of the waves but each passing heaved us up into the warmth and the sunshine once more at each of these moments as we hung upon a white ridge between the two dark valleys i caught a glimpse of the long the green flag etc green line and the nodding of the and i so as to come round by her stem so that we might determine which was the best way of boarding her as we passed her we saw the name da painted across her dripping counter the weather side sir said the second mate stand by with the boat hook carpenter an instant later we had jumped over the which were hardly higher than our boat and found ourselves upon the of the abandoned	4
vessel our first thought was to provide for our own safety in case as seemed very probable the vessel should settle down beneath our feet with this object two of our men the painter of the boat and her off from the vessel s side so that she might be ready in case we had to make a retreat the carpenter was sent to find out how much water there was and whether it was still gaining while the other seaman and m made a rapid inspection of the vessel and her cargo the deck was with and with in which the dead birds were washing about the boats were gone with the exception of one the bottom of which had been stove and it was certain that the crew had abandoned the vessel the cabin was in a deck house one side of which had been beaten in by a heavy sea and i entered it and found the captain s table as he had left it his books and papers all spanish or scattered over it with piles of ash ever i looked about for the log but could not find it as likely as not he n ver kept one said the striped chest things are pretty slack aboard a south american and they don t do more than they can help if there was one it must have been taken away with him in the boat should like to take all these books and papers said l ask the carpenter how much time we have his report was the vessel was full of water but some of the cargo was and there was no immediate danger of her sinking probably she would never sink but would drift about as one of those terrible which have sent so many stout vessels to the bottom in that case there is no danger in your going below mr said i see what you can make of her and find out how much of her cargo may be saved til look through these papers while you are gone the bills of and some notes and letters which lay upon the desk to inform me that the da had cleared from a month before the name of the captain was but there was no record as to the number of the crew she was bound for london and a glance at the bills of was sufficient to show me that we were not likely to profit much in the way of her cargo consisted of nuts and wood the latter in the shape of great logs of valuable tropical it was these no doubt which had prevented the ill fated vessel from going to the bottom but they were of such a size as to make it impossible for us to extract them besides these there were a few fancy goods such as a of ornamental birds for purposes and a hundred cases of preserved fruits and then as i turned over the papers i came upon a short note in english which arrested my attention ihe green flag it is requested said the note that the various old spanish and indian which came out of the collection and which are consigned to and of oxford street london should be put in some place where there may be no danger of these very valuable and unique articles being injured or with this applies most particularly to the treasure chest of don di which must on no account be placed where anyone can get at it the treasure chest of don unique and valuable articles here was a chance of after all i had risen to my feet with the paper in my hand when my scotch mate appeared in the doorway i m thinking all isn t quite as it should be aboard of this ship sir said he he was a hard faced man and yet i could see that he had been startled what s the matter murder s the matter sir there s a man here with his brains beaten out killed in the storm said l maybe so sir but i ll be surprised if you think so after you have seen him where is he then this way sir here in the main deck house there appeared to have been no accommodation below in the for there was the after house for the captain another by the main with the cook s attached to it and a third in the for the men it was to this middle one that the mate led me as you entered the with its litter of tumbled pots and dishes was upon the right and upon the left was a small room with two for the officers then beyond there the striped chest was a place about twelve feet square which was with flags and spare canvas all round the walls were a number of done up in coarse cloth and carefully lashed to the at the other end was a great box striped red and white though the red was so faded and the white so dirty that it was only where the light fell directly upon it that one could see the colouring the box was by subsequent four feet three inches in length three feet two inches in height and three feet across considerably larger than a seaman s chest but it was not to the box that my eyes or my thoughts were turned as i entered the store room on the floor lying across the litter of there was stretched a small dark man with a short curling beard he lay as far as it was possible from the box with his feet towards it and his head away a crimson patch was printed upon the white canvas on which his head was and little red ribbons themselves round his neck and away the floor but there was no sign	4
of a wound that i could see and his face was as placid as that of a sleeping child it was only when i stooped that i could perceive his injury and then i turned away with an exclamation of horror he had been apparently by some person standing behind him a frightful blow had smashed in the top of his head and penetrated deeply into his brain his face might well be placid for death must have been absolutely and the position of the wound showed that he could never have seen the person who had inflicted it is that foul play or accident captain my second mate i l green flag etc you are quite right mr the man has been murdered struck down from above by a sharp and heavy weapon but who was he and why did they murder him he was a common seaman sir said the mate you can see that if you look at his fingers he turned out his pockets as he spoke and brought to light a pack of cards some string and a bundle of tobacco look at said he it was a large open knife with a spring blade which he had picked up from the floor the steel was shining and bright so that we could not associate it with the crime and yet the dead man had apparently held it in his hand when he was struck down for it still lay within his grasp it looks to me sir as if he knew he was in danger and kept his knife handy said the mate however we can t help the poor beggar now i can t make out these things that are lashed to the wall they seem to be and weapons and of all sorts done up in old that s right said i they are the only things of value that we are likely to get from the cargo hail the and tell them to send the other quarter boat to help us to get the stuff aboard while he was away i examined this curious plunder which had come into our possession the were so wrapped up that i could only form a general idea as to their nature but the striped box stood in a good light where i could thoroughly examine it on the lid which was and with metal the striped chest work there was engraved a complex coat of arms and beneath it was a line of spanish which i was able to as meaning the treasure chest of don di knight of the order of saint james governor and captain general of and of the province of in one comer was the date and on the other a large white upon which was written in english you are earnestly requested upon no account to open this box the same warning was repeated underneath in spanish as to the lock it was a very complex and heavy one of engraved steel with a latin motto which was above a seaman s comprehension by the time i had finished this examination of the peculiar box the other quarter boat with mr the first officer had come alongside and we began to carry out and place in her the various which appeared to be the only objects worth moving from the ship when she was full i sent her back to the and then and i with the carpenter and one seaman shifted the striped box which was the only thing left to our boat and lowered it over it upon the two middle for it was so heavy that it would have given the boat a dangerous had we placed it at either end as to the dead man we left him where we had found him the mate had a theory that at the moment of the desertion of the ship this fellow had started and that the captain in an attempt to preserve discipline had struck him down with a or some other heavy weapon it seemed more probable than any other explanation and yet it did not entirely satisfy me the green flag etc but the ocean is full of mysteries and we were content to leave the fate of the dead seaman of the to be added to that long list which every sailor can recall the heavy box was up by ropes the deck of the mary and was carried by four into the cabin where between the table and the there was just space for it to stand there it remained during supper and after that meal the mates remained with me and discussed over a glass of the event of the day mr was a long thin like man an excellent seaman but famous for his and our treasure had excited him greatly and already he had begun with glistening eyes to reckon up how much it might be worth to each of us when the shares of the came to be divided if the paper said that they were unique mr then they may be worth anything that you like to name you wouldn t believe the sums that the rich give a thousand pounds is nothing to them we ll have something to show for our voyage or i am mistaken i don t think that said l as far as i can see they are not very different from any other south american sir i ve there for fourteen voyages and i have never seen anything like that chest before that s worth a pile of money just as it stands but it s so heavy that surely there must be something valuable inside it don t you think that we ought to open it and see the chest if you break it open you will spoil it as likely as not said the second mate down in front of it with his head on one side and	4
his long thin nose within a few inches of the lock the wood is oak said he and it has shrunk a little with age if i had a or a strong knife i could force the lock back without doing any damage at all the mention of a strong knife made me think of the dead seaman upon tiie i wonder if he could have been on the job when came to interfere with him said l i don t know about that sir but i am perfectly certain that i could open the box there s a here in the just hold the lamp and i ll have it done in a brace of shakes wait a bit said i for already with eyes which gleamed with curiosity and with he was stooping over the lid i see that there is any hurry over this matter you ve read that card which us not to open it it may mean anything or it may mean nothing but somehow i feel inclined to obey it after all whatever is in it will keep and if it is valuable it will be worth as much if it is opened in the owner s offices as in the cabin of the mary the first officer seemed bitterly disappointed at my decision surely sir you are not superstitious about it said he with a slight sneer upon his thin lips if it gets out of our own hands and we don t see for ourselves the green etc what is inside it we may be done out of our rights besides that s enough mr said i abruptly you may have every confidence that you will get your rights but i will not have that box opened to night why the itself shows that the box has been examined by added because a box is a treasure box is no reason that it has treasures inside it now a good many folk have had a peep into it since the days of the old governor of threw the screw driver down upon the table and shrugged his shoulders just as you like said he but for the rest of the evening although we spoke upon many subjects i noticed that his eyes were continually coming round with the same expression of curiosity and to the old box and now i come to that portion of my story which i fills me even now with a shuddering horror when i think of it the main cabin had the rooms of the officers round it but mine was the farthest away from it at the end of the little passage which led to the companion no regular watch was kept by me except in cases of emergency and the three mates divided the watches among them had the middle watch which ends at four in the morning and he was relieved by for my part i have always been one of the of and it is rare for anything less than a hand upon my shoulder to arouse me and yet i was aroused that night or rather in the early grey of the morning it was just half past four by my when something caused me to sit up in the striped chest my berth wide awake and with every it was a sound of some sort a crash with a human cry at the end of it which still upon my ears i sat listening but all was now silent and yet it could not have been imagination that hideous cry for the echo of it still rang in my head and it seemed to have come from some place quite dose to me i sprang from my and pulling on some i made my way into the cabin at first i saw nothing unusual there in the cold grey light i made out the red table the six chairs the the swinging and there at the end the big striped chest i was turning away with the intention of going upon deck and asking the second mate if he had heard anything when my eyes fell suddenly upon something which projected from under the table it was the leg of a man a leg with a long sea boot upon it i stooped and there was a figure upon his face his arms thrown forward and his body twisted one glance told me that it was the first officer and a second that he was a dead man for a few moments i stood gasping then i rushed the deck called to my assistance and came back with him into the cabin together we pulled the fellow from under the table and as we looked at his dripping head we exchanged glances and i do not know which was the paler of the two the same as the spanish sailor said i the very same god preserve us it s that infernal chest look at s hand he held up the mate s right hand and there was the screw driver which he had wished to use the night before the green flag etc he s been at the chest sir he knew that i was on deck and you asleep he knelt down in front of it and he pushed the lock back with that tool then something happened to him and he cried out so that you heard him i whispered what could have happened to him the second mate put his hand upon my sleeve and drew me into his cabin we can talk here sir and we don t know who may be listening to us in there what do you suppose is in that box captain i give you my word that i have no idea well i can only find one theory which will fit all the facts look at the size of the box look at all the carving and metal work which	4
upper lip and the great striped chest snapped at us like a wild animal came the huge lid into its place and the glasses on the swinging rack sang and with the shock the mate sat down on the edge of the table and shivered like a frightened horse you ve saved my life captain said he so this was the secret of the striped treasure chest of old don di and this was how he preserved his ill gotten gains from the and i green flag etc the province of be the thief ever so cunning he could not tell that golden from the other articles of value and the instant that he laid hand upon it the terrible spring was and the were driven into his brain while the shock of the blow sent the victim backwards and enabled the chest to close itself how many i wondered had fallen victims to the ingenuity of the of and as i thought of the possible history of that grim striped chest my resolution was very quickly taken carpenter bring three men and carry this on deck going to throw it overboard sir yes mr not superstitious as a rule but there are some things which are more than a sailor can be called upon to stand no wonder that made heavy weather captain with such a thing on board the glass is dropping fast sir and we are only just in time so we did not even wait for the three sailors but we carried it out the mate the carpenter and i and we pushed it with our own hands over the there was a white of water and it was gone there it lies the striped chest a thousand deep and if as they say the sea will some day be dry land i grieve for the man who finds that old box and tries to penetrate into its secret a shadow before the th of july found john a ruined of the stock exchange upon the th he was a very man and yet he had effected the change leaving the little irish of which could have been bought outright for a quarter of the sum which he had earned during the single day that he was within its walls there is a romance of yet to be written a story of huge forces which are for ever and of bold operations of breathless suspense of failure of deep which are baffled by others still more subtle the mighty debts of each great european power stand like so many columns of for ever rising and falling to indicate the pressure upon each he who can see far enough into the future to tell how that column will stand to morrow is the man who has fortune within his grasp john had many of the gifts which lead a to success he was quick in observing just in prompt and fearless in acting but in there is rs the element of luck which however one may it still remains like the blank at a constantly present upon the and so it was that bad the green flag etc come to grief on the best he had in the funds of a south american republic in the days before south american had been found out the republic and lost his money he had the shares of a scotch railway and a four months strike had hit him hard he had helped to a coffee company in the hope that the public would come along upon the feed and gradually away some of his holding but the political sky had been clouded and the public had refused to invest everything which he had touched had gone wrong and now on the eve of his marriage young clear headed and energetic he was actually a had his chosen to make him one but the stock exchange is an indulgent body what is the case of one to day may be that of another to morrow and is interested in seeing that the stricken man is given time to rise again so the burden of was lightened for him many shoulders helped to bear it and he was able to go for a httle summer tour into for the doctors had ordered him rest and change of air to restore his shaken nervous system thus it was that upon the th of july he found himself at his breakfast in the fly blown coffee room of the george hotel in the market square of it is a dull and room and one which is usually empty but on this particular day it was as crowded and noisy as that of any london hotel every table was occupied and a thick smell of bacon and of fish hung in the air heavily men in and out spurs riding crops were in and there was a general atmosphere of horse a shadow before the conversation too was of nothing else from every side heard of of of of of of a hundred other terms which were as unintelligible to him as his own stock exchange would have been to the company he asked the waiter for the reason of it all and the waiter was an astonished man that there should be anyone in this world who did not know it it s the horse fair your honour the greatest horse fair in all it lasts for a wake and the folk come from far an near from england an scotland an if you look out of the your honour you ll see the horses and it s your honour s conscience must be or you wouldn t so sound that the didn t rouse you with their clatter had a recollection that he had heard a confused murmur which had itself with his dreams a sort of steady beating and and now when he looked through the window	4
jim the great jim said he then seeing by the blank look upon s face that even this information had not helped him much he went into details sure he s the head of and of london said he he s the buying partner and he cheap and the other stays at home and and he dear he owns more horses than any man in the world and asks the best money for them i you ll find that half of what are sold at the fair this day will go to him and he s got such a that there s not a man who can bid against him watched the doings of the great dealer with interest he had passed on now to the and three year full grown horses but still a little loose in the limb and weak in the bone the london was choosing his animals carefully but having chosen them the vigour of his competition drove all other out of it with a careless nod he would run the figure up five pounds at a time he was left in possession of the field at the same time he was the green flag etc a shrewd observer and when as happened more than once he believed thai was bidding against him simply in order to run him up the head would cease suddenly to nod the note book would be closed with a snap and the intruder would be left with a purchase which he did not desire upon his hands all s business instincts were aroused by the of this great and he stood in the crowd watching with the utmost interest all that occurred it is not to buy young horses however that the great come to ireland and the real business of the fair commenced when the four and five year were reached the full grown perfect horses at their prime and ready for any work or any fatigue seventy magnificent creatures had been brought down by a single a comfortable looking keen eyed ruddy gentleman who stood beside the and whispered and into his ear that s of said s jack has brought down that string of horses and the other large string over yonder belongs to tom fl am his brother the two of them together are the two first in ireland a crowd had gathered in front of the horses by common consent a place had been made for mr and could catch a glimpse of his face and yellow covert coat in the front rank he had opened his note book and was tapping his teeth with his pencil as he eyed the horses you u see a fight now between the first and the first in the country said s acquaintance they are a beautiful string anyhow i shouldn t be a shadow before surprised if he didn t average five and thirty pound apiece for the lot as they stand the had mounted upon a chair and his keen clean shaven face overlooked the crowd mr jack s grey whiskers were at his elbow and mr immediately in front you ve seen these horses gentlemen said the with a backward sweep of his hand towards the line of tossing heads and streaming when you know that they are bred by mr jack at his place in you will have a of their quality they are the best that ireland can produce and in this class of horse the best that ireland can produce are the best in the world as every riding man knows well hunters or carriage horses all sound and bred from the best stock there are seventy in mr s string an he bids me say that if any dealer would make one bid for the whole to save time he would have the preference over any there was a pause and a whisper from the crowd in front with some expressions of discontent by a single sweep all the small had been put out of it it was only a long purse which could buy on such a scale as that the looked round him come mr said he at last you didn t come over here for the sake of the scenery you may travel the country and not see such string of horses give us a starting bid the great dealer was still rattling his pencil upon his front teeth well said he at last they are a fine lot of thb greek flag etc horses and i won t deny it they do you credit mr i am sure all the same i didn t mean to fill a ship at a single bid in this fashion i like to pick and choose my horses jn that case mr is quite prepared to sell them in smaller lots said the it was rather for the convenience of a customer that he was prepared to put them all up together but if no gentleman wishes to bid wait a minute said a voice they are very fine horses these and i will give you a bid to start you i will give you twenty pounds each for the string of seventy there was a rustle as the crowd all swayed their heads to catch a glimpse of the speaker the leaned forward may i ask your name sir mr of liverpool it s a new firm said s neighbour i thought i knew them all but i never heard of him before the s head had disappeared for he was whispering with the now he suddenly straightened himself again thank you for giving us a lead sir said he now gentlemen you have heard the offer of mr of liverpool it will give us a base to start from mr has twenty pounds a head guineas said mr i knew that would take a hand you are not the man to let such a string of horses pass	4
away fix m you the bid is twenty guineas a head twenty five pounds said mr a shadow before f twenty six thirty it was london against liverpool and it was the head of the trade against an still the one man had increased his bids by and the other only by ones those meant determination and also wealth had ruled the market so long that the crowd was at finding who would stand up to him the bid now stands at thirty pounds a head said the the word lies with you mr the london dealer was glancing keenly at his unknown opponent and he was asking himself whether this was a genuine rival or whether it was a device of some sort an agent of s perhaps for running up the price little mr the same apple faced gentleman whom had noticed in the coffee room stood looking at the horses with the sharp quick glances of a man who knows what he is looking for thirty one said with the air of a man who has gone to his extreme thirty two said promptly grew angry at this persistent opposition red face flushed still thirty three he shouted thirty four said became thoughtful and entered a few figures in his note book there were seventy horses he knew that s stock was always of the highest quality with the hunting season coming on he might rely upon selling them at an average of from forty five to some of them might carry a heavy weight and would run to three figures on the other hand there was the feed and keep the green flag etc of them for three months the danger of the voyage the chance of or some of those other complaints which run through an entire stable as go through a nursery all this it was a question whether at the present price any profit would be left upon the transaction every pound that he bid meant seventy out of his pocket and yet he could not submit to be beaten by this stranger without a struggle as a business matter it was important to him to be recognised as the head of his profession he would make one more effort if he his profit by doing so at the end of your rope mr asked the with the suspicion of a sneer thirty five cried thirty six said then i wish you joy of your bargain said i don t buy at that price but i should be glad to some mr took no notice of the irony he was still looking at the horses the glanced round him in a way thirty six pounds bid said he mr jack s lot is going to mr of liverpool at thirty six pounds a head going going forty cried a high thin dear voice a rose firom the crowd and they were all on again trying to catch a glimpse of this reckless being a tall man could see over the others and there at the side of he saw the nose and aristocratic beard of the second stranger in the coffee room a sudden personal interest added itself to uie scene he felt that he was on the verge of some a ow thing something dimly seen which he could himself turn to account the two men with strange names the the horses what was it all the was all animation again and mr jack was sitting up with his white whiskers and his eyes twinkling it was the best deal which he had ever made in his fifty years of experience what name sir asked the mr address mr of thank you for your bid sir forty pounds a head has been bid by mr of any advance upon forty forty one said forty five said the had changed and it was the turn oi now to advance by ones while his rival sprang up by but the former was as dogged as ever forty six said he fifty cried it was unheard of the most that the horses could possibly average at a price was as much as these men were willing to pay two from whispered the angry if i was would see the colour of their money before i went any further the same thought had occurred to the as a mere matter of business gentlemen said he it is usual in such cases to put down a small deposit as a of you will understand how to k flag tc i am placed and that i have not had the pleasure of doing business with either of you before how much asked briefly should we say five hundred here is a note for a thousand pounds and here is another said nothing could be more handsome said the it s a treat to see such a spirited competition the last bid was fifty pounds a head fix m the word lies with you mr mr jack whispered something to the quite so mr suggests gentlemen that as you are both large it would perhaps be a convenience to you if he was to add the string of mr tom which consists of seventy animals of precisely the same quality making one hundred and forty in all have you any objection mr no sir and you mr i should prefer it very handsome very handsome indeed murmured the then i mr that your of pounds a head extends to the whole of these horses yes sir a long breath went up fi om the crowd seven thousand pounds at one deal it was a record for any advance mr fifty one five fifty six sixty a shadow before they could hardly believe their ears stood with his mouth open staring in front of him the tried hard to look as if such bidding and such prices were nothing jack of smiled and	4
rubbed his hands together the crowd listened in dead silence sixty one said the beginning he had stood without a trace of emotion upon his round face like a little figure which bid by his rival was of a more nature his eyes were shining and he was for ever at his beard sixty five he cried sixty six seventy but the had run down no answering bid came from mr seventy bid sir mr shrugged his shoulders i am buying for another and i have reached his limit said he if you will permit me to send for instructions i am afraid sir that the sale must proceed then the horses belong to this gentleman for the first time he turned towards his and their glances like sword blades it is possible that i may see the horses again i hope so said mr and his white moustache gave a upward so with a bow they separated mr walked down to the telegraph office where his message was delayed because mr was already at the end of the wires for after dim and vague con the green flag etc he had suddenly caught a dear view of this coming event which had cast so curious a shadow before it in this little irish town political names appearances horses at any price there could only be one meaning to it he held a secret and he meant to use it mr who was the partner of mr and who was suffering from the same had gone down to the stock exchange but had found little consolation there for the european system was in a and of peace and of war were succeeding each other with rapidity and assurance that it was impossible to know which to trust it was obvious that a fortune lay either way for every rumour set the funds but without information it was impossible to act and no one dared to heavily upon the strength of newspaper and the gossip of the street knew that an hour s work might the fallen fortunes of himself and his partner and yet he could not afford to make a mistake he returned to his office in the afternoon half inclined to back the of peace for of all war not one in ten comes to pass as he entered the office a lay upon the table it was firom a place of which he had never heard and was signed by his absent partner the message was in but he soon translated it for it was short and crisp i am a bear of everything german and french sell sell keep on selling for a moment hesitated what could know at which was not known in street but he remembered the quickness and decision of his partner he would not have sent a shadow before such a message without very good grounds if he was to act at all he must act at once so his heart he went down to the house and dealing upon that curious system by which a man can sell what he has not got and what he could not pay for if he had it he disposed of heavy of french and german he had caught the market in one of its of hope and there was no lack buying until his own persistent selling caused others to follow his lead and so brought about a reaction when returned to his offices it took him some hours to work out his accounts and he emerged into the streets in the evening with the absolute certainty that the next settling day would leave him either hopelessly or exceedingly prosperous it all depended upon information what could he possibly have found out at and then suddenly he saw a newspaper boy fasten a upon a lamp post and a little crowd had gathered round it in an instant one of them waved his hat in the air another shouted to a friend across the street hurried up and caught a glimpse of the between two heads france declares war on germany by jove cried old was right after all the king of it was after a hunting dinner and there were as many scarlet coats as black ones round the table the conversation over the cigars had turned therefore in the direction of horses and with reminiscences of runs where had led the pack from end to end of a county and been overtaken at last by two or three hounds and a on foot while every rider in the field had been as the port the runs became longer and more until we had the inquiring their way and failing to understand the dialect of the people who answered them the too became more eccentric and we had up which were dragged by the tail out of horses and which had through an open front door and gone to ground in a lad r s bonnet box the master had told one or two tall reminiscences and when he cleared his throat for another we were all curious for he was a bit of an artist in his way and produced his effects in a fashion his face wore the earnest practical severely accurate expression which some of his finest efforts it was before i was master said he sir charles had the hounds at that time and then afterwards they passed to old and then to me it may the king of the possibly have been just after took them over but my strong impression is that it was in s time that would be early in the about seventy two i should say the man i mean has moved to another part of the but i that some of you can remember him was the name walter or as the people used to call him he was the son of old joe of high and when his father	4
died he came into a very good thing for his only brother was drowned when the so he inherited the whole estate it was but a few acres but it was good land and those were the great days of farming besides it was and a farmer without a was a man before the great fall in wheat came foreign wheat and wire those are the two of this country for the one spoils the farmer s work and the other spoils his play this young was a very fine fellow a keen rider and thorough but his head was a little turned at having come when so young into a comfortable fortune and he went the pace for a year or two the lad had no vice in him but there was a hard drinking set in the neighbourhood at that time and got drawn in among them and being an amiable fellow who liked to do what his friends were doing he very soon took to drinking a great deal more than was good for him as a rule a man who takes his exercise may drink as much as he likes in the evening and do himself no very great harm if he will leave it alone during the day had too many friends for that however and it l the green flag etc really looked as if the poor chap was going to the bad when a very curious thing happened which pulled him up with such a sudden jerk that he never put his hand upon the neck of a y bottle again he had a peculiarity which i have noticed m a good other men that though he was always playing tricks with his own health he was none the less very anxious about it and was extremely if ever he had any trivial symptom being a tough open air fellow who was always as hard as a nail it was seldom that there was anything amiss with him but at last the drink b to tell and he woke one morning with his hands shaking and all his nerves like fiddle strings he had been dining at some very wet house the night before and the wine had perhaps been more plentiful than choice at there he was with a tongue like a bath and a head that like an eight day clock he was very alarmed at his own condition and he sent for doctor of the father of the man who there now had been a great friend of old r s and he was very sorry to see his son going to the devil so he improved the occasion by taking his case very and him upon the danger of his ways he shook his head and talked about the possibility of delirium or even of if he continued to lead such a life was horribly frightened do you think i am going to get anything of the sort he well really i don t know said the doctor gravely i cannot undertake to say that you are out of danger system is veiy much out of order at any time the king or the l during the day you might have those grave symptoms of which i warn you you think i shall be safe by evening if you drink nothing during the day and have no nervous symptoms before evening i think you may consider yourself safe the doctor answered a little fright would he thought do his patient good so he made the most of the matter what symptoms may i expect asked it generally takes the form of i see floating all about that is mere said the doctor for he saw that the lad was highly strung and he did not wish to it i that you will have no symptoms of the kind but when they do come they usually take the shape of insects or or animals and if i see anything of the kind if you do you will at once send for me and so with a promise of medicine the doctor departed young rose and dressed and about the room feeling very miserable and with a vision of the county asylum for ever in his mind he had the doctor s word for it that if he could get through to evening in safety he would be all right but it is not very to be waiting for symptoms and to keep on glancing at your boot jack to see whether it is still a boot jack or whether it has begun to develop and legs at last he could stand it no longer and an overpowering longing for the fresh air and the green grass came over him why should he stay indoors wh n the hunt was meeting within half a mile of him l the green flag etc if he was going to have these which the doctor talked of he would not have them the sooner nor the worse because he was on horseback in the open he was sure too it would ease his aching head and so it came about that in ten minutes he was in his and in ten more he was riding out of his stable yard with his mare between his knees he was a little unsteady in his saddle just at first but the farther he went the better he felt until by the time he reached the meet his head was almost clear and there was nothing troubling him except those haunting words of the doctor s about the possibility of any time before nightfall but soon he forgot that also for as he came up the hounds were thrown off and they drew the gravel and afterwards the it was just the morning for a scent no wind to blow it away no water to wash it out and just damp enough to make it	4
tried the irish trick for he was a rare keen of running up the hills by his horse s head it was all to no use and he had to give it up so then there was only the the whip and all going strong but the country got worse and worse and the hills were and more thickly covered in and the horses were over their all the time and the place was with rabbit holes but the hounds were still along and the could tt the green flag etc not afford to pick their steps as they down one slope the hounds were always flowing up the opposite one until it looked like that game where the one figure in falling makes the other one rise but never a glimpse did they get of the fox although they knew very well that he must be only a very short way ahead for the scent to lie so strong and then heard a crash and a at his elbow and looking round he saw a pair of white and top boots kicking out of a of the whip s horse had stumbled and the whip was out of the running and the down for an instant and then seeing the man staggering to his feet all right they turned and settled into their once more joe the was a famous old rider known for five round bu he reckoned upon his second horse and the second horses had all been left many miles behind however the one he was riding was good enough for anything with such a upon his back and he was going as well as when he started as to he was going better with every stride his own feelings improved and the mind of the rider has its influence upon the mind of the horse the stout little was gathering its muscular limbs under it and stretching to the gallop as if it were steel and instead of flesh and blood had never come to the end of its powers yet and to day he had such a chance of them as he had never had before there was a pasture country beyond the slopes and for several miles the two were either losing as they with their crop handles or the at the bars of gates or gaining it again as they galloped over the fields those were the days before this accursed wire came into the country and you could generally break a hedge where you could not fly it so they did not trouble the gates more than they could help then they were down in a hard lane where they had to their pace and through a farm where a man came shouting excitedly after them but they had no time to stop and listen to him for the hounds were on some only two fields ahead it was sloping upwards that and the horses were over their in the red soft soil when they reached the top they were blowing badly but a grand valley before them leading up to the open country of the south downs between there lay a belt of pine woods into which the hounds were streaming running now in a long straggling line and shedding one here and one there as they ran you could see the white and tan here and there where the were away but half the pack were still going well though the pace and distance had both been tremendous two clear hours now without a check there was a drive through the pine wood one of those green slightly drives where a horse can get the last yard out of itself for the ground is hard enough to give him dean going and yet enough to help him got alongside of the and they galloped together with their irons touching and the hounds within a hundred yards of them we have it all to ourselves said he yes sir we ve shook off the lot of em this time the green etc said old joe if we get this fox it s worth while im an stuffed r e s a curiosity e is it s the run i ever had in my cried d the that ever i ad an that means more said the old but what me is that we ve never ad a look at the beast must leave an scent be ind im when these can follow m like this and yet none of us have seen im when we ve ad a dear df mile view in front of us i expect we ll have a view of him presently said and in his mind he added at least i shall for the s horse was gasping as it ran and the white foam was pouring down it like the side of a washing tub they had followed the hounds one of the side tracks which led out of the main drive and that divided into a smaller track still where the branches across their faces as they went and there was barely room for one horse at a time took the lead and he heard the s horse along heavily behind him while his own mare was going with less spring than when she had started she answered to a touch of his crop or spur however and he felt that there was something still left to draw upon and then he looked up and there was a heavy wooden at the end of the narrow track with a lane of stiff young leading down to it which was far too thick to break through the hounds were running dear upon the grass land on the other side and you were bound either to get over that or lose sight of them for the pace was too hot to let you go the king of the well was	4
not the lad to and at it he went split like a man who means what he is doing she rose gallantly to it it hard with her front shook him on to her recovered herself and was over had hardly got back into his saddle when there was a clatter behind him like the fall of a and there was the top bar in the horse on its belly and the on hands and knees half a dozen yards in front of him pulled up for an instant for the fall was a but he saw old joe spring to his feet and get to his horse s bridle the horse staggered up but the moment it put one foot in front of the other saw that it was hopelessly lame a slipped shoulder and a six weeks job there was nothing he could do and joe was shouting to him not to lose the hounds so o f he went again the one solitary of the whole hunt when a man finds himself be there he can retire from fox for he has tasted p the highest which it has to i remember once when i was out with the royal but i ll tell you that story afterwards j the pack or what was left of them had got a bit ahead during this time but he had a dear view of them on the and the mare seemed full of pride at being the only one left for she was stepping out rarely and tossing her head as she went were two miles over the green shoulder of a hill a rattle down a stony deep country lane where the mare stumbled and nearly came down a jump over a five foot brook a cut through a another dose of heavy a couple of gates to open and then the green im broken downs beyond well said to en flag the green flag etc himself til see this fox run into or i shall see it drowned for it s all dear going now between this and the whidi line the sea but he was wrong in that as he speedily discovered all the little hollows of the down at that part there are of fir woods some of which have grown to a good size you do not see them until you come upon the edge of the rs in which they lie was galloping hard over the short turf when he came over the lip of one of these and there was the dark of wood lying in front of and beneath him there were only a dozen still running and they were just disappearing among the trees the sunlight was shining straight upon the long olive green slopes which curved down towards this wood and who had the eyes of a hawk swept them over this great expanse but there was nothing moving upon it a few sheep were far up on the right but there was no other sight of any living creature he was certain then that he was very near to the end for the fox must have gone to ground in the wood or the hounds noses must be at his very brush the mare seemed to know also what that great empty sweep of meant for she quickened her stride and a few minutes afterwards was galloping into the fir wood he had come from bright sunshine but the wood was very planted and so dim that he could hardly see to right or to left out of the narrow path down which he was riding you know what a solemn sort of place a fir wood is i suppose it is the absence of any and the fact that the trees never move at all at a kind of chill suddenly struck the king of the y and it flashed through his mind that there had been some very singular points about this run its length and its and the fa that from the first find no one had ever caught a glimpse of the creature some silly talk which had been going round the country about the king of the a sort of demon fox so fast that it could any pack and so fierce that they could do nothing with it if they overtook it suddenly came back into his mind and it did not seem so now in the dim fir wood as it had done when the story had been told over the wine and cigars the which had been on him in the morning and which he had hoped that he had shaken off swept over him again in an overpowering wave he had been so proud of being alone and yet he would have given ten pounds now to have had joe s homely face beside him and then just at that moment there broke out from the part of the wood the most frantic that ever he had heard in his life the hounds had run into their fox well you know or you ought to know what your duty is in such a case you have to be whip and else if you are the first man up you get in among the hounds lash them off and keep the brush and from being destroyed of course knew all about that and he tried to force his through the trees to the place where all this hideous screaming and howling came from but the wood was so thick that it was impossible to ride it he sprang off therefore left the mare standing and broke his way through as best he could with his hunting lash ready over his shoulder but as he ran forward he felt his flesh go tim green flag td cold and all over he had heard run into many times before but he had never heard such sounds	4
as these they were not the cries of triumph but of fear every now and then came a shrill of mortal agony holding his breath he ran on until he broke through the branches and found himself in a little clearing with the hounds all crowding round a patch of tangled at the further end when he first caught sight of them the hounds were standing in a half circle round this patch with their backs and their jaws gaping in front of the lay one of them with his throat torn out all crimson and white and tan came running out into the clearing and at the sight of him the hounds took heart again and one of them sprang with a growl into the bushes at the same instant a creature the size oi a donkey jumped its feet a huge grey head with monstrous glistening and fox jaws shot out from among the branches and the hound was thrown several feet into the air and fell howling among the cover then there was a snap like a closing and the sharpened into a scream and then were still had been on the look out for symptoms all day and now he had found them he looked once more at the thicket saw a pair of savage red eyes fixed upon him and fairly took to his heels it might only be a passing delusion or it might be the permanent of which the doctor had spoken but anyhow the thing to do was to get back to bed and to quiet and to hope for the best he forgot the hounds the hunt and everything else in his desperate fears for his own reason the king of the he sprang upon his mare galloped her madly over the downs and only stopped when he found himself at a country station there he left his mare at the inn and made back for home as quickly as steam would take him it was evening before he got there shivering with apprehension and seeing those red eyes and savage teeth at every turn he went straight to bed and sent for dr got em doctor said he it came about exactly as you said strange creatures and everything all i ask you now is to save my reason the doctor listened to his story and was shocked as he heard it it appears to be a very dear case aid he this must be a lesson to you for life never a drop again if i only come safely through this cried well my dear boy if you will stick to that it may prove a blessing in disguise but the difficulty in this case is to know where fact ends and fancy begins you see it is not as if there was only one delusion there have been several the dead dogs for example must have been one as well as the creature in the bush i saw it all as dearly as i see you one of the characteristics of this form of delirium is that what you see is even dearer than reality i was wondering whether the whole run was not a also pointed to his hunting boots still lying upon the floor with the of two hum that looks very real certainly no doubt in your weak state you over exerted yourself and so brought this attack upon well whatever the the green flag el c cause our treatment is clear you will take the soothing mixture which i will send to you and we shall put two upon your temples to night to relieve any of the brain so spent the night in tossing about and reflecting what a sensitive thing this machinery of ours is and how very foolish it is to play tricks with what is so easily put out of gear and so difficult to mend and so he repeated and repeated his oath that this lesson should be his last and that from that time forward he would be a sober hard working as his father had been before him so he lay tossing and still when his door flew open in the morning and in rushed the doctor with a newspaper up in his hand my dear boy he cried i owe you a thousand apologies you re the most ill used lad and i the greatest in the county listen to this and he sat down upon the side of the bed out his paper upon his knee and began to read the was headed disaster to the hounds and it went on to say that four of the hounds torn and had been found in fir wood upon the south downs the run had been so severe that half the pack were but the four found in the wood were actually dead although the cause of their extraordinary injuries was still unknown so you see said the doctor looking up that i was wrong when i put the dead hounds among the but the cause cried well i think we may guess the cause from an item which has been inserted just as the paper went to press late last night mr brown of s farm to the the king of the i east of perceived what he imagined to be an enormous dog worrying one of his sheep he shot the creature which proves to be a grey wolf of the variety known as it is supposed to have escaped from some travelling that s the story gentlemen and stuck to his good resolutions for the fright which he had had cured him of all wish to run such a risk again and he never touches anything stronger than lime at least he hadn t before he left this part of the country five years ago next lady day the three there was only the one little of palms in all that great	4
wilderness of black rocks and orange sand it stood high on the bank and it the brown swiftly towards the fitting a little of foam round each of the which studded its surface above out of a naked blue sky the sun was beating down upon the sand and up again from the sand under the of the hats of the with the glare of a blast furnace it had risen so high that the shadows of the horses were no larger than themselves cried his forehead you d pay five shillings for this at the said scott but you are not asked to ride twenty miles in a bath with a glass and a revolver and a water bottle and a whole christmas of things dangling from you the hot house at is excellent as a but not adapted for upon the bar i vote for a camp in the palm grove and a halt evening rose on his and looked hard to the southward everywhere were the same black burned rocks and deep orange at one spot only an line appeared to have been cut through the the three rugged spurs which ran down to the river it was the bed of the old railway long destroyed by the but now in process of by the advancing there was no other sign of man s in all that desolate scene it s palm trees or nothing said scott well i suppose we must and yet i grudge every hour we catch the force up what would our say if we were late for the action my dear chap an old bird like you doesn t need to be told that no sane modem general would ever attack until the press is up you don t mean that said young i thought we were looked upon as an nuisance newspaper and travelling gentlemen and all that tribe of useless being an extract from lord s soldier s pocket book cried scott we know all about and he winked behind his blue spectacles if there was going to be a battle we should very soon have an escort of cavalry to hurry us up i ve been in fifteen and i never saw one where they had not arranged for a s table that s very well but the enemy may be less considerate said they are not strong enough to force a battle a then much more likely to be a upon the rear in that case we are just where we should be so we are i what a score over s man up with the advance i well we ll and have our imder the palms hie green flag etc there were three of them and they stood for three great london s was thirty miles ahead two evening upon were twenty behind and among them they represented the eyes and ears of the public the great silent millions and millions who had paid for everything and who waited so patiently to know the result of their they were remarkable men these body servants of the press two of already in the other setting out upon his first campaign and full of deference for his famous comrades this first one who had just from his bay pony was of the intelligence tall straight and hawk faced with and riding breeches a scarlet and a skin to the red of a scotch fir by sun and wind and by the and the sand fly the other small quick with blue black curling beard and hair a fly for ever in his left hand was scott of the who had come through more dangers and brought off more brilliant than any man in the profession save the eminent now no longer in a condition to take the field they were a singular contrast and scott and it was in their differences that the secret of their close friendship lay each into the other the strength of each was in the other s weakness together they formed a perfect was saxon slow conscientious and de scott was quick happy go lucky and brilliant was the more solid scott the more attractive was the deeper scott the brighter by a curious coincidence though each the had seen much of warfare their had never together they covered all recent military history scott had done the the egypt had seen the war the the and the relief the indian frontier rebellion and this intimate personal knowledge gave a peculiar to their talk there was none of the second hand and conjecture which form so much of our conversation it was all and final the speaker had been there had seen it and there was an end of it in spite of their friendship there was the keenest professional between the two men either would have sacrificed himself to help his companion but either would also have sacrificed his companion to help his paper never did a for a winning mount as keenly as each of them longed to have a full column in a morning edition whilst every other daily was blank they were perfectly fi about the matter each professed himself ready to steal a march on his neighbour and each recognised that the other s duty to his employer was far higher than any personal consideration the third man was of the young inexperienced and rather simple looking he had a of the lip which some of his more intimate friends regarded as a upon his character and his eyes were so slow and so sleepy that they suggested an affectation a leaning toward had sent him twice to autumn and a touch of in his descriptions had induced the of the to give him a trial as a war special there was a pleasing about his bearing which recommended him to his ex the green flag etc and if they had	4
of forty miles to the green g etc the front in order to confer with the general upon the steps which are necessary in order to the work further particulars of the exact nature of the difficulties met with will be made public at a later date all is quiet upon the line of communications though the usual persistent of the presence of in the eastern desert continue to our own correspondent how s that cried scott triumphantly and his white teeth gleamed suddenly through his black beard s the sort of for the dear old public will it interest them oh everything interests them they want to know all about it and they like to think that there is a man who is getting a hundred a month simply in order to tell it to them it s very kind of you to teach me all this well it is a little for after all we are here to score over each other if we can there are no more eggs and you must take it out in jam of course as says such a as this is of no importance one way or another except to prove to the office that we are in the and not at but when it comes to serious work it must be every man for himself is that quite necessary why of course it is i should have thought if three men were to combine and to share their news they would do better than if they were each to act for himself and they would have a much pleasanter time of it the two older men sat with their bread and jam in the three their hands and an expression of genuine disgust upon their faces we are not here to have a pleasant time said with a flash through his glasses we are here to do our best for our papers how can they score over each other if we do not do the same if we all combine we might as well with at once why it would take away the whole glory of the profession cried scott at present the man gets his stuff first on the wires what is to be smart if we all share and share alike and at present the man with the best has the best chance remarked glancing across at the shot silk and the cheap little grey that is the fair reward of foresight and enterprise every man for himself and let the best man win that s the way to find who the best man is look at he would never have got his chance if he had not played always off his own bat you ve heard how he pretended to break his leg sent his fellow correspondent off for the doctor and so got a fair start for the telegraph office do you mean to say that was legitimate everything is legitimate it s your wits against my wits i should call it you may call it what you like s paper got the battle and the other s didn t it made s name or take said the tobacco into his pipe hi you may have the dishes brought his stuff down by pretending flag the greek flag etc to be the government and using the of government horses s paper sold half a million is that legitimate also asked thoughtfully why not well it looks a little like horse stealing and lying well think i should do a little horse stealing and lying if i could have a column to myself in a london daily what do you say scott anything short of and i m not sure that i d trust you there well i don t think i should be guilty of slaughter that i regard as a distinct breach of professional etiquette but if any comes between a highly charged correspondent and an electric wire he does it at his peril my dear i tell you frankly that if you are going to yourself with scruples you may just as well be in fleet street as in the our life is irregular our work has never been no doubt it will be some day but the time is not yet do what you can and how you can and be first on the wires that s my advice to you and also that when next you come upon a campaign you bring with you the best horse that money can buy may beat me or i may beat but at least we know that between us we have the in the country we have neglected no chance i am not so certain of that said slowly you are aware of course that though a horse beats a on twenty miles a beats a horse on thirty what one of those cried in astonishment the two burst out laughing the three no no the real high bred the kind of beast the ride when they make their lightning faster than a galloping horse well it a horse down it goes the same gait all the way and it wants neither halt nor drink and it takes rough ground much better than a horse they used to have long distance races at and the always won at thirty still we need not reproach ourselves scott for we are not very likely to have to carry a thirty mile message they will have uie field telegraph next week quite so but at the present moment i know my dear chap but there is no motion of before tiie house load at five o clock so you have just three hours dear any sign of the evening swept the northern horizon with his not in sight yet they are quite capable of travelling during the heat of the day just the sort of thing evening would do take care of your match these go	4
too late for the fun by george that brushed a off me and one of the is hit this is sinful it will end in our having to carry our own to never mind my boy it all goes to make copy i can see the on communications murder of british engineer press column won t it be the flag etc i wonder what the next line will be said our special wounded cried scott rolling over on to his back no harm don he added gathering himself up again only a off my knee this is getting i confess that the idea of that back room at the author s begins to grow upon me i have some afterwards will do we re having a day with on the rush i wish he would rush they re coming nearer this is an excellent revolver of mine if it didn t throw so devilish high i always aim at a man s toes if i want to his oh lord there s our kettle gone with a boom like a dinner a bullet had passed through the kettle and a cloud of steam up from the fire a wild shout came from the rocks above the think that they have blown us up they ll rush us now as sure as fate then it will be our turn to lead got your revolver i have this double piece sensible man it s the best weapon in the world at this sort of rough and tumble work what swan shot that will do all right i carry this big bore pistol loaded with you might as well try to stop one of these fellows with a as with a service revolver there arc ways and means said scott the does not hold south of the first it s easy to make a bullet by a the little of the tip of it when i was in the broken square at wait a bit cried his glasses think they are coming now the time said scott snapping up his watch being exactly seventeen minutes past four had been lying behind a staring with an interest which bordered upon fascination at the rocks opposite here was a little puff of smoke and there was another t ne but never once had they caught a glimpse of the to him there was something weird and in these unseen persistent men who minute by minute were drawing closer to them he had heard them cry out when the kettle was broken and once immediately afterwards an strong voice had roared something which had set scott his shoulders they ve got to take us first said he and thought his nerve might be better if he did not ask for a translation the firing had begun at a distance of some yards which put it out of the question for them with their lighter weapons to make any reply to it had their continued to keep that range the must either have made a hopeless sally or tried to shelter themselves behind their as best they might on the chance that the sound might bring up help but luckily for them the had never taken kindly to the rifle and his primitive instinct to dose with his enemy is rs too strong for his sense of they were drawing in therefore and now for the first time caught sight of face looking at them the green flag etc from over a rock it was a huge strong head of a pure negro type with silver gleaming in the ears the man raised a great arm from behind the rock and shook his at them shall i fire asked no no it is too far your shot would scatter all over the place it s a said scott couldn t you him there s another a fine brown with a black pointed beard was peeping from behind another he wore the green which proclaimed him and his face showed the keen nervous exultation of the religious they seem a crowd said scott that last is one of the real fighting remarked he s a dangerous man he looks pretty vicious there s another negro two more by the look of them just the same we get our own black from as long as they get a fight they don t mind who it s for but if the had only sense enough to they would know that the is their hereditary enemy and we their hereditary friends look at the silly his teeth at the very men who put down the slave trade couldn t you explain i ll explain with this pistol when he comes a little nearer now sit tight they re off they were indeed it was the brown man with the green who headed the rush at his heels was the negro with the silver a giant of a the three man and the other two were only a little behind as they sprang over the rocks one after the other it took back to the school sports when he held tlie for the race it was magnificent the wild spirit and abandon of it the flutter of the the gleam of steel the wave of black arms the faces the quick of the rushing feet the law abiding is so with the idea of the of human life that it was hard for the young to that these men had every intention of killing him and that he was at liberty to do as much for them he lay staring as if this were a show and he a spectator now now take the cried somebody he put up the gun and saw the brown fierce face at the other end of the barrel he at the but the face grew larger and with every stride again and again he a revolver shot rang at his elbow then another one	4
and he saw a red spot spring out on the s brown breast but he was still coming on shoot you ass shoot screamed scott again he strained at the there were two more pistol shots and the big negro had fallen and risen and fallen again cock it you fool shouted a furious voice and at the same instant with a rush and flutter the bounded over the prostrate and came down with his bare feet upon s chest in a dream he seemed to be struggling with upon the ground then he was conscious of a tremendous the green etc in his very face and so ended for him the first action of the war good bye old chap you ll be all right give yourself time it was s voice and he became dimly conscious of a long face and of a heavy hand upon his shoulder sorry to leave you we ll be lucky now if we are in time for the morning scott was his as he spoke we ll put in our wire that you have been hurt so your people will know why they don t hear from you if or the evening come up don t give the thing away will look after you and we ll be back to morrow afternoon bye bye heard it all though he did not feel energy enough to answer then as he watched two sleek brown with their yellow among the rocks his memory cleared suddenly and he that the first great chance of his life was slipping away from him it was a small fight but it was the first of the war and the great public at home was all for news they would have it in the they would have it in the intelligence and not a word in the the thought brought him to his feet though he had to throw his arm round the stem of the palm tree to steady his swimming head there was the big black man lying where he had fallen his huge chest with bullet marks every wound with its of flies the was out within a few yards of him with two hands over the dreadful thing which ha been his head the across him was lying s piece one barrel discharged the other at half cock scott shoot him your gun said a voice it was his english speaking body servant groaned at the disgrace of it he had lost his head so completely that he had forgotten to cock his gun and yet he knew that it was not fear but interest which had so absorbed him he put his hand up to his head and felt that a wet handkerchief was bound round his forehead are the two other they ran away one got shot in arm what s happened to me got cut on head catch bad man by arms and scott shoot him face bum very bad became conscious suddenly that there was a about his skin and an overpowering smell of burned hair imder his nostrils he put his hand to his moustache it was gone his eyebrows too he could not find them his head no doubt was very near to the s when they were rolling upon the ground together and this was the effect of the explosion of his own gun well he would have time to grow some more hair before he saw fleet street again but the cut perhaps was a more serious matter was it enough to prevent him from getting to the telegraph office at the only way was to try and see but there was only tiiat poor little grey of his there it stood in the evening sunshine with a sunk head and a bent knee as if its morning s work was still heavy upon it what hope was there of being able to do miles of heavy going upon that it would be a green flag etc strain upon the splendid of his companions and they were the and most enduring in the country the most enduring there was one creature more enduring and that was a real trotting if he had had one he might have got to the wires first after all for had said that over thirty miles they have the better of any horse yes if he had only had a real trotting and then like a flash came s words it is the kind of beast that the ride when they make their lightning the beasts the ride what had these dead ridden in an instant he was up the rocks with protesting at his heels had the two carried away all the or had they been content to save themselves the brass gleam from a litter of empty cases caught his eye and showed where the enemy had been crouching and then he could have shouted for joy for there in the hollow some little distance off rose the high white neck and the elegant head of such a as he had never set eyes upon before a swan like beautiful creature as far from the rough clumsy as the cart horse is from the the beast was kneeling imder the shelter of the rocks with its and bag of over its shoulders and its fashion with a rope round the knees threw his over the front while slipped off the cord forward flew towards the creature s neck then violently backwards madly at anything which might save him and then with a jerk which nearly snapped his he was thrown forward again but the was on its the three legs now and the young was safely seated upon one of the of the desert it was as gentle as it was swift and it stood its long neck and gazing round with its large brown eyes whilst his legs round the	4
and grasped the curved stick which had handed up to him there were two bridle one from the and one from the neck but he remembered that scott had said that it was the servant s and not the house bell which had to be pulled so he kept his grasp upon the lower then he touched the long neck with his stick and in an instant seemed to come from far behind him end the black rocks and yellow sand were dancing past on either side it was his first experience of a trotting and at first the motion although irregular and abrupt was not unpleasant having no or fixed point of any kind he could not rise to it but he as tightly as he could with his knee and he tried to sway backwards and forwards as he had seen the do it was a large very saddle and he was conscious that he was about on it with as httle power of as a ball upon a tea tray he the two sides with his hands to hold himself steady the creature had got into its long swinging stealthy trot its like feet making no sound upon the hard sand leaned back with his two hands hard behind him and he the creature on the sim had already sunk behind the line of black peaks which look like huge heaps at the mouth of a mine the western sky had taken that lovely green and pale pink tint which makes evening the flag etc ful upon the aiid the old brown river itself down amongst the black rocks caught some of the colours above the glare the heat and the of the insects had all ceased together in spite of his aching head could have cried out for pure physical joy as the creature beneath him flew along with him through that cool air with the north wind soothing his face he had looked at his watch and now he made a calculation of times and distances it was past six when he had left the camp over broken ground it was impossible that he could hope to do more than seven miles an hour less on bad parts more on the his recollection of the track was that there were few smooth and many bad he would be lucky then if he reached anywhere from twelve to one then the messages took a good two hours to go through for they had to be at at the best he could only hope to have told his story in fleet street at two or three in the morning it was possible that he might manage it but the chances seemed against him about three the morning edition would be made up and his chance gone for ever the one thing dear was that only the first man at the wires would have any chance at all and meant to be first if hard riding could do it so he tapped away at the bird like neck and the creature s long loose limbs went faster and faster at every tap where the rocky spurs ran down to the river horses would have to go while might get across so that felt that he was always gaining upon his companions but there was a price to be paid for the feeling he the three had heard of men who had burst when on journeys and he knew that the their bodies tightly in broad cloth when they prepare for a long march it had seemed unnecessary and ridiculous when he first began to speed over the level track but now when he got on the rocky paths he understood what it meant never for an instant was he at the same angle backwards forwards he swung with a jar at the end of each sway until he ached from his neck to his knee it caught him across the shoulders it caught him down the it him over the it marked the lower line of his ribs with one heavy dull throb he clutched here and there with his hand to try and ease the strain upon his muscles he drew up his knees altered his seat and set his teeth with a grim determination to go through with it should it kill him his head was his face and every joint in his body aching as if it were but he forgot all that when with the rising of the moon he heard the of horses hoofs down upon the track by the river and knew that unseen by them he had already got well abreast of his companions but he was hardly and the time already eleven all day the needles had been away without in the little iron hut which served as a telegraph station at with its bare walls and its packing case seats it was none the less for the moment one of the vital spots upon the earth s surface and the crisp might have come from the world old clock of destiny many august people had been at the other end of those wires and had with the moist faced military a french flag the green flag etc had demanded a pledge and an english had passed on the request to the general in with a question as to how it would affect the situation had nearly driven the out of his wits for of all crazy occupations the taking of a message when you are the key to the is the worst much high had been going on all day in the chambers of european and the results of it had been whispered into this little iron hut about two in the morning an enormous despatch had come at last to an end and the weary had opened the door and was lighting his pipe in the cool fresh air when he saw a plump down in the	4
dust and a man who seemed to be in the last stage of come rolling towards what s the time he cried in a voice which appeared to be the only sober thing about him it was on the clerk s lips to say that it was time that the was in his bed but it is not safe upon a campaign to be at the expense of men he contented himself therefore with the bald statement that it was after two but no retort that he could have devised could have had a more crushing effect the voice turned drunken also and the man caught at the door post to him two o dock i m done after all said he his head was tied up in a bloody handkerchief his face was crimson and he stood with his crooked as if the had all gone out of his bade the clerk began to that something out of the ordinary was in the wind how long does it take to get a wire to london about two hours r r i the and it s two now i could not get it there before four before three four no three but you said two hours yes but there s more than an hour s in by heaven do it yet cried and staggering to a packing case he began the of his famous despatch and so it came about that the had a long column with like an when the sheets of the intelligence and the were as blank as the faces of their and so too it happened that when two weary men upon two horses arrived about four in the morning at the post office they looked at each other in silence and departed noiselessly with the conviction that there are some situations with which the language is not capable of dealing the new look here said i do wish that you would confide in me the two famous students of roman remains sat together in s comfortable room overlooking the the night was cold and they had both pulled up their chairs to the unsatisfactory italian stove which threw out a of rather than of outside imder the bright winter stars lay the modem rome the long double chain of the electric lamps the brilliantly s the rushing carriages and the dense throng upon the foot paths but inside in the chamber of the rich young english there was only old rome to be seen cracked and time worn hung upon the walls grey old of and soldiers with their fighting heads and their hard cruel faces peered out from the comers on the centre table amidst a litter of fragments and ornaments there stood the famous by of the of which excited such interest and admiration when it was exhibited in hung from the ceiling and a litter of the rich red turkey carpet and of them all there was not one which was not of the most and of the utmost and value for though little more than thirty the new had a european reputation in this particular branch of and was provided with that long which either proves to be a fatal to the student s energies or if his mind is still true to its purpose gives him an enormous advantage in the race for fame had often been by whim and pleasure from his studies but his mind was an one capable of long and concentrated efforts which ended in sharp of languor his handsome face with its high white forehead its nose and its somewhat loose and mouth was a fair index of the compromise between strength and weakness in his nature of a very different type was his companion he came of a curious a german father and an italian mother with the robust qualities of the north mingling strangely with the softer graces of the south blue eyes lightened his sun face and above them rose a square massive forehead with a fringe of close yellow curls lying round it his strong firm jaw was clean shaven and his companion had frequently remarked how much it suggested those old roman which peered out from the shadows in the corners of his chamber under its german strength there lay always a suggestion of italian but ti e smile was so honest and the eyes so frank that one understood that this was only an indication of his with no actual bearing upon his character in age and in reputation he was on the same level as his english companion but his life and his work had both been far more twelve years before he had come as a poor student to rome and had lived ev the green flag etc since upon some small for which had been to him by the university of painfully slowly and with extraordinary and single he had climbed from rung to rung of the ladder of fame until now he was a member of the academy and there was every reason to believe that he would shortly be promoted to the chair of the greatest of german but the of purpose which had brought him to the same high level as the rich and brilliant englishman had caused him in everything outside their work to stand infinitely below him he had never found a pause in his studies in which to cultivate the social graces it was only when he spoke of his own subject that his face was filled with life and soul at other times he was silent and embarrassed too conscious of his own in larger subjects and impatient of that small talk which is the conventional refuge of those who have no thoughts to express and yet for some years there had been an which appeared to be slowly into a friendship between these two very different rivals the base and origin of this lay in the fact that	4
in their own studies each was the only one of the younger men who had knowledge and enthusiasm enough to properly appreciate the other their common interests and pursuits had brought them together and each had been attracted by the other s knowledge and then gradually something had been added to this had been amused by the frankness and simplicity of his rival while in turn had been fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which bad made such a favourite in roman the new society i say had because just at the moment the young englishman was somewhat under a a love affair the details of which had never quite come out had indicated a and upon his part which shocked many of his friends but in the bachelor of students and artists in which he preferred to move there is no veiy rigid code of in such matters and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders shrugged over the flight of two and the return of one the general sentiment was probably one of curiosity and perhaps of envy rather than of look here said looking hard at the face of his companion i do wish that you would confide in me as he spoke he waved his hand in the direction of a rug which lay upon the floor on the rug stood a long shallow fruit basket of the light work which is used in the and this was heaped with a litter of objects inscribed broken cracked torn rusty metal ornaments which to the might have seemed to have come straight from a s bin but which a would have speedily recognised as unique of their kind the pile of odds and ends in the flat work basket supplied exactly one of those missing links of development whidi are of such interest to the student it was the german who had brought them in and the englishman s eyes were hungry as he looked at them i won t interfere with your treasure but i should very much like to hear about it he continued while very lit a it is the green flag etc jl a discovery of the first importance these will make a sensation throughout europe for every one here there are a million there the german there are so many that a dozen might spend a lifetime over them and build up a reputation as solid as the castle of st sat thinking with his fine forehead wrinkled and his fingers playing with his long fair moustache you have given yourself away said he at last your words can only apply to one thing you have discovered a new i had no doubt that you had already come to that conclusion from an examination of these objects well they certainly appeared to indicate it but your last remarks make it certain there is no place except a which could contain so vast a store of relics as you describe quite so there is no mystery about that i discovered a new where ah that is my secret my dear suffice it that it is so situated that there is not one chance in a million of anyone else coming upon it its date is different from that of any known and it has been reserved for the of the highest christians so that the remains and the relics are quite different from anything which has ever been seen before if i was not aware of your knowledge and of your energy my friend i would not hesitate under the pledge of secrecy to tell you everything about it but as it is i think that i must certainly prepare my own report of the matter before i expose myself to such formidable competition i the new loved his subject with a love which was almost a a love which held him true to it amidst all the which come to a wealthy and dissipated young man he had ambition but his ambition was secondary to his mere abstract joy and interest in everything which concerned the old life and history of the he to see this new which his companion had discovered look here said he earnestly i you that you can trust me most in the matter nothing would induce me to put pen to paper about anything which i see i have your express permission i quite your feeling and i think it is most natural but you have really nothing whatever to fear from me on the other hand if you don t tell me i shall make a search and i shall most certainly discover it in that case of course i should make what use i liked of it since i should be under no obligation to you smiled thoughtfully over his cigar i have noticed friend said he that when i want information over any point you are not always so ready to supply it when did you ever ask me anything that i did not tell you you remember for example my giving you the material for your paper about the temple of the ah well that was not a matter of much importance if i were to question you upon some intimate thing would you give me an answer i wonder this new is a very intimate thing to me and i should certainly expect some sign of confidence in return what you are driving at i cannot imagine said the green flag etc the englishman but if you mean that you will answer my question about the if i answer any question which you may put to me i can assure you that i will certainly do so well then said leaning back in his and puffing a blue tree of smoke into the air tell me ail about your relations with miss sprang up in his chair and glared angrily at his companion what the devil	4
then i found she cared for me what at once oh no it took about three months of and but at last i won her over she understood that my separation from my wife made it impossible for me to do the right thing by her but she came all the same and we had a delightful time as long as it lasted but how about the other man the green flag etc shrugged his shoulders i suppose it is the of the said he if he had been the better man she would not have deserted him let s drop the subject for i have had enough of only one other thing how did you get rid of her in three weeks i well we had both cooled down a bit you understand she absolutely refused under any circumstances to come back to face the people she had known in rome now of course rome is necessary to me and i was already to be back at my work so there was one obvious cause of separation then again her old father turned up at the hotel in london and there was a scene and the whole thing became so unpleasant that really though i missed her dreadfully at first i was very glad to slip out of it now i rely upon you not to repeat of what i have said my dear i should not dream of repeating it but all that you say interests me very much for it gives me an insight into your way of looking at things which is entirely different from mine for i have seen so little of life and now you want to know about my new there s no use my trying to describe it for you would never find it by that there is only one thing and that is for me to take you there that would be splendid when would you like to come the sooner the better i am all impatience to see it well it is a night though a trifle cold suppose we start in an hour we must be very careful to keep the matter to ourselves if anyone saw us hunt the new ing in couples they would suspect that there was something going on we can t be too cautious said is it far some miles not too far to walk oh no we could walk there easily we had better do so then a s suspicions would be aroused if he dropped us both at some lonely spot in the dead of the night quite so i think it would be best for us to meet at the gate of the way at midnight i must go back to my lodgings for the matches and candles and things all right i i think it is very kind of you to let me into this secret and i promise you that i will write nothing about it until you have published your report good bye for the present you will me at the gate at twelve the cold dear air was filled with the musical from that of as wrapped in an italian overcoat with a lantern hanging from his hand walked up to the stepped out of the shadow to meet him you are ardent in work as well as in love said the german laughing yes i have been waiting here for nearly half an hour i hope you left no due as to where we were going not such a fool by jove i am chilled to the bone come on let us warm ourselves by a of hard walking j the green flag etc their footsteps sounded loud and crisp upon the rough stone of the road which is all that is left of the most famous highway of the world a peasant or two going home from the wine shop and a few carts of country produce coming up to rome were the only things which they met they swung along with the huge up through the darkness upon each side of them until they had come as far as the of st and saw against a rising moon the great circular of in front of them then stopped with his hand to his side your legs are longer than mine and you are more accustomed to walking said he laughing i think that the place where we turn off is somewhere here yes this is it round the comer of the now it is a very narrow path so perhaps i had better go in front and you can follow he had lit his lantern and by its light they were enabled to follow a narrow and track which wound across the of the the great of old rome lay like a monstrous across the landscape and their road led them under one of its huge arches and past the circle of crumbling bricks which marks the old at last stopped at a solitary wooden cow house and he drew a key from his pocket surely your is not inside a house cried the entrance to it is that is just the which we have against anyone else discovering it does the proprietor know of it not he he had foimd one or two objects which made the new me almost certain that his house was built on the entrance to such a place so i it from him and did my f myself come in and shut the door behind you it was a long empty building with the of the cows along one wall put his lantern down on the ground and shaded its in all directions save one by his overcoat it it might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place said he just help me to move this boarding the was loose in the corner and plank by plank	4
so leaving his effects at s hotel he reported at it was not the general but the head of the intelligence department who received him the chief being still absent upon that business which had called him found himself in the presence of a short thick set officer with a gentle voice and a placid expression which covered a remarkably acute and energetic the of i spirit with that quiet smile and manner he had and the most cunning of he stood a between his fingers looking at the i heard that you had come sorry the chief isn t here to see you gone up to the frontier you know my regiment is at i suppose sir that i should report myself there at once no i was to give you your orders he led the way to a map upon the wall and pointed with the end of his you see this place it s the of a little quiet i am afraid but excellent air you are to get out there as quick as possible you ll find a company of the ninth and half a of cavalry you will be in command looked at the name printed at the of two black lines without another dot upon the map for several inches round it a village sir no a well very good water i m afraid but you soon get accustomed to it s an important post as being at the of two all are closed now of course but still you never know who might come along them we are there i presume to prevent well between you and me there s really nothing to you are there to messengers they must call at the wells of course you have only just come out but you probably understand already enough about the conditions of this country to know that there is a great deal of about and that the is likely to try and keep in touch with his th green flag etc then again lives up that way he waved his to the westward the might send a message to him along that route anyhow your duty is to arrest coming along and get some account of him you let him go you don t talk i suppose i am learning sir well well you d have time enough for study there and you u have a native officer something or other who speaks english and can interpret for you well good bye tell the chief that you reported get on to your post now as quickly as you can railway to the post boat to and then two days on a in the desert with an guide and three baggage to tie one down to their own pace however even two and a half miles an hour mount up in time and at last on the third evening from the blackened heap of a hill which is called the looked down upon a distant of palms and thought that this cool patch of green in the of the merciless and was the fairest colour effect that he had ever seen an hour later he had ridden into the little camp the guard had turned out to salute him his native subordinate had greeted him in excellent english and he had fairly entered into his own it was not an place for a residence there was one large bowl shaped grassy depression sloping down to the three of brown and water there was the grove of palm trees also beautiful to look upon but in view of the fact that nature has provided her least shady trees on the very the of spot where shade is needed most a single did something to restore the balance here in the heat and in the cool he his square shouldered with their cheery black faces and their funny little pork pie caps was a at and the loved being so the was soon popular among them but one day was exactly like another the weather the view the employment the food everything was the same at the end of three weeks he felt that he had been there for interminable years and then at last there came something to break the monotony one evening as the sun was sinking rode slowly down the old road it had a fascination for him this narrow track winding among the and up the for he remembered how in the map it had gone on and on stretching away into the unknown heart of africa the countless of innumerable through many centuries had beaten it smooth so that now unused and deserted it still wound away the strangest of roads a foot broad and perhaps two thousand miles in length wondered as he rode how long it was since any traveller had up it from the south and then he raised his eyes and there was a man coming along the path for an instant thought that it might be one of his own men but a second glance assured him that this could not be so the stranger was dressed in the flowing robes of an and not in the close fitting of a soldier he was very tall and a high made him the green flag etc seem gigantic he strode swiftly along with head erect and the bearing of a man who knows no fear who could he be this formidable giant coming out of the unknown the possibly of a of savage and where could he have walked from ttie nearest well was a long hundred miles down the track at the frontier post of could not afford to receive casual visitors round his horse galloped into camp and gave the alarm then with twenty at his back he rode out again to the man was still coming on in spite of these hostile preparations for an instant he	4
had hesitated when first he saw the cavalry but escape was out of the question and he advanced with the air of one who makes the best of a bad job he made no resistance and said nothing when the hands of two clutched at his shoulders but walked quietly between their horses into camp shortly wards the came in again there were no signs of any the man was alone a splendid trotting had been found lying dead a little way down the track the mystery of the stranger s arrival was explained but why and whence and whither these were questions for which a zealous officer must find ah answer was disappointed that there were no it would have been a great start for him in the egyptian army had he fought a little action on his own account but even as it was he had a rare chance of the authorities he would love to his capacity to the head of the intelligence and even more to that grim chief who never forgot what was smart ihe d ut of or forgave what was slack the prisoner s dress and bearing showed that he was of importance mean men do not ride pure bred trotting his head with cold water drank a cup of strong coffee put on an imposing official instead of his and formed himself into a court of inquiry and judgment under the tree he would have liked his people to have seen him now with his two black in waiting and his egyptian native officer at his side he sat behind a camp table and the prisoner strongly guarded was led up to him the man was a handsome fellow with bold grey eyes and a long black beard cried the rascal is making faces at me a curious had passed over the man s es but so swiftly that it might have been a nervous he was now a model of oriental gravity ask him who he is and what he wants the native officer did so but the stranger made no reply save that the same sharp passed once more over his face well i m blessed i cried of all the impudent he keeps on at me who are you you rascal give an account of d ye hear but the tall was as to english as to the egyptian tried again and again the prisoner looked at with his inscrutable eyes and occasionally his face at him but never opened his mouth the scratched his head in bewilderment the green flag etc look here got to get some sense out of this fellow you say there are no papers on him no sir we found no papers no due of any kind he has come far sir a trotting does not die easily he has come from at least well we must get him to talk it is possible that he is deaf and dumb not he i never saw a man look more all there in my life you might send him across to and give else the credit no thank you this is my bird but how are we going to get him to find his tongue the egyptian s dark eyes skirted the and rested on the cook s fire perhaps said he if the thought fit he looked at the prisoner and then at the burning wood no no it wouldn t da no by jove that s going too far a very little might do it no no it s all very well here but it would sound just awful if ever it got as far as fleet street but i say he whispered we might frighten him a bit there s no harm in that no sir tell them to undo the man s order them to put a in the fire and make it red hot the prisoner watched the proceedings with an air which had more of amusement than of uneasiness he never as the black approached with the glowing shoe held upon two the d of will you speak now asked the savagely the prisoner smiled gently and his beard oh the infernal thing away cried jumping up in a passion there s no use trying to the fellow he knows we wont do it but i can and i u him and you tell him from me that if he hasn t found his tongue by to morrow morning til take the skin off his back as sure as my name s have you said all that yes sir well you can sleep upon it you beauty and a good night s rest may it give he the court and the prisoner as as ever was led away by e guard to his supper of rice and water was a kind hearted man and his own sleep was considerably disturbed by the prospect of the punishment which he must inflict next day he had hopes that the mere sight of the and the might prevail over his prisoner s obstinacy and then again he thought how shocking it would be if the man proved to be really dumb after all the possibility shook him so that he had almost determined by daybreak that he would send the stranger on to and yet what a tame conclusion it would be to the incident he lay upon his still it when the question suddenly and settled itself rushed into his tent sir he cried the prisoner is gone gone yes sir and your own best riding as well the green flag etc there is a cut in the tent and he got away unseen in the early morning the acted with all energy cavalry rode along every track examined the soft sand of the for signs of the fugitive but no trace was discovered the man had utterly disappeared with a heavy heart wrote an official report of the matter	4
and forwarded it to five days later there came a order from the chief that he should report himself there he feared the worst from the stern soldier who spared others as little as he spared himself and his worst were and weary he reported himself one night at the general s quarters behind a table piled with papers and strewn with maps the famous soldier and his chief of intelligence were deep in plans and figures their greeting was a cold one i captain said the general that you have allowed a very important prisoner to slip through your fingers i am sorry sir no doubt but that will not mend matters did you ascertain anything about him before you lost him no sir how was that i could get nothing out of him sir did you try yes sir i did what i could what did you do well sir i threatened to use physical force what did he say he said nothing the of what was he like a tall man sir rather a desperate character i should think any way by which we could identify him a long black beard sir grey eyes and a nervous way of his face well captain said the general in his stern voice i cannot congratulate you upon your first in the egyptian army you are aware that every english officer in this force is a picked man i have the whole british army from which to draw it is necessary therefore that i should insist upon the very highest it would be unfair upon the others to pass over any obvious want of zeal or intelligence you are from the royal i understand yes sir i have no doubt that your colonel will be glad to see you duties again s heart was too heavy for words he was silent i will let you know my final decision to morrow morning saluted and turned upon his heel you can sleep upon that you beauty and a good night s rest may it give you in bewilderment where had those words been used before who was it who had used them the general was standing erect both he and the chief of the intelligence were laughing stared at the tall figure the erect bearing the inscrutable grey eyes good lord he gasped well well captain we are said the l green flag the green flag etc general holding out his hand you gave me a bad ten minutes with that infernal red hot of yours done as much for you i don t think we can spare you for the royal just yet awhile but sir but the fewer questions the better perhaps but of course it must seem rather amazing i had a little private business with the it must be done in person i did it and came to your post in my return i kept on at you as a sign that i wanted a word with you alone yes yes i begin to understand i couldn t give it away before all those or where should i have been the next time i used my false beard and dress you put me in a very awkward position but at last i had a word alone with your egyptian officer who managed my escape all right he i ordered him to say nothing i had a score to settle with you but we dine at eight captain we live plainly here but i think i can do you a little better than you did me at a foreign romance there are many folk who knew in his old age from about the time of the revolution of until he died in the second year of the war he was always to be found in the same comer of the de at the end of the st honor coming down about nine in the evening and going when he could find no one to talk with it took some to listen to the old for his stories were beyond all belief and yet he was quick at the shadow of a smile or the slightest little raising of the eyebrows then his huge rounded back would itself his chin would project and his s would like a kettle drum when he got as far as ah r r r or ne me cr r r pas done it was quite time to remember that you had a ticket for the opera there was his story of and the five and there was his utterly absurd account of napoleon s second visit to then there most romance which he never ventured upon until his second bottle had been of the emperor s escape from st how he lived for a whole year in philadelphia while count de who was his living image him at but of all his stories there was none which was more the green flag etc notorious than that of the and the foreign office messenger and yet when s were written it was found that there really was some foundation for old s incredible statement you must know he would say that i left egypt after s i would gladly have stayed on for i was engaged in a translation of the and between i had thoughts at the time of embracing for i was deeply struck by the wisdom of their views about marriage they had made an incredible mistake however upon the subject of wine and this was what the who attempted to convert me could never get over then when old died and came to the top i felt that it was time for me to go it is not for me to speak of my own but you will readily understand tiiat the man does not care to be ridden by the mule i carried my and my papers to london where had been sent by the first to arrange	4
waiting for you half an hour said l you are to follow me at once he is with the french i spoke with such assurance that he never hesitated for an instant when he entered the coach and i followed him in my heart gave such a thrill of joy that i could hardly keep from shouting aloud he was a poor little creature this foreign office messenger not much bigger than and i can see my hands now and imagine what they were uke when i was seven and twenty years of age well now that i had him in my coach the question was what i should do with him i did not wish to hint him if i could help it this is a pressing business said he i have a despatch which i must deliver instantly our coach had rattled down street but now in accordance with my instruction it turned and began to go up again he cried what s this what then i asked we are driving back where is i the green fi ag etc we shall see liim presently let me out he shouted there s some in this coachman stop the coach let me out i say i dashed him back into his seat as he tried to turn the handle of the door he roared for help i clapped my palm across his mouth he made his teeth meet through the side of it i seized his own and bound it over his lips he still and but the noise was covered by ihe of our wheels we were passing the minister s house and there was no candle in the window the messenger sat quiet for a little and i could see the of his eyes as he stared at me through the gloom he was partly stunned i think by the force with which i had hurled him into his seat and also he was pondering perhaps what he should do next presently he got his mouth partly free from the you can have my watch and my purse if you will let me go said he sir said i i am as honourable a man as you are yourself who are you then my name is of no importance what do you want with me it is a bet a bet what d you mean do you understand that i am on the government service and that you will see the inside of a jail for this that is the bet that is the sport said l you may find it poor sport before you finish he cried what is this insane bet of yours then a foreign office romance t i have bet i answered that i will a chapter of the to the first gentleman whom i should meet in the street i do not know what made me think of it save that my translation was always running in my head he clutched at the door handle and again i had to him back into his seat how long will it take he gasped it depends on the chapter i answered a short one then and let me go but is it fair i argued when i say a chapter i do not mean the shortest chapter but rather one which should be of average length help help he and i was compelled again to his a little patience said i and it will soon be over i should like to the chapter which would be of most interest to yourself you will confess that i am trying to make things as pleasant as i can for you he slipped his mouth free again quick then quick he groaned the chapter of the i suggested yes yes or that of the fleet yes yes only proceed we had passed the window and there was no candle i settled down to the chapter of the to him perhaps you do not know your very well well i knew it by heart then as i know it by heart now the style is a little for anyone who is in a hurry but then what would you have the greek flag etc the people in the east are never in a hurry and it was written for them i repeated it all with the dignity and solemnity which a sacred book demands and the young englishman he and groaned when the horses standing on three feet and placing the tip of their fourth foot upon the ground were in front of him in the evening he said i have loved the love of earthly good above the remembrance of things on high and have spent the time in these horses bring the horses back to me and when they were brought back he an to cut o f their legs and it was at this moment that the young englishman sprang at me my god how little can i remember of the next few minutes he was a this of a man he had been trained to strike i tried to catch him by the hands he came upon my nose and upon my e i put down my head and thrust at him with it he came from below but ah i was too much for him i hurled myself upon him and he had no place where he could escape from my he fell flat upon the cushions and i seated myself upon him with such conviction that the wind flew from him as from a burst then i searched to see what there was with which i could tie him i drew the strings from my shoes and with one i secured his wrists and with another his ankles then i tied the round his mouth again so that he could only lie and glare at me when i had done all this and had stopped the bleeding of my own	4
out a few particulars about the man s age and professional career from my small medical shelf i took down the medical and turned up the name there were several but s the op thb ba one who could be our visitor i read his aloud james m r c s house surgeon from to at cross hospital of the prize for comparative with essay entitled is disease a correspond ing member of the society author o some of do we progress journal of march medical officer for the of and high no mention of that local hunt said with a mischievous smile but a country doctor as you very observed i think that i am fairly justified in my as to the i said if i remember right amiable and absent minded it is my experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives only an one who a london career for the country and only an absent minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting card after waiting an hour in room and the dog has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master being a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible the dog s jaw as shown in the space between these marks is too mr broad in my opinion for a and not broad enough for a it may have been yes by jove it iy a curly haired he had risen and paced the room as he spoke now he halted in the recess of the window there was such a ring of conviction in his voice that i glanced up in surprise my dear fellow how can you possibly be so sure of that for the very simple reason that i see the dog himself on our very door step and there is the ring of its owner don t move i beg you he is a professional brother of yours and your presence may be of assistance to me now is the dramatic moment of fate when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life and you know not whether for good or ill what does dr james the man of science ask of the in crime come in the appearance of our visitor was a surprise to me since i had expected a typical country he was a very tall thin man with a long nose like a which out between two keen grey eyes set closely together and sparkling brightly from behind a pair of gold glasses he was clad in a professional but rather fashion for his frock coat was dingy and his trousers though young his long back was already and he walked with a forward thrust of hb the op the bead and a general air of peering benevolence he entered his eyes fell upon the stick in s hand and he ran towards it with an exclamation of joy i am so very glad said he i was not sure whether i had left it here or in the shipping office i would not lose that stick for the world a i see said yes sir from cross hospital from one or two friends there on the of my marriage dear dear that s bad said his head dr through his glasses in mill astonishment why was it bad that you have our little your marriage you say yes sir i married and so left the hospital and with it all hopes of a consulting practice it was necessary to make a home of my own come come we are not so far wrong after all said and now dr james sir a humble m r c s and a man of precise mind evidently a in science mr a up of shells on the shores of the great unknown ocean i presume that it is mr whom j am addressing and not i mr no this is my friend dr glad to meet you sir i have heard your name mentioned in connection with that of your friend you interest me very much mr i had hardly expected so a skull or such well marked development would you have any objection to my running my finger along your a cast of your skull until the original is available would be an ornament to any museum it is not my intention to be but i confess that i your skull waved our strange visitor into a chair you are an in your line of thought i perceive sir as i am in mine said he i observe from your forefinger that you make your own have no hesitation in lighting one the man drew out paper and tobacco and the one up in the other with surprising dexterity he had long quivering fingers as and restless as the of an insect was silent but his little darting glances showed me the interest which he took in our curious companion i presume sir said he at last that it was not merely for the purpose of examining my skull that you have done me the honour to call here last night and again to day no sir no though i am happy to have had the hound of the the opportunity of doing that as well i came to you mr because i recognised that i am myself an man and because i am suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem as i do that you the second highest expert in europe indeed sir may i inquire who has the to be the first asked with some to the man of precisely scientific mind the work of must always appeal strongly then had you not better consult him i said sir to the precisely scientific mind but as a practical man of affairs it is	4
acknowledged that yon stand alone i trust sir that i have not just a little said i think dr you would do wisely if without more you would kindly tell me plainly what the exact nature of the problem is in which you demand my thb curse of the tt have in my pocket a manuscript said dr i james jl i observed it as you entered the room said it is an old manuscript early century unless it is a how can you say that sir you have presented an inch or two of it to my examination all the time that you have been talking it would be a poor expert who could not give the date of a document within a or so you may possibly have read my little upon the subject i put that at the exact date is dr drew it from his breast pocket this family paper was committed to my care by sir charles whose sudden and tragic death some three months ago created so much excitement in i may say that i was his personal friend as well as his medical attendant he was a strong minded man sir shrewd practical and as as i am yet he took this document very seriously and his mind was prepared for just such an end a did eventually overtake him ix the op the stretched out his hand for the manuscript and it upon his knee you win observe the alternative use ot the long s and the short it is one of several indications which enabled me to fix the date i looked over his shoulder at the yellow paper and the faded at the head was written and below in large figures it appears to be a statement of some sort yes it is a statement of a certain legend which runs in the family but i understand that it is something more modern and practical upon which you wish to con me most modem a most practical pressing matter which must be decided within twenty tour hours but the manuscript is short and is intimately connected with the with your permission i will read it to you leaned back in his chair placed his finger tips together and closed his eyes with an air of resignation dr turned the to the light and read in a high voice the following curious old world narrative of the origin of the hound of the there have been many statements yet as i come in a direct line from and as i had the story from my father who also had it from his i have set it down with all belief that it occurred c r e op the b ask e it vi p as is here set forth and i would have you believe my sons that the same justice which sin may also most graciously forgive it and that no ban is so heavy but that by prayer and re i it may be removed learn then from this not to fear the fruits of the past but rather be in the future that those foul passions whereby our family has suffered so may not again be to our know then that in the time of the great rebellion the history of which by the learned lord i most earnestly commend to your attention this of was held by of that name nor can it be that he was a most wild profane and man this in truth his neighbours might have seeing that saints have never flourished in those parts but there was in him a certain wanton and cruel humour which made his name a through the west it chanced that this came to love pf indeed so dark a passion may be known under lo bright a name the daughter of a who held lands near the estate but the young maiden being discreet and of good would ever avoid him for she feared his evil name so it came to pass that one this with five or six of his idle and wicked companions stole down upon the farm and carried off the father and brothers being from home as he when they had brought her to the u the hound of the hall the maiden was placed in an upper chamber while and his friends sat down to a long as was their nightly custom now the poor upstairs was like to have her wits turned at the singing and shouting and terrible oaths which came up to her from below for they say that the words used by when he was in wine were such as might blast the man who said them at last in the stress of her fear she did that which might have the or most active man for by the aid of the growth of ivy which covered and still covers the south wall she came down from under the and so homeward across the there being three the hall and her father s farm it chanced that some little time later left his guests to food and drink with other worse things perchance to his captive and so found the cage empty and the bird escaped then as it would seem he became as one that hath a devil for rushing down the stairs into the dining hall he sprang upon the great table and flying before him and be cried aloud before all the company that he would that very night render his body and to the powers of evil if he might but overtake the and while the stood aghast at the fury of the man one more wicked or it may be more drunken than the rest cried out that they should put the hounds upon her ran from the house crying to his groom the curse of the that they should saddle his r v e and the pack and	4
speculation more wise than those who go on until the wheel turns against them he realized his gains and returned to england with them it is only two years since he took up his residence at hall and it is common talk how large were those schemes of and improvement which have been interrupted by his death being himself it was his openly expressed desire that the whole should within his own lifetime profit by his good fortune and many will have personal reasons for his end his generous to local and county have been frequently in these columns the circumstances connected with the death of sir charles cannot be said to have been entirely cleared up by the but at least enough has been done to dispose of those to local superstition has given rise there is no r son whatever to suspect foul play or to imagine that death could be from any but natural causes sir charles was a and a man who may be said to have been in some ways of an eccentric habit of mind in spite of his considerable wealth he was simple in his personal tastes and his servants at hall consisted of a married couple named the husband acting as butler and the wife as housekeeper their evidence by that of several friends to show that the hound of the sir charles s health has for some time been and points especially to some affection of the heart itself in changes of colour and acute attacks of nervous depression dr james the friend and medical at j of the deceased has given evidence to thej same effect i the facts of the case are simple sir charles was in the habit every night before going to bed of walking down the famous alley of hall the evidence of the shows that this had been his custom on the th of may sir charles had declared his intention of starting next day for london and had ordered to prepare his luggage that night he went out as usual tor his walk in the course of which he was in the habit of smoking a cigar he never returned at twelve o clock finding the hall door still open became alarmed and lighting a lantern went in search of his master the day had been wet and sir charles s were easily traced down the alley half way down this walk there is a gate which leads out on to the there were that sir charles had stood for some little time here he then proceeded down the alley and it was at the far end of it that his body was discovered which has not been explained is the statement of that his master s altered their character from the time that he passed the the curse of the b e gate and that he appeared from thence to have been walking upon his toes one a horse dealer was on the at no great distance at the time but he appears by his own confession to have been the worse for drink he declares that he heard cries but is unable to state from what direction they came no signs of violence were to be discovered upon sir charles s person and though the doctor s evidence pointed to an almost incredible so great that dr refused at first to believe that it was indeed his friend and patient who lay before him it was explained that that is a symptom which j not unusual in cases of and death from exhaustion this explanation was borne out by the post examination which showed long standing disease and the s jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence it is well that this is so for it is obviously of the utmost importance that sir charles s heir should settle at the hall and continue the good work which has been so sadly interrupted had the finding of the not finally put an end to the romantic stories which have been whispered in connection with the affair it might have been difficult to find a tenant for hall it is understood that the next of kin is mr henry if he be still alive the son of sir charles s younger brother the young man when last heard of was in america and in the hound of the fi e r v i l i e are being with a view to ing him of his good fortune dr his paper and replaced it in his pocket those are the public facts mr in con j with the death of sir charles i must thank you said calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest i had observed some newspaper comment at the time but i was exceedingly by that little affair of the and in my anxiety to oblige the pope i lost touch with several interesting english cases this article you say contains all the public facts it does then let me have the private ones he leaned back put his finger tips together and assumed his most and expression in doing so said dr who had begun to show signs of some strong emotion i telling that which i have not confided to anyone my motive for it from the l inquiry is that a man of science from placing himself in the position of seeming to a popular superstition i had the further motive that hall as the paper says would certainly remain if anything were done to increase its already rather grim reputation for both these reasons i thought that i was justified in the curse of the telling rather less than i knew since no practical good could result from it but with you there is no reason why i should not be perfectly frank the is very inhabited and those who live near each other	4
are thrown very much together for this reason i saw a good deal of sir charles with the exception of mr of hall and mr the there are no other men of education within many miles sir charles was a retiring man but the chance of his illness brought us together and a community of in science kept us so he had brought back much scientific information from south africa and many a charming evening we have spent together discussing the comparative of the and the within the last few months it became plain to me that sir charles s nervous system was strained to the breaking point he had taken this legend which i have read you exceedingly to heart so much so that although he would walk in his own grounds nothing would induce him to go out upon the at night incredible as it may appear to you mr he was honestly convinced that a dreadful fate his family and certainly the records which he was able to give of his ancestors were not encouraging the idea of some ghastly presence constantly haunted him and on more than one occasion he has asked me whether i had on my medical journeys at night as the hound op the b as is e r v i l l e ever seen any strange creature or heard the of a hound the latter question he put to me several times and always with a voice which with excitement i can well remember driving up to his house in the evening some three weeks before the fatal event he chanced to be at his hall door i had descended from my and was standing in front of him when i saw his eyes fix themselves over my shoulder and stare past me with an expression of the most dreadful horror i round and had just time to catch a glimpse of something which i took to be a large black calf passing at the head of the drive so excited and alarmed was he that i was compelled to go down to the spot where the animal had been and look around for it it was gone however and the incident appeared to make the worst impression upon his mind i stayed with him all the evening and it was on that occasion to the emotion which he had shown that he confided to my keeping that narrative which i read to you when first i came i mention this small episode because it some importance in view of the tragedy which followed but i was convinced at the time that the matter was entirely trivial and his excitement had no justification it was at my advice that sir charles was about to go to london his heart was i knew affected and the constant anxiety in which he lived however the cause of it might be was evidently i the curse of the having a serious effect upon his health i thought that a few months among the of town would send him back a new man mr a mutual friend who was much concerned at his state of healthy was of the same opinion at the last instant came this terrible catastrophe on the night of sir charles s death the butler who made the discovery sent the groom on horseback to me and as i was sitting up late i was able to reach hall within an hour of the event i checked and all the which were mentioned at the i followed the footsteps down the alley i saw the spot at the gate where he seemed to have waited i remarked the change in the shape of the prints after that point i noted that there were no other footsteps save those of on the soft gravel and finally i carefully examined the body which had not been touched until my arrival sir charles lay on his face his arms out his fingers dug into the ground and his features with strong emotion to such an extent that i could hardly have sworn to his identity there was certainly no physical injury of any kind but one false statement was made by at the he said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body he did not observe any but i did some little distance off but fresh and clear u ac the hound of the a man s or a woman s dr looked strangely at us for an and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered mr they were the of a gigantic hound ill thb problem i confess that at these words a shudder passed through me there was a thrill in the doctor s voice which showed that he was him self deeply moved by that which he told us leaned forward in his excitement and his eyes had the hard dry glitter which shot from them he was keenly interested you saw this as clearly as i see you and you said nothing what was the use how was it that no one else saw it the marks were some twenty yards from the body and no one gave them a thought i don t suppose i should have done so had i not known this legend there are many sheep dogs on the no doubt but this was no sheep dog you say it was large enormous but it had not approached the body no what sort of night was it the hound of the and raw but not actually no what is the alley like there are two lines of old hedge feet high and impenetrable the walk in the j is about eight feet across is there anything between the hedges and t walk yes there is a strip of grass about six fe broad on either side i understand that the hedge is penetrated t	4
one point by a gate yes the gate which leads on to is there any other opening none so that to reach the alley one either hai to come down it from the house or else to enter it by the gate there is an exit through a summer house at the far end had sir charles reached this no he lay about fifty yards from it now tell me dr and this is important the marks which you saw were on the path and not on the grass no marks could show on the grass were they on the same side of the path as the gate closed and how high was it about four feet high the problem yes they were on the edge of the path on the same side as the gate you interest me exceedingly another point was the gate closed closed and how high was it about four feet high then anyone could have got over it yes and what marks did you see by the none in particular good heaven did no one examine yes i examined myself and found nothing it was all very confused sir charles had evidently stood there for five or ten minutes how do you know that because the ash had twice dropped from his cigar excellent i this is a after our own heart but the marks he had left his own marks all over that small patch of gravel i discern no others struck his hand against his knee with an impatient gesture if i had only been there he cried it is evidently a case of extraordinary interest and one which presented immense opportunities to the scientific expert that g page upon which i ie hound op the might have read so much has been long ere this by the rain and by the of i curious oh dr dr to think that you should not have called me j you have indeed much to answer for i could not you in mr these facts to the world and i have s ready given my reasons for not wishing to do besides besides why do you hesitate there is a realm in which the most acute aw most experienced of is helpless you mean that the thing is supernatural i did not positively say so no but you evidently think it since the tragedy mr there have j come to my ears several incidents which are hard j to reconcile with the settled order of nature for example i nd that before the terrible event occurred several people had seen a creature upon the which with this demon and which could not possibly be any animal known to science they all agreed that it was a huge creature luminous ghastly and i have these men one of them a hard headed one a and one a farmer who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition exactly corresponding to the hell hound of the legend i assure you that there is a the problem of terror in the district and that it is a hardy man who will cross the at night and you a trained man of science believe it to be supernatural i do not know what to believe shrugged his shoulders i have hitherto confined my to this world said he in a modest way i have evil but to take on the father of evil himself would perhaps be too ambitious a task yet you must admit that the is material the original hound was material enough to a man s throat out and yet he was as well i see that you have quite gone over to the but now dr tell me this if you hold these views why have you come to consult me at all you tell me in the same breath that it is useless to investigate sir charles s death and that you desire me to do it i did not say that i desired you to do it then how can i assist you by me as to what i should do with sir henry who arrives at station dr looked at his watch in exactly one hour and a quarter he being the heir yes on the death of sir charles we inquired for this young gentleman and found that he had in canada from the accounts which the ho md of the b as k e r vi i l have reached us he is an excellent fellow in every way i speak now not as a medical man but as a and of sir s will is no other i presume none the only other whom we have been able to trace was the youngest of three brothers of whom poor sir charles was the elder the second brother who died young is the father of this lad henry the third was the black sheep of the family he came of the old strain and was the very image they tell me of the family picture of old he made england too hot to hold him fled to central america and died there in of yellow fever henry is the last of the in one hour and five minutes i meet him at station i have had a wire that he arrived at this morning now mr what would you advise me to do with him j why should he not go to the home of fathers it seems natural does it not and yet consider that every who goes there meets with an evil fate i feel sure that if sir charles could have spoken with me before his death he would have warned me against bringing this the last of the old race and the heir to great wealth to that deadly place and yet it cannot be denied that the prosperity of the whole poor bleak country side the problem	4
depends upon his presence all the good which has been done by sir charles will crash to the ground if there is no tenant of the hall i fear lest i should be swayed too much by my own interest in the matter and that is why i bring the case before you and ask for your advice considered for a little time put into plain words the matter is this said lie in your opinion there is a agency which makes an abode for a that is your opinion at least i might go the length of saying that there is some evidence that this may be so r exactly but surely if your supernatural ttie be correct it could work the young man evil in london as easily as in a devil with merely local powers like a would be too inconceivable a thing you put the matter more than you would probably do if you were brought into personal contact with these things your advice then as i understand it is that the young man will be as safe in as in don he comes in fifty minutes what would yon recommend i recommend sir that you take a cab call off your who is scratching at my front door ind proceed to to meet sir henry then hound of the and then you will say nothing to him at al i have made up my mind about the matter how long will it take you to make up mind twenty four hours at ten o clock to morrow dr i will be much obliged to you if you will call upon me here and it will be of help to me in my plans for the future if you will bring sir henry with you i will do so mr he the appointment on his shirt and hurried off in his strange peering absent minded fashion i stopped him at the head of the stair only one more question dr you say that before sir charles s death end people saw this apparition upon the three people did did any see it after i have not heard of any thank you good morning returned to his seat with that quiet look i of inward satisfaction which meant that he had i congenial task before him going out unless i can help you no my dear fellow it is at the hour of that i turn to you for aid but this is splendid really unique from some points of view when you pass s would you ask him to send up a pound of the strongest tobacco thank you the problem b would be as well if you could make it not to return before evening then i should be very glad to compare impressions as to this most interesting problem which has been submitted to us this morning i knew that seclusion and solitude were ver necessary for friend in those hours of intense mental during which he weighed every of evidence constructed alternative theories balanced one against the other and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which i therefore spent the day at my club and did not return to baker street until evening it was nearly nine o clock when i found myself in the sitting room once more my first impression as i opened the door was a fire had broken out for the room was so filled with smoke that the light of the lamp upon the table was by it as i entered however my fears were set at rest for it was the of strong coarse tobacco which took me by the throat and set me through the haze i had a vague vision of in his dressing gown up in an arm chair with his black clay pipe between his lips several rolls of paper lay around him caught cold said he no it s this poisonous atmosphere i suppose it is pretty thick now that you men it thick it is intolerable the of the b as k e r v i l open the window then you have been at club all day i perceive my dear am i right certainly but how he laughed at my bewildered expression there is a delightful freshness about you son which makes it a pleasure to exercise any small powers which i possess at your expense a gentleman goes forth on a and day he returns in the evening with the on his hat and his boots he has been a therefore all day he is not a man with intimate friends where then could he have been is il not obvious well it is rather obvious the world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever where do yoa think that i have been a also on the contrary i have been to in spirit exactly my body has remained in this and has i regret to observe consumed in my absence two large pots of coffee and an incredible amount of tobacco after you left i sent down to s for the map of this portion ol ihe and my spirit has over it all day i flatter myself that i could find my way about a large scale map i presume i e s i i h the problem very large he one section and held it over his knee here you have the particular district which concerns us that is in the middle with a wood round it exactly i fancy the alley though not marked under that name must stretch along this line with the as you perceive upon the right of it this small of buildings here is the hamlet of where our friend dr has his head quarters within a of five miles there are as you see only a very few scattered dwellings here is hall which	4
was mentioned in the narrative there is a house indicated here which may be the residence of the if i remember right was his name here are two farm houses high tor and then fourteen miles away the great prison of between and around these scattered points extends the desolate lifeless this then is the stage upon which tragedy has been played and upon which we may help to play it again it must be a wild place yes the setting is a worthy one if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men then you are yourself to the natural explanation the devil s agents may be of flesh and blood may they not there are two questions waiting for tbe hound of the us at the outset the one is whether any crime has been committed at all the second is what is the crime and how was it committed of course if dr s should be correct and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of i nature there is an end of our investigation but we are bound to all other before falling back upon this one i think we ll shut that window again if you don t mind it is a singular thing but i find that a concentrated atmosphere helps a of thought i have not pushed it to the length of getting into a box to think but that is the logical of my con t have you turned the case over in mind yes i have thought a good deal of it in course of the day what do you make of it it is very bewildering it has certainly a character of its own there are points of distinction about it that change in the for example what do you make that said that the man had walked on tip toe down that portion of the alley he only repeated what some fool had said at the why should a man walk on down the alley what then he was running running desperate on t ous h in e ol tip l the problem ly running for his life running until he burst his heart and fell dead upon his face running from what there lies our problem there are indications that the man was with fear before ever he began to run how can you say that i am that the cause of his fears came to him across the if that were so and it seems most probable only a man who had lost his wits would have run from the house instead of towards it if the s evidence may be taken as true he ran with cries for help in the direction where help was least likely to be then again whom was he waiting for that night and why was he waiting for him in the alley rather than in his own house you think that he was waiting for the man was elderly and we can understand his taking an evening stroll but the ground was damp and the night is it natural that he should stand for five or ten minutes as dr with more practical sense than i should have given him credit for from the cigar but he went out every evening i think it unlikely that he waited at the every evening on the contrary the evidence is that he avoided the that night he waited there it was the night before he made his depart fl the hound of the for london the thing takes shape it becomes might i ask you to hand me my and we will all further thought upon this business until we have had the advantage of meeting dr and sir henry in the morning iv sir henry our breakfast table was cleared early and waited in his dressing gown for the promised interview our were punctual to their appointment for the clock had just struck ten when dr was shown up followed by the young the latter was a small alert dark eyed man about thirty years of age very built with thick black eyebrows and a strong face he wore a suit and had the weather beaten appearance of one who has spent most of his time in the open air and yet there was something in his steady eye and the quiet assurance of his bearing which indicated the gentleman this is sir henry said dr why yes said he and the strange thing is mr that if my friend here had not proposed coming round to you this morning i should have come on my own account i understand that you think out little and i ve had one this morning which wants more thinking out than i am able to give to it pray take a seat sir henry do i understand the hound of the you to say that you have yourself had some experience since you arrived in loi don nothing of much importance mr only a joke as like as not it was this letter you can call it a letter which reached me this ing he laid an envelope upon the table and we all bent over it it was of common quality in colour the address sir henry hotel was printed in rough characters the post mark cross and date of the preceding evening who knew that you were going to the hotel asked glancing keenly across at our visitor no one could have known we only decided after i met dr but dr was no doubt already stopping there no i had been staying with a friend said the doctor there was no possible indication that we intended to go to this hotel hum seems to be very deeply interested in your movements out of the envelope he took a half sheet of paper folded into four this he opened and spread flat upon	4
the table across the middle of it a single sentence had been formed by the expedient of printed words upon it it ran as you value your life i sir henry or your reason keep away from the the word only was printed in ink now said sir henry perhaps you will tell me mr what in thunder is the meaning of that and who it is that takes so much interest in my affairs what do you make of it dr you must allow that there is nothing supernatural about this at any rate no sir but it might very well come from who was convinced that the business is supernatural what business asked sir henry sharply it seems to me that all you gentlemen know a great deal more than i do about my own affairs you shall share our knowledge before you leave this room sir henry i promise you that said we will confine ourselves for the present with your permission to this very interesting document which must have been put together and posted yesterday evening have you yesterday s times it is here in the corner might i trouble you for it the inside page please with the leading articles he glanced swiftly over it running his eyes up and down the columns capital article this on free trade permit me to give you an extract from it you may be into imagining that your own the hound op the special trade or your own industry will be encouraged by a but it stands to reason that such must in the long run keep away wealth from the country the value of our and lower the general conditions of life in this island what do you think of that cried in high glee rubbing his hands together with satisfaction don t you think that is an admirable sentiment dr looked at with an air professional interest and sir henry turned a pair of puzzled dark eyes upon me i don t know much about the and things of that kind said he but it seems to me we ve i got a bit off the trail so far as that note is con on the contrary think we are particularly hot upon the trail sir henry here knows more about my methods than you do but i fear that even he has not quite grasped the significance of this sentence no i confess that i see no connection and yet my dear there is so very close a connection that the one is extracted out of the other you your your hfe reason value keep away from the don t you see now whence these words have been taken by thunder you re right well it that isn t cried sir henry if any possible doubt remained it is settled by i sir henry the fact that keep away and from the are cut out in one piece well so it really mr this anything which i could have imagined said dr gazing at my friend in amazement i could understand anyone saying that the words were from a newspaper but that you should name which and add that it came from the leading article is really one of the most remarkable things which i have ever known how did you do it i presume doctor that you could tell the skull of a negro from that of an most certainly but how because that is my special the differences are obvious the crest the angle the curve the but this is my special and the differences are equally obvious there is as much difference to my eyes between the type of a times article and the print of an evening paper as there could be your negro and your the detection of types is one of the most branches of knowledge to the special expert in crime though i confess that once when i was very young i confused the with the western morning news but a times leader is entirely and these words could have been taken from nothing else the hound of the as it was done yesterday the strong probability wai that we should find the words in yesterday s issue so far as i can follow you then mr said sir henry cut out this message with a j nail said you can see i that it was a very short since the had to take two over keep away that is so then cut out the message with a pair of short it with said with on to the paper but i want to know why the word should have been writ ten because he could not find it in print the i other words were all simple and might be found in i any issue but would be less common why of course that would explain it have j you read anything else in this message mr j there are one or two indications and yet the utmost pains have been taken to remove all the address you observe is printed in rough characters but the times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated we may take it therefore that the letter was composed by an educated man who wished to pose as an one and his effort to conceal his own writing suggests that that writing might be known sir henry or come to be known by you again you will observe that the words are not on in an accurate line but that some are much higher than others life for example is quite out of its proper place that may point to carelessness or it may point to agitation and hurry upon the part of the on the whole i incline to the latter view since the matter was evidently important and it is unlikely that the of such a letter would be careless if	4
he were in a hurry it opens up the interesting question why he should be in a hurry since any letter posted up to early morning would reach sir henry before he would leave his hotel did the fear an interruption and from whom we are coming now rather into the region of guess work said dr say rather into the region where we balance and choose the most likely it is the scientific use of the imagination but we have always some material basis on which to start our tions now you would call it a guess no doubt but i am almost certain that this address has been written in an hotel how in the world can you say that if you examine it carefully you will see that both the pen and the ink have given the writer trouble the pen has twice in a single word and has run dry three times in a short address showing that there was very little ink in the the hound of the bottle now a private pen or ink bottle is seldom allowed to be in such a state and the combination of the two must be quite rare but you know the hotel ink and the hotel pen where it is rare to get anything else yes i have very little hesitation in saying that could we examine the waste paper baskets of the hotels round cross until we found the remains of the leader we could lay our hands straight upon the person who sent this singular message what s this he was carefully examining the upon which the words were holding it only an inch or two from his eyes well nothing said he throwing it down it is a blank half sheet oi paper without even a upon it i think we have drawn as much as we can from this curious letter and now sir henry has anything else of interest happened to you since you have been in london why no mr i think not you have not observed anyone follow or watch you i seem to have walked right into the thick of a novel said our visitor why in thunder should anyone follow or watch me we are coming to that you have nothing else to report to us before we go into this matter i i henry ba it depends upon what you think worth i think anything out of the ordinary routine ol life well worth sir henry smiled i don t know much of british life yet for i have spent nearly all my time in the states and in canada but i hope that to lose one of your boots is not part of the ordinary routine of life over here you have lost one of your boots my dear sir cried dr it is only you will find it when you return to the hotel what is the use of troubling mr with trifles of this kind well he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine exactly said however foolish the incident may seem you have lost one of your boots you say well it anyhow i put them both outside my door last night and there was only one in the morning i could get no sense out of the chap who them the worst of it is that i only bought the pair last night in the strand and i have never had them on if you have never worn them why did you put them out to be cleaned they were tan boots and had never been that was why i put them out then i understand that on your arrival in t pair the hound of the don yesterday you went out at once and bought i r of boots i did a good deal of dr here went round with me you see if i am to be squire down there i must dress the part and it may be that i have got a little careless in my ways out west among other things i bought these brown boots gave six dollars for them and had one stolen before ever i had them on my feet it seems a singularly useless thing to steal said i confess that i share dr s belief that it will not be long before the j missing boot is found and now gentlemen said the decision it seems to me that i have spoken quite enough about the little that i know it is time that you kept your promise and gave me a full account j of what we are al driving at your request is a very reasonable one answered dr i think you could not j do better than to tell your story as you told it torn us t thus encouraged our scientific friend drew his papers from his pocket and presented the whole case as he had done upon the morning before sir henry with the deepest at i and with an occasional exclamation of sur well i seem to have come into an inheritance with a vengeance said he when the long narrative i b e t is ie sir henry was finished of course i ve heard of the hound ever since i was in the nursery it s the pet story of the family though i never thought of taking it seriously before but as to my uncle s death well it all seems boiling up in my head and i can t get it clear yet you don t seem quite to have made up your mind whether it s a case for a policeman or a clergyman precisely and now there s this affair of the letter to me at the hotel i suppose that fits into its place it seems to show that knows more than we do about what goes on upon the said dr and	4
also said that is not ill disposed you since they warn you of danger or it may be that they wish for their own purposes to scare me away well of course that is possible also i am very much indebted to you dr for introducing me to a problem which presents several interesting but the practical point which we now have to decide sir henry is whether it is or is not advisable for you to go to hall why should i not go there seems to be danger do you mean danger from this family of do you mean danger from human beings y the op the well that is what we have to find out whichever it is my answer is fixed there is no devil in hell mr and there is no man upon earth who can prevent me from going to the home of my own people and you may take that to be my final answer his dark brows and his face flushed to a dusky red as he spoke it was evident that the fiery temper of the was not extinct in this their last representative meanwhile said he i have hardly had time to think over all that you have told me it s a big thing for a man to have to understand and to decide at one sitting i should like to have a quiet hour by myself to make up my mind now look here mr it s half past eleven now and i am going back right away to my hotel suppose you and your friend dr come round and with us at two i ll be able to tell you more then how this thing strikes me is that convenient to you perfectly then you may expect us shall i have a called i d prefer to walk for this has me i rather i ll join you in a walk with pleasure said hit companion then we meet again at two o clock au j and good morning we heard the steps of our visitors descend i henry stair and the bang of the front door in an instant had changed from the languid to the man of action your hat and boots quick not a moment to lose he rushed into his room in his dressing gown and was back again in a few seconds in a frock coat we hurried together down the stairs and into the street dr and were still visible about two hundred yards ahead of us in the direction of oxford street shall i run on and stop them not for the world my dear i am perfectly satisfied with your company if you will mine our friends are wise for it is certainly a very fine morning for a walk he quickened his pace until we had the distance which divided us by about half then still keeping a hundred yards behind we followed into oxford street and so down street once our friends stopped and stared into a shop window upon which did the same an instant afterwards he gave a little cry of satisfaction and following the direction of his eager eyes i saw that a cab with a man inside which had halted on the other side of the street was now walking slowly again there s our man come we ll have a good look at him if we can do no at that instant i was aware of a black s the hound of the beard and a pair of piercing eyes turned upon us through the side window of the cab instantly the trap door at the top flew up something was screamed to the driver and the cab flew madly off down street looked eagerly round for another but no empty one was in sight then he dashed in wild pursuit amid the stream of the traffic but the start was too great and already the cab was out of sight there now said bitterly as he emerged panting and white with vexation from the tide ot was ever such bad luck and such bad management too if you are an honest man you will record this also and set it against my who was the man i have not an idea a spy well it was evident from what we have heard that has been very closely by since he has been in town how else could it be known so that it was the hotel which he had chosen if they had followed him the first day i argued that they would follow him also the second you may have observed that i twice strolled over to the while dr was reading his legend j yes i remember i was looking out for in the street but i saw none we are dealing with a clever man i i henry this matter cuts very deep and though i have not finally made up my mind whether it is a benevolent or a agency which is in touch with us i am conscious always of power and design when our friends left i at once followed them in the hopes of marking down their invisible attendant so was he that he had not trusted himself upon foot but he had availed himself of a cab so that he could behind or dash past them and so escape their notice his method had the additional advantage that if they were to take a cab he was all ready to follow them it has however one obvious disadvantage it puts him in the power of the exactly what a pity we did not get the number my dear clumsy as have been you surely do not seriously imagine that i neglected to get the number is our man but that is no to us for the moment i fail to see how you could have done more on observing the cab i should	4
have instantly turned and walked in the other direction i should then at my leisure have hired a second cab and followed the first at a respectful distance or better still have driven to the hotel and waited there when our unknown had followed home we should have had the opportunity of playing his own game upon himself and where he made for as it is by an the d of the eagerness which was taken advantage of with extraordinary quickness and energy by our opponent we have betrayed ourselves and lost our man we had been slowly down street during this conversation and dr with his companion had long vanished in front there is no object in our following them said the shadow has departed and will not return we must see what further cards we have in our hands and play them with decision you swear to that man s face within the cab i could swear only to the beard and so could i from which i gather that in all probability it was a false one a clever man upon so delicate an errand has no use for a beard save to conceal his features come in here he turned into one of the district messenger offices where he was warmly greeted by the manager ah i see you have not forgotten the little case in which i had the good fortune to help you no sir indeed i have not you saved good name and perhaps my life my dear fellow you i have recollection that you had among your boys a lad named who showed some ability during the investigation yes sir he is still with us could you ring him up thank you and id ot sir should be glad to have change of this five pound note a lad of fourteen with a bright keen face had obeyed the summons of the manager he stood now gazing with great reverence at the famous let me have the hotel said thank you now there are the names of twenty three hotels here all in the immediate neighbourhood of cross do you see yes sir you will visit each of these in turn yes sir you will begin in each case by giving the outside porter one shilling here are twenty three shillings yes sir you will tell him that you want to see the waste paper of yesterday you will say that an important has and that you are looking for it you understand yes sir but what you are really looking for is the centre page of the times with some holes cut in it with here is a copy of the times it is this page you could easily recognise it could you not yes sir in each case the outside porter will send for i l n e of the the hall porter to whom also you will give a ling here are twenty three shillings you will then learn in possibly twenty cases out of the twenty three that the waste of the day before has been burned or removed in the three other cases you will be shown a heap of paper and you will look for this page of the times among it the odds are against your finding it there are ten shillings over ii case of let me have a report by wire at baker street before evening and now it only remains for us to find out by wire the identity of the no and then we will drop into one of the bond street picture galleries and fill in the time until we are due at the hold v broken threads had in a very remarkable degree the power of his mind at will for two hours the strange business in which we had been involved appeared to be forgotten and he was entirely absorbed in the pictures of the modem masters he would talk of nothing but art of which he had the ideas from our leaving the gallery until we found ourselves at the hotel sir henry is upstairs expecting you said the clerk he asked me to show you up at once when you came have you any objection to my looking at your register said not in the least the book showed that two names had been added after that of one was johnson and family of the other mrs and maid of high lodge surely that must be the same johnson whom i used to know said to the porter a lawyer is he not grey headed and walks with a s the hound of the no sir this is mr johnson the coal owner very active gentleman not older than yourself surely you are mistaken about his trade no sir he has used this hotel for many years and he is very well known to us ah that settles it mrs too i to remember the name excuse my curiosity but often in calling upon one friend one finds another she is an invalid lady sir her husband wa once mayor of she always comes to us when she is in town thank you i am afraid i cannot claim her acquaintance we have established a most important fact by these questions he continued in a low voice as we went upstairs together we know now that the people who are so interested in our friend have not settled down in his own hotel that means that while they are as we have seen very anxious to watch him they are equally anxious that he should not see them now this is a m suggestive fact what does it suggest it suggests my dear fellow what earth is the matter as we came round the top of the we had run up against sir henry himself his face was flushed with anger and he held an old and dusty boot in one	4
of his hands so furious was he that he was hardly articulate and when he did speak u was in a much broader and more western en u i three broken threads than any which we had heard from him in the morning seems to me they are me for a this hotel he cried they ll find started in to monkey with the wrong man unless they are careful by thunder if that chap can t find my boot there will be trouble i can take a joke with the best mr but they ve got a over the mark this time still looking for your boot yes sir and mean to find it but surely you said that it was a new brown boot so it was sir and now it s an old black one what you don t mean to say that s just what i do mean to say i only had three pairs in the world the new brown the old black and the patent which i am wearing last night they took one of my brown ones and to day they have one of the black well have you got it speak out man and don t stand an agitated german waiter had appeared upon the scene no sir i have made inquiry all over the hotel but i can hear no word of it well either that boot comes back before or i ll see the manager and tell him that i go straight out of this hotel s the hound op the it shall be found sir i promise you th will have a little patience it will be found mind it is for it s the last thing of mine that i ll lose in this den of thieves well well mr you ll excuse my troubling you about a trifle think it s well worth troubling about why you look very serious over it how do you explain it i just don t attempt to explain it it seems tl very thing that ever happened ti me the perhaps said thoughtfully what do you make of it yourself well i don t profess to understand it yet of yours is very complex sir henry when taken in with your uncle s death i am not sure that of all the five hundred cases of capital importance which i have handled there is one which cuts so deep but we hold several threads in our bands and the odds are that one or of them guides us to the truth we may waste time in following the wrong one but sooner or later we must come upon the right we had a pleasant luncheon in which little was said of the business which had brought us together it was in the private sitting room to which we afterwards repaired that asked i were his intentions three broken threads to go to hall and when at the end of the week on the whole said i think that your decision is a wise one i have ample evidence that you are being dogged in london and amid the mill of this great city it is difficult to discover who these people are or what their object can be if their intentions are evil they might do you a mischief and we should be powerless to prevent it you did not know dr that you were followed this morning from my house dr started violently followed by whom that unfortunately is what i cannot tell you have you among your neighbours or acquaintances on any man with a black full beard no or let me see why yes sir charles s butler is a man with a full black beard ha where is he is in charge of the hall we had best ascertain if he is really there or if by any possibility he might be in london how can you do that give me a telegraph form is all ready for sir that will do address to mr hall what is the nearest office very good we will send a second wire to the post master to mr to be delivered into his the hound of the own hand if absent please return wire to sir j henry hotel that should let us know before evening whether is at his post in or not that s so by the way dr who is this anyhow he is the son of the old who is dead i they have looked after the hall for four generations i now so far as i know he and his wife are as re a couple as any in the county at the same time said it s clear enough that so long as there are none of the family at the hall these people have a mighty fine home and nothing to do that is true did profit at all by sir charles s i will asked he and his wife had five hundred pounds j each ha did they know that they would receive i this yes sir charles was very fond of talking about i the provisions of his will that is very interesting i hope said dr that you do not i look with suspicious eyes upon who re j a from sir charles for i also had a i thousand pounds left to me indeed and anyone else there were many insignificant sums to three broken threads and a large number of public the all went to sir henry and how much was the seven hundred and forty thousand pounds raised his eyebrows in surprise i had no idea that so gigantic a sum was involved said he sir charles had the reputation of being rich but we did not know how very rich he was until we came to examine his the total value of the estate was close on to a million dear	4
me it is a stake for which a man might well play a desperate game and one more question dr supposing that anything happened to our young friend here you will forgive the unpleasant who would inherit the estate since sir charles s younger brother died unmarried the estate would descend to the who are distant cousins james is an elderly clergyman in thank you these details are all of great interest have you met mr james yes he once came down to visit sir charles he is a man of venerable appearance and of life i remember that he refused to accept any settlement from sir charles though he pressed it upon him and this man of simple tastes would be the heir to sir charles s thousands the hound of the he would be the heir to the estate because that is he would also be the heir to the money unless it were willed otherwise by the present owner who can of course do what he likes with it and have you made your sir no mr have not i ve had u time for it was only yesterday that i learned how stood but in any case i feel that the money should go with the title and estate that was my poor uncle s idea how is the owner going to restore the glories of the if he not money enough to keep up the property house land and dollars must go together quite so well sir henry i am of one mind with you as to the of your going down to without delay there is only one provision which i must make you certainly must not go alone dr returns with mc but dr has his practice to attend to and his house is miles away from yours with all the good will in the world he may be unable to help you no sir henry you must take with you a man who will be always by your side is it possible that you could come yourself mr if matters came to a crisis i should endeavour to be present in person but you can understand three t h r e a i s that with my extensive consulting practice and with the constant appeals which reach me from many quarters it is impossible for me to be absent from london for an indefinite time at the present instant one of the most names in england is being by a and only i can stop a disastrous scandal you will see how impossible it is for me to go to whom would recommend then laid his hand upon my arm if my friend would undertake it there is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place no one can say so more confidently than i the proposition took me completely by surprise but before i had time to answer seized me by the hand and wrung it heartily well now that is real kind of you dr said he you see how it is with me and you know just as much about the matter as i do if you will come down to hall and see me through i ll never forget it the promise of adventure had always a fascination for me and i was by the words of and by the eagerness with which the hailed me as a companion i will come with pleasure said i i do not know how i could employ my time better and you will report very carefully to me said when a crisis comes as it will do i the hound of the ba will direct how you shall act i suppose that t saturday all might be ready would that suit dr perfectly then on saturday unless you hear to the con we shall meet at the train from we had risen to depart when gave a cry of triumph and into one of the corners of the room he drew a brown boot from under a cabinet my missing boot he cried may all our difficulties vanish as easily sail but it is a very singular thing dr remarked i searched this room carefully before lunch and so did i said every inch of it there was certainly no boot in it then in that case the waiter must have placed it there while we were the german was sent for but professed to know nothing of the matter nor could any inquiry clear it up another item had been added to that constant and apparently series of small mysteries which had succeeded each other so rapidly setting aside the whole grim story of sir charles s death we had a line of inexplicable incidents all within the limits of two days which included the i i i three broken threads receipt of the printed letter the black bearded spy in the the loss of the new brown boot the loss of the old black boot and now the return of the new brown boot sat in silence in the cab as we drove back to baker street and i knew from his drawn brows and keen face that his mind like my own was busy in endeavouring to frame some scheme into which all these strange and apparently could be fitted all afternoon and late into the evening he sat lost in tobacco and thought just before dinner two were handed in tl first ran have just heard that is at the hall the second visited twenty three hotels as directed but sorry to report unable to trace cut sheet of times there go two of my threads there is nothing more than a case where everything goes against you we must cast round for another scent we have still the who drove the spy exactly i have to get his	4
name and address from the official i should not be surprised if this were an answer to my question the ring at the bell proved to be something even more satisfactory than an answer however for the door opened and a rough looking fellow entered who was evidently the man himself the hound op the a e r v i l i got a message from the head office that a at this address had been inquiring for said he i ve driven my cab seven years and never a word of complaint i came here straight from the yard to ask you to your face what you had against me i have nothing in the world against you my good man said on the contrary i have half a sovereign for you if you will give me a clear answer to my questions well i ve had a good day and no mistake said the with a grin what was it you wanted to ask sir first of all your name and address in case i want you again john street the my cab is out of s yard near station made a note of it now tell me all about the fare who came and watched this house at ten o clock this morning and afterwards followed the two gentlemen down street the man looked surprised and a little embarrassed why there s no good my telling things for you seem to know as much as i do already said he the truth is that the gentleman told me that he was a and that i was to ay nothing about him to anyone my good fellow this is a very serious business i i i three broken threads and you may find yourself in d pretty bad position if you try to hide from me you say that four fare you that he was a yes he did when did he say this when he left me did he say anything more he mentioned his name cast a swift glance of triumph at me oh he mentioned his name did he that was what was the name that he mentioned his name said the was mr never have i seen my friend more completely taken than by the s reply for an instant he sat in silent amazement then he burst into a hearty laugh a touch an touch said he i feel a foil as quick and as my own he got home upon me very prettily that time so his name was was it yes sir that was the gentleman s name excellent tell me where you picked him up nd all that occurred he hailed me at half past nine in square he said that he was a and he offered me two guineas if i would do exactly what he wanted all day and ask no questions i was glad enough to agree first we drove down to the the hound of the hotel and waited there until two gentlemen came out and took a cab from the rank we followed their cab until it pulled up near here this very door said well i couldn t be sure of that but i my fare knew all about it we pulled up half way down the street and waited an hour and a half then the two gentlemen passed us walking and w followed down baker street and along i know said until we got three quarters down street then my gentleman threw up the trap and he cried that i should drive right away to station as hard as i could go i whipped up the mare and we were there under the ten minutes then he paid up his two guineas like a good one and away he went into the station only just as he was leaving he turned round and he said it might interest you to know that you have been driving mr that s how i come to know the name i see and you saw no more of him not after he went into the station and how would you describe mr the scratched his head well hi wasn t altogether such an easy gentleman to d i i d put him at forty years of age and h was of a middle height two or three inches y tt it tt tt three broken threads than you sir he was dressed like a and he had a black beard cut square at the end and a pale face i don t know as i could say more than that colour of his eyes no i can t say that nothing more that you can remember no sir nothing well then here is your half sovereign there s another one waiting for you if you can bring any more information good night good night sir and thank you john departed and turned to me with a shrug of the shoulders and a smile snap goes our third thread and we end where we began said he the cunning rascal he knew our number knew that sir henry had consulted me spotted who i was in street that i had got the number of the cab and would lay my hands on the driver and so sent back this audacious message i tell you this time we have got a who is worthy of our steel i ve been in london i can only wish you better luck in but i m not easy in my mind about it about what about sending you it s an ugly business an ugly dangerous business and the more s the hound op the i see of it the less i like it yes my dear fellow you may laugh but i give you my word that shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound baker street once more vi hall sir	4
henry and dr were ready upon the appointed day and we started as arranged for mr drove with me to the station and gave me his last parting and advice i will not bias your mind by suggesting theories or suspicions said he i wish you simply to report facts in the fullest possible manner to me aad you can leave me to do the what sort of facts i asked an which may seem to have a bearing however upon the case and especially the relations between young and his neighbours or any fresh particulars concerning the death of sir charles i have made some inquiries myself in the last few days but the results have i fear been negative one thing only appears to be certain and that is that mr james who is the next heir is an elderly gentleman of a very amiable disposition so that this persecution does not arise from him i really think that we may him entirely from our calculations there remain the people who will actually surround sir henry upon the the hound op the b ask e r v i l would it not be well in the first place to get rid of this couple by no means you could not make a mistake if they are innocent it would be a injustice and if they are guilty we should be giving up all chance of bringing it home to them no no we will preserve them upon our list of then there is a groom at the hall if i remember right there are two farmers there is our friend dr whom i believe to be entirely honest and there is his wife of whom we know nothing there is this and there is his sister who is said to be a young lady of attractions there is mr of hall who is also an unknown and there are one or two other neighbours these are the folk who must be your very special study j i will do my best i you have arms i suppose yes i thought it as well to take them most certainly keep your revolver near you night and day and never your precautions our friends had already secured a first class carriage and were waiting for us upon the platform no we have no news of any kind said dr in answer to my friend s questions can swear to one thing and that is that we not been during the last two days have never gone out without keeping a sharp aad no one could have escaped notice hall u tt you have always kept together i presume except yesterday afternoon i usually give up one day to pure amusement when i come to town so i spent it at the museum of the college of and i went to look at the folk in the park aid but we had no trouble of any kind it was all the same said shaking his head and looking very grave i beg sir henry that you will not go about alone some great misfortune will befall you if you do did you get your other boot no sir it is gone for ever indeed that is very interesting well good bye he added as the train began to glide the platform bear in mind sir henry one h ihe phrases in that queer old legend which dr has read to us and avoid the in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted i looked back at the platform when we had left it far behind and saw the tall austere figure of standing motionless and gazing after us the journey was a swift and pleasant one and i spent it in making the more intimate acquaintance of my two companions and in playing with dr s in a very few hours the brown earth had become ruddy the brick had changed to granite and red cows in well fields the of the b a s k e r v i l le where the and more vegetation spoke of a richer if a climate stared eagerly out of the window and cried aloud with delight as he recognised the familiar features of the scenery i ve been over a good part of the world i left it dr said he but i have ne seen a place to compare with it i never saw a man who did swear by his county i remarked it depends upon the breed of men quite as much as on the county said dr a glance at our friend here the rounded head of the which carries inside it the enthusiasm and power of attachment poor sir charles s head was of a very rare type half half in its characteristics but you were very when you last saw hall were you i was a boy in my at the time of father s death and had never seen the hall for he lived in a little cottage on the south coast thence i went straight to a friend in america i tell you it is all as new to me as it is to dr and i m as keen as possible to see the are you then your wish is easily granted for there is your first sight of the said dr pointing out of the carriage window over the green squares of the fields and the curve of a wood there rose in the distance a grey melancholy hill with a strange jagged summit dim lor hall and vague in the distance like some fantastic land in a dream sat for a long time his eyes fixed upon it and i read upon his eager face how much it meant to him this first sight of that strange spot where the men of his blood had held sway so long and left their mark so deep there	4
he sat with his suit and his american accent in the corner of a railway carriage and yet as i looked at his dark and expressive face i felt more than ever how true a he was of that long line of high blooded fiery and men there were pride and strength in his thick brows his sensitive nostrils and his large eyes if on that forbidding a difficult and dangerous quest should lie before us this was at least a comrade for whom one might venture to ta ce a risk with the certainty that he would bravely share it the train pulled up at a small station and we all descended outside beyond the low white fence a with a pair of was waiting our coming was evidently a great event for and clustered round us to carry out our luggage it was a sweet simple country spot but i was surprised to observe that by the gate there stood two men in dark who leaned upon their short and glanced keenly at us as we passed the coachman a hard faced little fellow saluted sir henry and in a few minutes we were flying swiftly down the hound op the a the broad white road rolling pasture lands curved upwards on either side of us and old houses peeped out from amid the thick green foliage but behind the peaceful and country side there rose ever dark against the evening sky the long gloomy curve of the broken by the jagged and sinister hills the swung round into a side road and we curved upwards through deep lanes worn by centuries of wheels high banks on either side heavy with dripping moss and s tongue and gleamed in the light of the sinking sun still steadily rising we passed over a narrow granite bridge and skirted a noisy stream which swiftly down foaming and roaring amid the grey both road and stream wound up through a valley dense with oak and fir at every turning gave an exclamation of delight looking eagerly about him and asking countless questions to his eyes all seemed beautiful but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the country side which bore so clearly the mark of the year yellow leaves the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed the rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through of vegetation sad gifts as it seemed to me for nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the cried dr what is this ba hall a steep curve of heath clad land an spur of the lay in front of us on the summit hard and clear like an statue upon its was a mounted soldier dark and stem his rifle poised ready over his he was watch ing the road along which we travelled what is this asked dr our driver half turned in his seat there s a escaped from sir he s been out three days now and the watch every road and every station but they ve had no sight of him yet the farmers about here don t like it sir and that s a fact well i understand that they get five pounds x they can give information yes sir but the chance of five pounds is but a poor thing compared to the chance of having your throat cut you see it isn t like any ordinary this is a man that would stick at nothing who is he then it is the hill murderer i remembered the case well for it was one in which had taken an interest on account a the peculiar ferocity of the crime and the wanton which had marked all the actions of the the of his death sentence had been due to some doubts as to his complete so was his conduct our had a rise and in front of us rose the e expanse of the with and i the hound of the and a cold wind swept from it and set us shivering somewhere there on that desolate plain was lurking this man hiding in a like a wild beast his heart full of against the whole race which had cast him out it needed but this to complete the grim of the barren waste the wind and the sky even fell silent and pulled his overcoat more closely him we had left the fertile country behind and beneath us we looked back on it now the rays of a low sun turning the streams to threads of gold and glowing on the red earth new turned by the plough and the broad of the the road in front of us grew and over huge and olive slopes sprinkled with giant now and then we passed a cottage walled and with stone with no to break its harsh outline suddenly we looked down into a cup like depression patched with oaks and which had been twisted and bent by the fury of years of storm two high narrow towers rose over the trees the driver pointed with his whip hall said he its master had risen and was staring with flushed cheeks and shining eyes a few minutes later we had reached the lodge gates a of fantastic in wrought iron with weather bitten pillars a i the driver pointed with his whip hall said he hall on either side with and surmounted by the heads of the the lodge was a ruin of black granite and ribs of but facing it was a new building half constructed the first fruit of sir charles s south african gold through the we passed into the avenue where the wheels were again hushed amid the leaves and the old trees shot their branches in a sombre over our heads shuddered as he looked up the long dark drive to where the house like a ghost at the farther end was	4
it here he asked in a low voice no no the alley is on the other side the young heir glanced round with a gloomy face it s no wonder my uncle felt as if trouble were coming on him in such a place as this said he it s enough to scare any man i ll have a row of electric lamps up here inside of six months and you won t know it again with a thousand candle power swan and right here in front of the hall door the avenue opened into a broad expanse of turf and the house lay before us in the fading light i could see that the centre was a heavy block of building from which a porch projected the whole front was draped in ivy with a patch bare here and there where a window or a coat of arms broke through the dark veil this central the hound of the b as e e block rose the twin towers ancient ui pierced with many to right and left ol the were more modem wings ol black granite a dull light shone through heavy windows and from the high chimneys which rose from the steep high roof there sprang a single black column of smoke welcome sir henry welcome to i i a tall man had stepped from the shadow of the i porch to open the door of the the figure of a woman was against the yellow light of the hall she came out and helped the man to hand down our bags you don t mind my driving straight home henry said dr my wife is expecting me surely you will stay and have some dinner no i must go i shall probably find work awaiting me i would stay to show you the house but will be a better guide than i good bye and never hesitate night or day to send for me if i can be of service the wheels died away down the drive while henry and i turned into the hall and the heavily behind us it was a fine apartment in which we found ourselves large lofty and heavily with huge of age blackened oak in the great old fashioned fireplace behind the j iron dogs a log tire and snapped hall henry and i held out our hands to it for we from our long drive then we gazed round us at the high thin window of old stained glass the oak the heads the coats of arms upon the all dim and sombre in the subdued light of the central lamp it s just as i imagined it said sir henry it it not the very picture of an old family home tc that this should be the same hall in which for five hundred years my people have lived it strikes me solemn to think of it i saw his dark face lit up with boyish enthusiasm as he gazed about him the light beat upon him where he stood but long shadows down the walls and hung like a black above him had returned from taking our luggage to our rooms he stood in front of us now with the subdued manner of a well trained servant he was i looking man tall handsome with a square black beard and pale distinguished features would you wish dinner to oe served at once sh is it ready in a very few minutes sir you will find hot water in your rooms my wife and i will be happy sir henry to stay with you until you have made fresh arrangements but you will understand that under the new conditions this house will require a considerable staff s the hound of the what new conditions i only meant sir that sir charles led a very retired life and we were able to look after his wants you would naturally wish to have more company and so you will need changes in your household do you mean that your wife and you wish leave only when it is quite convenient to you sir i but your family have been with us for several generations have they not i should be sorry to begin my life here by breaking an old family connection i seemed to discern some signs of emotion the butler s white face i feel that also sir and so does my wife but to tell the truth sir we were both very much at to sir charles and his death gave us a shock and made these surroundings very painful to us i fear that we shall never again be easy in our at but what do you intend to do i have no doubt sir that we shall succeed in establishing ourselves in some business sir charles s generosity has given us the means to d so and now sir perhaps i had best show you to your rooms a square gallery ran round the tt j of the old hall approached by a double stair from this central point two long extended the whole th of the building from which all the i is i ba hall opened my own was in the same wing as s and almost next door to it these rooms appeared to be much more modern than the central part of the house and the bright paper and numerous candles did something to remove the sombre impression which our arrival had left upon my mind but the dining room which opened out of the hall was a place of shadow and gloom it was a long chamber with a step separating the where the family sat from the lower portion reserved for their at one end a s gallery overlooked it black beams shot across above our heads with a smoke darkened ceiling beyond them with rows of to light it up and the colour and rude of an old time	4
the inn and the house of dr stood high above the rest the post master who was also the village had a clear recollection of the certainly sir said he i had the delivered to mr exactly as directed who delivered it my boy here james you delivered that to mr at the hall last week did you not yes father i delivered it into his own hands i asked well he was up in the at the time so that u the bound of the i could not put it into his own hands but i it into mrs s hands and she promised t deliver it at once did you see mr no sir i tell you he was in the i you didn t sec him how do you know he v in the well surely his own wife ought to know where he is said the didn t he get the if there is any mistake it is for mt himself to complain it seemed hopeless to pursue the inquiry any ther but it was clear that in spite of s we had no proof that had not been in london all the time suppose that it were suppose that the same man had been the last who had seen sir charles alive and the first to dog the new heir when he returned to england what then was he the agent of others or had he some sinister design of his own what interest could he have in the family thought of the strange warning out of the leading article of the times was that his work or was it possibly the doing of who was bent upon his schemes the only conceivable motive was that which had been suggested by sir henry that if the family could be scared away a comfortable and permanent home would be secured for the but surely such an explanation as that would be quite inadequate to the of house account for the deep and subtle which seemed to be weaving an invisible net round the young himself had said that no more complex case had come to him in all the long series of his i prayed as i walked back along the grey lonely road that my friend might soon be freed from his and able to come down to take this heavy burden of responsibility from my shoulders suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running feet behind me and by a voice which called me by name i turned expecting to see dr but to my surprise it was a stranger who was pursuing me he was a small slim clean shaven faced man haired and lean between thirty and forty years of age dressed in a grey suit and wearing a straw hat a tin box for specimens hung over his shoulder and he carried a green butterfly net in one of his hands you will i am sure excuse my dr said he as he came panting up to where i stood here on the we are homely folk and do not wait for formal you may possibly have heard my name from our mutual friend i am of house your net and box would have told me as much said i for i knew that mr was a but how did you know me the round of the i have been calling on and he you out to me from the window of his you passed as our road lay the same way i thought that i would overtake you and introduce myself i trust that sir henry is none the worse for his journey he is very well thank you we were all rather afraid that after the death of sir charles the new might to live here it is asking much of a wealthy to come down and bury himself in a place of this kind but i need not tell you that it means a very great deal to the country side sir henry has i suppose no superstitious fears in the matter i do not think that it is of course you know the legend of the d which haunts the family i have heard it it is how the peasant are about here any number of them are ready to swear that they have seen such a creature upon the he spoke with a smile but i seemed to read in his eyes that he took the matter more seriously the story took a great hold upon the imagination of sir charles and i have no doubt that it led to his tragic end but how i his nerves were so worked up that the appearance of any dog might have had a fatal effect upon his heart i fancy that he really did see h h his ery i i the of e something of the kind upon that last night in the alley i feared that some disaster might occur for i was very fond of the old man and i knew that his heart was weak how did you know that my friend told me you think then that some dog pursued charles and that he died of fright in consequence have you any better explanation i have not come to any conclusion has mr the words took away my breath for an instant but a glance at the placid face and steadfast eyes of my companion showed that no surprise was intended it is useless for us to pretend that we do not know you dr said he the records of your have reached us here and you could not him without being known yourself when told me your name he could not deny your identity if you are here then it follows that mr is interesting himself in the matter and i am naturally curious to know what view he may take i am afraid that i cannot answer	4
that question may i ask if he is going to honour us with a visit himself he cannot leave town at present he has other cases which engage his attention what a pity he might throw some light on the hound of the that which is so dark to us but as to if there is any possible way in which can be of service to you i trust that you will command me it i had any indication of the nature of your suspicions or how you propose to gate the case i might perhaps even now give some aid or advice i assure you that i am simply here upon a visit to my friend sir henry and that i need no help of any kind excellent said you are per j right to be wary and discreet i am justly for what i feel was an l sion and i promise you that i will not mention the matter again we had come to a point where a narrow grassy path struck off from the road and wound away across the a steep sprinkled lay upon the right which had in days been cut into a granite the face which was turned towards us formed a dark cliff with and growing in its from over a distant rise there floated a grey of smoke a moderate walk along this path brings us to house said he perhaps you will spare an hour that i may have the pleasure of in j you to my sister my first thought was that i should be by sir henry s side but then i remembered the pile of papers and bills with which his study table was of m the of house it was certain that i could not help him with those and had expressly said that i should study the neighbours upon the i accepted s invitation and we turned to down the path it is a wonderful place the said he looking round over the downs long green with of jagged granite foaming up into fantastic you never tire of the you cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains it is so vast and so barren and so mysterious you know it well then i have only been here two years the would call me a new comer we came shortly after sir charles settled but my tastes led me to explore every part of the country round and i should think that there are few men who know it better than i do is it so hard to know very hard you see for example this great plain to the north here with the queer hills breaking out of it do you observe anything remarkable about that it would be a rare place for a gallop you would naturally think so and the thought has cost several their lives before now you notice those bright green spots scattered thickly it yes they seem more fertile than the rest the of the b asks r vi laughed that is the great mire said false step yonder means death to man or beast only yesterday i saw one of the wander into it he never came out i saw his head for quite a long time out of the hole but it sucked him down at last even in dry seasons it is a danger to cross it but after these autumn rains it is an awful place and yet i can find my way to the very heart of it and return alive by george there is another of those miserable something brown was rolling and tossing the green then a long neck shot upwards and a dreadful cry echoed over the it turned me cold with horror but my companion s nerves seemed to be stronger thi mine it s gone said he the mire has two in two days and many more perhaps for the get in the way of going there in the dry weather and never know the difference until the mire has them in its clutch it s a bad place the great mire j and you say you can penetrate it i yes there are one or two paths which a very active man can take i have found them out but why should you wish to go into so horrible a place well you see the hills beyond they the of house islands cut off on all sides by the mire which has crawled round them in the course of years that is where the rare plants and the but are if you have the wit to reach them i shall try my luck some day h looked at me with a surprised face for god s sake put such an idea out of your mind said he your blood would be upon my head i assure you that there would not be the least chance of your coming back alive it is only by remembering certain complex that i am able to do it f i cried what is that a long low moan sad swept over the it filled the whole air and yet it was impossible to say whence it came from a dull murmur it swelled into a deep roar and then sank back into a melancholy throbbing murmur once again looked at me with a curious expression in his face queer place the said he but what is it the say it is the hound of the calling for its prey i ve heard it once or twice before but never quite so loud i looked round with a chill of fear in my heart at the huge swelling plain with the green patches of rushes nothing stirred over the vast expanse save a pair of which loudly from a tor behind us w ud of the you are an educated man you don t believe such nonsense as that said i	4
what do you think is the cause of so strange a sound make queer noises sometimes it s the mud settling or the water rising or some thing no no that was a living voice well perhaps it was did you ever hear a no i never did it s a very rare bird practically extinct in england now but all things are possible upon the yes i should not be surprised to learn that what we have heard is the cry of the last of the it s the strangest thing that ever i heard in my life yes it s rather an place altogether look at the hill side yonder what do you make of those the whole steep slope was covered with grey circular rings of stone a score of them at least what are they sheep pens no they are the homes of our worthy ancestors man lived thickly on the and as no one in particular has lived there since we find all his little arrangements exactly as he left them these are his with the roofs off you can even see his hearth and his couch if you have the curiosity to go inside loo the of house but it is quite a town when was it inhabited man no date what did he do he his cattle on these slopes and he learned to dig for tin when the bronze sword began to the stone axe look at the great in the opposite hill that is his mark yes you will find some very singular points about the dr oh excuse me an instant it is surely a small fly or had fluttered across our path and in an instant was rushing with extraordinary energy and speed in pursuit of it to my dismay the creature flew straight for the great mire and my acquaintance never paused for an instant bounding from to behind it his green net waving in the air his grey clothes and irregular progress made him not unlike some huge himself i was standing watching his pursuit with a mixture of admiration for his extraordinary activity and fear lest he should lose his footing in the treacherous mire when i heard the sound of steps and turning round found a woman near me upon the path she had come from the direction in which the of smoke indicated the position of house but the dip of the had hid her until she was quite close i could not doubt that this was the miss of whom i had been told since ladies of any sort loi the hound op the b a s k e r v i l must be few upon the and i remembered i had heard describe her as being a beauty the woman who approached me was certainly that and of a most uncommon type there could not have been a greater contrast between brother and sister for was tinted with light hair and grey eyes while she was darker than any whom i have seen in england slim elegant and tall she had a proud finely cut face so regular that it might have seemed were it not for the sensitive mouth and the beautiful dark eager eyes with her perfect figure and elegant dress she was indeed a strange apparition upon a lonely path her eyes were on her brother as i turned and then she quickened her pace towards me i had raised my hat and was about to make some remark when her own words turned all my thoughts into a new channel go back she said go straight back to london instantly i could only stare at her in stupid surprise h eyes blazed at me and she tapped the ground impatiently with her foot why should i go back i asked i cannot explain she spoke in a low eager voice with a curious in her utterance but for god s sake do what i ask you go back and never set foot upon the again er but i have only just come man man she cried can you not ten j the of when a warning is for your own good go back to london start to night get away from this place at all costs hush my brother is coming not a word of what i have said would you mind getting that for me among the yonder we are very rich in on the though of course you are rather late to see the beauties of the place had abandoned the chase and came back to us breathing hard and flushed with his exertions said he and it seemed to me that the tone of his greeting was not altogether a cordial one well jack you are very hot yes i was chasing a he is very rare and seldom found in the late autumn what a pity that i should have missed him he spoke but his small light eyes glanced incessantly from the girl to me you have introduced yourselves i can see yes i was sir henry that it was late for him to see the true beauties of the why who do you think is i imagine that it must be sir henry no no said i only a humble bat his friend my name is dr a flush of vexation passed over her expressive i the hound of the lace we have been talking at cross purposes said she why you had not very much time for talk her brother remarked with the same questioning eyes i talked as if dr were a resident instead of being merely a visitor said she it cannot much matter to him whether it is early or late fo j the but you will come on will you not and see house a short walk brought us to it a bleak house once the farm of some in the old	4
prosperous days but now put into repair and turned into a modem dwelling an orchard surrounded it but the trees as is usual upon the were and and the effect of the whole place was mean and melancholy we were admitted by a strange rusty old man servant who seemed in keeping with the house inside however there were large rooms furnished with an elegance in which i seemed to recognise the taste of the lady as i looked from their windows at the interminable granite rolling unbroken to the farthest horizon i could not but marvel at what could have brought this highly educated man and this beautiful woman to live in such a place queer spot to choose is it not said he as il m answer to my thought and yet we manage to make ourselves fairly happy do we not the op house quite happy said she but there was no of conviction in her words i had a school said it was in the north country the work to a man of my temperament was mechanical and uninteresting but the privilege of living with youth of helping to mould those young minds and of them with one s own character and was very dear to me however the were against us a serious broke out in the school and three of the boys died it never recovered from the blow and much of my capital was swallowed up and yet if it were not for the loss of the charming companionship of the boys i could rejoice over my own misfortune for with my strong tastes for and i find an unlimited field of work and my sister is as devoted to nature as i am all this dr has been brought upon your head by your expression as you surveyed the out of our window it certainly did cross my mind that it might be a little dull less for you perhaps than for your sister no no i am never dull said she quickly we have books we have our studies and we have interesting neighbours dr is a most learned man in his own line poor sir charles was also an admirable companion we knew him well and miss him more than i can tell do you think that i should intrude if i were to call this af the hound of the and make the acquaintance of sir hei r t i am sure that he would be delighted then perhaps you would mention that i propose to do so we may in our humble way do something to make things more easy for him until he becomes accustomed to his new surroundings will you come upstairs dr and inspect my collection of i think it is the most complete one in the south west of england by the time that you have looked through them lunch will be almost ready but i was eager to get back to my charge the melancholy of the the death of the unfortunate pony the weird sound which had been associated with the grim legend of the all these things tinged my thoughts with sadness then on the top of these more or less vague impressions there had come the definite end distinct warning of miss delivered with such intense earnestness that i could not doubt that some grave and deep reason lay behind it i resisted all pressure to stay for lunch and i set off at once upon my return journey taking the grass grown path by which we had come it seems however that there must have been some short cut for those who knew it for before i had reached the road i was astounded to see miss sitting upon a rock by the side of the track her face was beautifully flushed io the of house with her exertions and she held her hand to her side i have run all the way in order to cut you off dr said she i had not even time to put on my hat i must not stop or my may miss me i wanted to say to you how sorry i am about the stupid mistake i made in thinking that you were sir henry please forget the wards i said which have no application whatever to you but i can t forget them miss said i am sir henry s friend and his welfare is a close concern of mine tell me why it was hat you were so eager that sir henry should return to london a woman s whim dr when you know me better you will understand that i cannot always give reasons for what i say or do no no i remember the thrill in your voice i remember the look in your eyes please please be frank with me miss for ever since i have been here i have been conscious of shadows all round me has become like that great mire with little green patches everywhere into which one may sink and with no guide to point the track tell me then what it was that you meant and i will promise to convey your warning to sir henry an expression of passed for an instant over her face but her eyes had hardened when she answered me the hound of the b a vi you make too much of it dr said she my brother and i were very much shocked by the death of sir charles we knew him very intimately for his favourite walk was over the to cur house he was deeply impressed with th curse which hung over his family and when this tragedy came i naturally felt that there must be some grounds for the fears which he had expressed i was distressed therefore when another member ol the family came down to live here and i that he should be warned of the	4
which he wiu run that was all which i intended to convey but what is the danger you know the story of the hound i do not believe in such nonsense but i do if you have any influence with sh take him away from a place which has al ways been fatal to his family the world is wide why should he wish to live at the place of danger because it is the place of danger is si henry s nature i fear that unless you can me some more definite information than this it would be impossible to get him to move i cannot say anything definite for i do not know anything definite i would ask you one more question miss if you meant no more than this when first spoke to me why should you not wish brother to what you said there is to which he or anyone else could object i the of b my brother is very anxious to have the inhabited for he thinks that it is for the good of the poor folk upon the he would be very angry if he knew that i had said anything which might induce sir henry to go away but i have done my duty now and i will say no more i must get or he will miss me and suspect that i have seen you good bye she turned and had disappeared in a few minutes among the scattered while i with my soul full of vague pursued my way to hall from this point i will follow tim course of events by my own let to mr which lie before ie on the table one page is missing but they are exactly as written and show my feelings and suspicions of the moment more accurately than my memory clear as it is upon these tragic events can possibly do hall october th i my dear my previous letters and have kept you pretty well up to date as to all that has occurred in this most god forsaken corner of the world the longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the sink into one s soul its and also its grim charm when you are once out upon its bosom you have left all traces of modem england behind you but on the other hand you are conscious everywhere of the homes and the work of the people on all sides of you as you walk are the houses of these forgotten folk with their graves and the huge which are supposed to have marked temples as you look at their grey stone h report of dr w a t h against the hill sides you leave your own age behind you and if you were to see a skin clad hairy man crawl out from the low door fitting a flint tipped arrow on to the string of his bow you would feel that his presence there was more natural than your own the strange thing is that they should have lived so thickly on what must always have been most soil i am no but i could imagine that they were some and race who were forced to accept that which none other would occupy all this however is foreign to the mission on which you sent me and will probably be very uninteresting to your severely practical mind i still remember your complete indifference as to whether the sun moved round the earth or the earth round the sun let me therefore return to the facts concerning sir henry if you have not had any report within the last few days it is because up to to day there was nothing of importance to relate then a very surprising circumstance occurred which i shall tell you in due course but first of all i must keep you in touch with some of the other in the situation one of these concerning which i have said little is the escaped upon the there is strong reason now to believe that he has got right away which is a considerable relief to the of this district a fortnight has the hound of the passed since his flight during which he has not been seen and nothing has been heard of him it is surely inconceivable that he have held out upon the during all that time of course so far as his concealment goes there is no difficulty at all any one of these stone huts would give him a hiding place but there is nothing to eat unless he were to catch and slaughter one of the sheep we think therefore that he has gone and the farmers sleep the better in consequence j we are four able men in this household i so that we could take good care of ourselves but i confess that i have had uneasy moments when i have thought of the they live miles from any help there are one maid an old the sister and the brother the latter not a very strong man they would be helpless in the hands of a desperate fellow like this hill criminal if he could once effect an entrance both sir henry and i were concerned at their situation and it was suggested that the groom should go over to sleep there but would not hear of it the fact is that our friend the begins to display a considerable interest in our fair neighbour it is not to be wondered at for time hangs heavily in this lonely spot to an active man like him and she is a very fascinating and beautiful woman there is something tropical and about report op dr which forms a singular contrast to her cool and brother yet he also gives the idea of hidden fires he has certainly a very marked influence over her for i have seen her continually glance	4
at him as she talked as if seeking tion for what she said i trust that he is kind t her there is a dry glitter in his eyes and a firm set of his thin lips which goes with a positive and possibly a harsh nature you find him an interesting study he came over to call upon on that first day and the very next morning he took us both to show us the spot where the legend of the wicked is supposed to have had its origin it was an excursion of some miles across the to a place which is so dismal that it might have suggested the story we found a short valley between which led to an open grassy space over with the white cotton grass in ihe middle of it rose two great stones worn and sharpened at the upper end until they looked like the huge of some monstrous beast in every way it with ihe scene of the old tragedy sir henry was much interested and asked more once whether he did really believe in the possibility of the interference of the supernatural in the affairs of men he spoke lightly but it was evident that he was very much in earnest was guarded in his replies but it was easy to see that he said less than i the hound of the b ab r t i l i e he might and that he would not express his whole opinion out of consideration for the feelings of the he told us of similar cases where families had from some evil influence and he left us with the impression that he shared the view upon the matter on our way back we stayed for lunch at house and it was there that sir henry made the acquaintance of miss from the first moment that he saw her he appeared to be strongly attracted by her and i am much mistaken if the feeling was not mutual he referred to her again and again on our walk home and since then hardly a day has passed that we have not seen something of the brother and sister they dine here to night and there is some talk of our going to them next week one would imagine that such a match would be very welcome to and yet i have more than once caught a look of the strongest in his face when sir henry has been paying some attention to his sister he is much attached to her no doubt and would lead a lonely life without her but it would seem the height of if he were to stand in the way of her making so brilliant a marriage yet i am certain that he does not wish their intimacy to into love and i have several times observed that he has taken pains to prevent them from being d by the way your instructions to me never to allow sir henry to go out alone will become very much report of dr more if a love affair were to be added to our other difficulties my popularity would soon suffer f i were to carry out your orders to the letter the other day thursday to be more exact i dr with us he has been ex a at long down and has got a skull which fills him with great joy never was there such a single minded as he the came in afterwards and the good doctor took us all to the alley at sir henry s request to show us exactly how everything occurred upon that fatal night it is a long dismal walk the alley between two high walls of hedge with a narrow band of grass upon either side at the far end is an old tumble down summer house half way down is the gate where the old gentleman left his ash it is a white wooden gate with a latch beyond it the wide i remembered your theory of the affair and tried to picture all that had occurred as the old man stood there he saw something coming across the something which terrified him so that he lest his wits and ran and ran until he died of sheer horror and exhaustion there was the long gloomy down which he fled and from what a sheep dog of the or a hound black silent and monstrous was there a human agency in the matter did the pale watchful know more than he cared to ii the hound of the b a k s r vi l l el say it was all dim and vague but always there is the dark shadow of crime behind it one other neighbour i have met since i wrote last this is mr of hall who lives some four miles to the south of us he is an elderly man red faced white haired and his passion is for the british law and he has spent a large fortune in he fights for the mere pleasure of fighting and is equally ready to take up either side of a question so that it is no wonder that he has found it a costly amusement sometimes he will shut up a right of way and defy the parish to make him open it at others he will with his own hands tear down some other man s gate and declare that a path has existed there from time the owner to him for he is learned in old and rights and he applies his knowledge sometimes in favour of the villagers of and sometimes against them so that he is either carried in triumph down the village street or else burned in according to his latest he is said to have about seven upon his hands at present which will probably swallow up the remainder of his fortune and so draw his sting	4
and leave him harmless for the future apart from the law he seems a kindly good natured person and i only mention him because you were particular that i should send some description of the people who surround us he is curiously employed at first report of dr w a t s o m present or being an amateur he has an excellent with which he lies upon the roof of his own house and sweeps the day in the hope of catching a glimpse of the escaped if he would confine his energies to this all would be well but there are that he to dr for opening a grave without the consent of the next of kin because he dug up the skull in the on long down he helps to keep our lives from being monotonous and gives a little comic relief where it is badly needed and new having brought you up to date in the escaped the dr and of hall let me end on that which is most important and tell you more about the and especially about the surprising development of ia t night first of all about the test which you sent from london in order to make sure that was really here i have already explained that the testimony of the shows that the test was worthless and that we have no proof one way or the other i told sir henry how the matter stood and he at once in his downright fashion had up and asked him whether he had received the himself said that he had did the boy deliver it into your own hands sir henry the hound of the looked surprised and considered for a little time no said he i was tn the box room at i time and my wife brought it up to me did you answer it yourself no i told my wife what to answer and went down to write it in the evening he to the subject of h own accord i could not quite understand the object of questions this morning sir henry said he trust that they do not mean that i have done any thing to your confidence sir henry had to assure him that it was not so and him by giving him a considerable part of his old wardrobe the london having now all arrived mrs is of interest to me she is a heavy solid person very limited intensely respectable and inclined to be you could hardly conceive a less subject yet i have told you how on the first night here i heard her sobbing bitterly and since then i have more than once observed traces of tears upon her face some deep sorrow ever at her heart sometimes i wonder if she has a guilty memory which haunts her and sometimes i suspect of being a domestic tyrant i have always felt that there was something singular and questionable in this man s character but the adventure of last night brings all my suspicions to a head ii first report op dr and yet it may seem a small matter in itself you are aware that i am not a very sound and since i have been on guard in this house my have been lighter than ever last night about two in the morning i was aroused by a stealthy step passing my room i rose opened my door and peeped out a long black shadow was trailing down the corridor it was thrown by a man who walked softly down the passage with a candle held in his hand he was in shirt and trousers with no covering to his feet i could merely see the outline but his height told me that it was he walked very slowly and and there was something and in his whole appearance i have told you that the corridor is broken by the balcony which runs round the hall but that it is resumed upon the farther side i waited until he had passed out of sight and then i followed him when i came round the balcony he had reached the end of the farther corridor and i could see from the glimmer of light through an open door that he had entered one of the rooms now all these rooms are and so that his expedition became more mysterious than ever the light shone steadily as if he were standing motionless i crept down the passage as noiselessly as i could and peeped round the comer of the door was crouching at the window with i ttie candle held against the glass his was the of the half turned towards me and his face seemed to be rigid with expectation as he stared out into the blackness of the for some minutes he stood watching intently then he gave a deep groan and with an impatient gesture he put out the i made my way back to my room and very shortly came the stealthy steps passing once more upon their return journey long afterwards when i had fallen into a light sleep i heard a key turn somewhere in a lock but i could not tell whence the sound came what it all means i cannot guess but there is some secret business going on in this house of gloom which sooner or later we shall get to the bottom of i do not trouble you with my theories for you asked me to furnish you only with facts i have had a long talk with sir henry this morning and we have made a plan of campaign founded upon my observations of last night i will not speak about it just now but it should make my next report interesting reading ix of dr the light upon the hall my dear if i was compelled to leave you without much news during the days of my mission	4
you must acknowledge that i am making up lost time and that events are now crowding thick and fast upon us in my last report i ended upon my top note with at the window and now i have quite a already which will unless i am much mistaken considerably surprise you things have taken a turn which i could not have anticipated in some ways they have within the last forty eight hours become much clearer and in some ways they have become more complicated but i will tell you all and you shall judge for yourself before breakfast on the morning following my i went down the corridor and examined the room in which had been on the night before the western window through which he had stared so intently has i noticed one peculiarity above all other windows in the house it commands the hound of the the nearest outlook on to the there is an opening between two trees which one from this point of view to look right down upon it while from all the other windows it is only a distant glimpse which can be obtained it follows therefore that since only this window would serve his purpose must have been looking out for something or somebody upon the the night was very dark so that i can hardly imagine how he could have hoped to see anyone it had struck me that it was possible that some love was on foot that would have accounted oi stealthy movements and also for the uneasiness of his wife the man is a striking looking fellow very well equipped to steal the heart of a country girl so that this theory seemed to have something to support it that opening of the door which i had heard after i had returned to my might mean that he had gone out to keep some appointment so i reasoned with myself in the morning and i tell you the direction of my suspicions however much the result may have shown that they were but whatever the true explanation of more s movements might be i felt that the of keeping them to myself until i could explain them was more than i could bear i had an interview with the in his study after breakfast and i told him all that i had seen he was surprised than i had expected the light upon the i knew that walked about nights and i had a mind to speak to him about it said he two or three times i have heard his steps in the passage coming and going just about the hour you name perhaps then he pays a visit every night to that particular window i suggested perhaps he does if so we should be able to shadow him and see what it is that he is after i wonder what your friend would do if he were here i believe that he would do exactly what you now suggest said i he would follow and see what he did then we shall do it together but surely he would hear us the man is rather deaf and in any case we must take our chance of that we ll sit up in my room to night and wait until he passes sir henry rubbed his hands with pleasure and it was evident that he hailed the adventure as a relief to his somewhat quiet life upon the the has been in communication with the who prepared the plans for sir charles and with a from london so that we may expect great changes to begin here soon there have been and up from and it is evident that our friend has large ideas and means to spare no pains or expense to restore the grandeur of his family when the th hound of the b as k e r v i l house is and all that he need will be a wife to make it complete between ourselves there are pretty clear signs that this will not be wanting if the lady is willing for i have seldom seen a man more with a woman than he is with our beautiful neighbour miss and yet the course of true love does not run quite as smoothly as one would under the circumstances expect to day for example its si face was broken by a very unexpected ripple has caused our friend considerable perplexity and annoyance after the conversation which i have quoted about sir henry put on his hat and prepared to go out as a matter of course i did the same what are you he asked looking at me in a curious way that depends on whether you are going on said i yes i am well you know what my instructions are i am sorry to intrude but you heard how earnestly insisted that i should not leave you and especially that you should not go alone upon the sir henry put his hand upon my shoulder with a pleasant smile my dear fellow said he with all his wisdom did not foresee some things which have happened since i have been on the you un lot out the light upon the le la e that y t the last r i sport r would wish must go out alone it put me in a most awkward position i was at a loss what to say or what to do and before i had made up my mind he picked up his cane and was gone but when i came to think the matter over my conscience reproached me bitterly for having on any pretext allowed him to go out of my sight i imagined what my feelings would be if i had to return to you and to confess that some misfortune had occurred through my disregard for your instructions i assure you my cheeks flushed	4
at the very thought it might not even now be too late to overtake him so i set off at once in the direction of house i hurried along the road at the top of my speed without seeing anything of sir henry until i came to the point where the path branches off there fearing that perhaps i had come in the wrong direction after all i mounted a hill from which i could command a view the same hill which is cut into the dark thence i saw him at once he was on the path about a quarter of a mile off and a lady was by his side who could only be miss it was clear that there was already an between and that they had met by appointment they were walking slowly along in deep conversation the hound of the and i saw her making quick little movements of hi hands as if she were very earnest in what she was saying while he listened intently and once or twice shook his head in strong i stood among the rocks watching them very much puzzled as to what i should do next to follow them and break into their intimate conversation seemed to be an outrage and yet my clear duty was never for an instant to let him out of my sight to act the spy upon a friend was a hateful task still i could sec no better course than to observe him from the hill and to clear my conscience by to him afterwards what i had done it is true that if any sudden danger had threatened him i was too away to be of use and yet i am sure that you will agree with me that the position was very difficult and that there was nothing more which could do our friend sir henry and the lady had on the path and were standing deeply absorbed in their conversation when i was suddenly aware that i was not the only witness of their interview a of green floating in the air caught my eye and another glance showed me that it was carried on a stick by a man who was moving among the broken ground it was with his butterfly net he was very much closer to the pair than i was and he appeared to be moving in their direction at this instant sir henry suddenly drew to his side his arm was round tn the light upon the seemed to me that she was straining away from him her face averted he stooped his head to and she raised one hand as if in protest next moment i saw them spring apart and turn hurriedly round was the cause of the interruption he was running wildly towards them his absurd net dangling behind him he and almost danced with excitement in front of the lovers what the scene meant i could not imagine but it seemed to me that was sir henry who offered explanations which became more angry as the other refused to accept them the lady stood by in haughty silence finally turned upon his heel and beckoned in a way to his sister who after an glance at sir henry walked off by the side of her brother the s angry gestures showed that the lady was included in his displeasure the stood for a minute looking after them and then he walked slowly back the way that he had come his head hanging the very picture of what all this meant i could not imagine but i was deeply ashamed to have witnessed so intimate a scene without my friend s knowledge i ran down the hill therefore and met the at the bottom his face was flushed with anger and his brows were wrinkled like one who is at his wits ends what to do where have you dropped the hound op the from said he you don t mean to say that y came after me tn spite of all i explained everything to him how i had found it impossible to remain behind how i had followed him and how i had witnessed all that had occurred for an instant his eyes blazed at me but my frankness his anger and he broke at last into a rather laugh you would have thought the middle of that a fairly safe place for a man to be private said he but by thunder the whole country side seems to have been out to see me do my i mighty poor at that where had you engaged a seat i was on that hill quite in the back row eh but her was well up to the front did you see him out on us yes i did did he ever strike you as being crazy this brother of hers i can t say that he ever did i not i always thought him sane enough until to day but you can take it from me that either he or i ought to be in a strait jacket what s the matter with me anyhow you ve lived near me for some weeks tell me straight now is there anything that would prevent me from making a good husband to a woman that i loved lad ie light the i should say not he can t object to my worldly position so it must be that he has this down on what has he against me i never hurt man or woman in my life that i know of and yet he would not v much as let me touch the tips of her fingers did he say so that and a deal more i tell you i ve only known her these few weeks but from the first i just felt that she was made for me and she too she was happy when she was with	4
me and that i ll swear there s a light in a woman s eyes that speaks louder than words but he has never let us get together and it was only to day for the first time that i saw a chance of having a few words with her alone she was glad to meet me but when she did it was not love that she would talk about and she wouldn t have let me talk about it either if she could have stopped it she kept coming back to it that this was a place of danger and that she would never be happy until i had left it told her that since i had seen her i was in no hurry to leave it and that if she really wanted me to go the only way to work it was for her to arrange to go with me with that i offered in as many words to marry her but before she could answer down came this brother of hers running at us with a face on him like a madman he was just white with rage and those light eyes of his were blazing with fury what was i ng with the lady how of the dared i offer her attentions which were distasteful to her did i think that because i was a i could do what i liked if he had not been her brother i should have known better how to answer him as it was i told him that my feelings towards his sister were such as i was not ashamed o and that i hoped that she might honour me by becoming my wife that seemed to make the matter no better so then i lost my temper too and i answered him rather more hotly than i should perhaps considering that she was standing by so it ended by his going off with her as you saw and here am i as badly puzzled a man as any in this county just tell me what it all means and i ll owe you more than ever i can hope to pay i tried one or two explanations but indeed i was completely puzzled myself our friend s title his fortune his age his character and his appearance are all in his favour and i know nothing against him unless it be this dark fate which runs in his family that his advances should be rejected so without any reference to the lady s own wishes and that the lady should accept the situation without protest is very amazing however our conjectures were set at rest by a visit from himself that very afternoon he had come to offer apologies for his of the morning and after a long private interview with sir henry in his study the of their was that the breach is quite healed and that we a the light upon the to dine at house next friday as a sign of it i don t say now that he isn t a crazy man said sir henry i can t forget the look in hi eyes when he ran at me this morning but i must allow that no man could make a more handsome apology than he has done did he give any explanation of his conduct his sister is everything in his life he says that is natural enough and i am glad that he should understand her value they have always been together and according to his account he has been a very lonely man with only her as a companion so that the thought of losing her was really terrible to him he had not understood he said that i was becoming attached to her but when he saw with his own eyes that it was really so and that she might be taken away from him it gave him such a shock that for a time he was not responsible for what he said or did he was very sorry for all that had passed and he recognised how foolish and how selfish it was that he should imagine that he could hold a beautiful woman like his sister to himself for her whole life if she had to leave him he had rather it was to a neighbour like myself than to anyone else but in any case it was a blow to him and it would take him some time before he could prepare himself to meet it he would withdraw all opposition upon his part if i would promise for three months to let the matter rest and to be con the hound of the tent with the lady s friendship during that time without claiming her love this i and so the matter rests so there is one of our small mysteries cleared ap it is something to have touched bottom anywhere in this in which we are we know now why looked with upon his sister s even when that was so eligible a one as sir henry and now i pass on to another thread which i have out of the tangled the mystery of the sobs in the night of the tear stained face of mrs of the secret journey of the butler to the western window congratulate me my dear and tell me that i have not disappointed you as an agent that you do not regret the confidence which showed in me when you sent me down ail these things have by one night s work been thoroughly cleared i have said by one night s work but in truth it was by two nights work for on the first we drew entirely blank i sat up with sir henry in his room until nearly three o clock in the morning but no sound of any sort did we hear except the clock upon the stairs it was a most	4
we were completely blown but the space between us grew ever wider finally we stopped and sat panting two rocks while we watched him disappearing the distance and it was at this moment that there occurred a most strange and unexpected thing we had risen from our rocks and were turning to go home having abandoned the hopeless chase the moon was low upon the right and the jagged of a the light if p o n tbe r stood i t the lower t s of t granite t silver there as black as an statue on that shining back ground i saw the of a man upon the tor do not think that it was a delusion i assure you that i have never in my seen anything clearly as far as i could judge the figure was that of a tall thin man he stood with his legs a little separated arms folded his head bowed as if he were over that enormous wilderness of and i granite which lay before him he might have been the very spirit of that terrible it was not the this man was far horn the place where the latter had disappeared besides he was a much taller man with a cry of surprise i pointed him out to the but in the instant during which i had turned to grasp his arm the man was gone there was the sharp of granite still cutting the lower edge of the moon but its peak bore no trace of that silent and motionless figure i wished to go in that direction and to search the tor but it was some distance away the s nerves were still quivering from that cry which recalled the dark story of his family and he was not in the mood for fresh adventures he had not seen this lonely man upon the tor and could not feel the thrill which his strange presence and his commanding attitude had given to me a no doubt said he the has been thick with them since this fellow escaped well perhaps hit i e the hound of the explanation may be the right one but i should li to have some further proof of it to day we mean to communicate to the people where they should look for their missing man but it is hard lines that we have not actually had the triumph of bringing him back as our own prisoner such are the adventures of last night and you must acknowledge my dear that i have done you very well in the matter of a report much of what i tell you is no doubt quite but still i feel that it is best that i should let you have all the facts and leave you to select for yourself those which will be of most service to you in helping you to your conclusions we are certainly making some progress so far as the go we have found the motive of their actions and that has cleared up the situation very much but the with its mysteries and its strange inhabitants as inscrutable as ever perhaps in my next may be able to throw some light upon this also best of all would it be if you could come down to us in any case you will hear from me again hi the course of the next few days x r from the of dr so far i have been able to quote from the reports which i have forwarded during these early days to now however i have arrived at a point in my narrative where i am compelled to abandon this method and to trust once more to my recollections aided by the which i kept at the time a few from the latter will carry me on to those scenes which are fixed in every detail upon my memory i proceed then from the morning which followed our chase of the and our other strange experiences upon the october i th a dull and day with a of rain the house is in with rolling clouds which rise now and then to show the dreary curves of the with thin silver veins upon the sides of the hills and the distant gleaming where the light strikes upon their wet faces it is melancholy outside and in the is in a black reaction after the of the night i am conscious myself of a weight at my heart and a feeling of impending danger ever present danger which is the more terrible because i am unable to it the hound op the b ask e r v l l e l and have i not cause for such a feeling the long of incidents which have ah pointed to some sinister influence which is at work around us there is the death of the last of the hall so exactly the conditions of the family legend and there are the repeated reports from of the appearance of a strange creature upon the twice i have with my own ears heard the sound which resembled the distant of a hound it is incredible impossible that it should really be outside the ordinary laws of nature a hound which leaves material and fills the air with its howling is surely not to be thought of may fall in with such a superstition and also but if i have one quality upon earth it is common sense and nothing will persuade me to believe in such a thing to do so would be to descend to the level of these poor who are not content with a mere dog but must needs describe him with hell fire shooting from his mouth and eyes would not listen to such fancies and i am his agent but facts are facts and i have twice heard this crying upon the suppose that there were really some huge	4
hound loose upon it that would go far to explain everything but where could such a hound lie concealed where did it get its food where did it come from how was it that no one saw it by day it must be confessed that the natural explanation offers almost as many the of dr difficulties as the other and always apart from the hound there is the fact of the human agency in london the man in the cab and the letter which warned sir henry against the this at least was real but it might have been the work of a protecting friend as easily as of an enemy where is that friend or enemy now has he remained in london or has he followed us down here could could he be the stranger whom i saw upon the tor it is true that i have had only the one glance at him and yet there are some things to which i am ready to swear he is no one whom i have seen down here and i have now met all the neighbours the figure was far taller than that of far thinner than that of it might possibly have been but we had left him behind us and i am certain that he could not have followed us a stranger then is still us just as a stranger dogged us in london we have never shaken him off if i could lay my hands upon that man then at last we might find ourselves at the end of all our difficulties to this one purpose i must now devote all my energies my first impulse was to tell sir henry all my plans my second and wisest one is to play my own game and speak as little as possible to anyone he is silent and his nerves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon the moon x the hound of the will say nothing to add to his anxieties but i take my own steps to attain my own end we had a small scene this morning after breakfast asked leave to speak with sir henry and they were in his study some little time sitting in the room i more than once heard the sound of voices raised and i had a pretty good idea what the point was which was un der discussion after a time the opened his door and called for me considers that he has a grievance he said he thinks that it was unfair on our part to hunt his brother in law down when he of his ow free will had told us the secret the butler was standing very pale but very before us i may have spoken too warmly sir said he and if i have i am sure that i beg your pardon at the same time i was very much surprised when i heard you two gentlemen come back this morning and learned that you had been chasing the poor fellow has enough to fight against without my putting more upon his track if you had told us of your own free will it would have been a different thing said the only told us or rather your wife only told us it was forced from you and you could not help your self i didn t think you would have taken advantage of it sir henry indeed i didn t iso the of dr the man is a public danger there are lonely houses scattered over the and he is a fellow who would stick at nothing you only want to get a glimpse of his face to see that look at mr s house for example with no one but himself to defend it there s no safety for anyone until he is under lock and key he ll break into no house sir i give you my solemn word upon that but he will never trouble anyone in this country again i assure you sir henry that in a very few days the necessary arrangements will have been made and he will be on his way to south america for god s sake sir i of you not to let the police know that he is still on the they have given up the chase there and he can lie quiet until the ship is ready for him you can t tell on him without getting my wife and me into trouble i beg you sir to say nothing to the police what do you say i shrugged my shoulders if he were safely out of the country it would relieve the tax of a den but how about the chance of his holding up before he goes he would not do anything so mad sir we have provided him with all that he can want to commit a crime would be to show where he was hiding that is true said sir henry well the hound of the god bless you sir and thank you from heart it would have killed my poor wife had he been taken again i guess we are and a but after what we have heard i don t feel as if i could give the man up so there is an end of it all right you can go with a few broken words of gratitude the man turned but he hesitated and then came back you ve been so kind to us sir that i should uke to do the best i can for you in return i know something sir henry and perhaps i should have said it before but it was long after the that i found it out i ve never breathed a word it yet to mortal man it s about poor sir death the and i were both upon our led do you know how he died no sir i don t know that what then	4
i know why he was at the gate at that hour it was to meet a woman to meet a woman he yes sir and the woman s name i can t give you the name sir but i can you the her were l l how do you know this well sir henry your uncle had a letter that morning he had usually a great many letters for the of dr he was a public man and well known for his kind heart so that who was in trouble was glad to turn to him but that morning as it chanced there was only this one letter so i took the more notice of it it was from and it was addressed in a woman s hand weu well sir i thought no more of the matter and never would have done had it not been for my wife only a few weeks ago she was cleaning out sir charles s study it had never been touched since his death and she found the ashes of a burned letter in the back of the grate the greater part of it was to pieces but one little slip the end of a page hung together and the writing could still be read though it was grey on a black ground it seemed to us to be a at the end of the letter and it said please please as you are a gentleman bum this letter and be at the gate by ten o clock beneath it were signed the l l have you got that slip no sir it all to bits after we moved it had sir charles received any other letters in the same writing well sir i took no particular notice of his letters i should not have noticed this one only it happened to come alone and you have no idea who l l is no sir no more than you have but i the of the if we could lay our hands upon that lady we should know more about sir s death i cannot understand how you to conceal this important information well sir it was immediately after that our own trouble came to us and then again sir we were both of us very fond of sir charles as we well might be considering all that he has done for us to r this ud couldn t help our poor master and it s to go carefully when there s a lady in the even the best of us you thought it might injure his reputation well sir i thought no good could come of i but now you have been kind to us and i feel as i it would be treating you not to tell all that i know about the matter very good you can go the butler had left us sir henry turned to well what do you think of this light it seems to leave the darkness rather than before so i think but if we can only trace l l should clear up the whole business we have gained that much we know that there is some one who has the facts if we can only find her do you think we should do let know all about it at once it give him the clue for which he has been seeking i am much mistaken if it does not bring him down is the of dr i went at once to my room and drew up my report of the morning s conversation for it was evident to me that he had been very busy of late for the notes which i had from baker street were few and short with no comments upon the information which i had supplied and hardly any reference to my mission no doubt his case is absorbing all his faculties and yet this new must surely arrest his attention and renew his interest i wish that he were here october th au day to day the rain poured down rustling on the ivy and dripping from the i thought of the out upon the bleak cold poor devil whatever his crimes he has suffered something to for them and then i thought of that other one the face in the cab the figure against the moon was he also out in that the unseen the man of darkness in the evening i put on my and i walked far upon the full of dark the rain beating upon my face and the wind whistling about my ears god help those who wander into the great mire now for even the firm are becoming a i found the black tor upon which i had seen the solitary and from its summit i looked out myself across the melancholy downs rain drifted across their face and the heavy slate coloured clouds hung low over the landscape trailing in grey wreaths down the of the b as ke l the sides of the fantastic hills in the distant hollow on the left half hidden by the mist the two thin towers of hall rose above the trees they were the only signs of human life which i could see save only those huts which lay thickly upon the slopes of the hills nowhere was there any trace of that lonely man whom i had seen on the same spot two nights before as i walked back i was overtaken by dr driving in his dog cart over a rough track which led from the of he has been very attentive to us am hardly a day has passed that he has not called at the hall to see how we were getting on he insisted upon my climbing into his dog cart and he gave me a lift i found him much troubled over the disappearance of his little it had wandered on to the and had	4
never come back i gave him such consolation as i might but i of the pony on the mire and i do not fancy that he will see his little dog again by the way said i as we along the rough road i suppose there are people living within driving distance of this who you do not know hardly any i think can you then tell me the name of any worn whose are l l he thought for a few minutes no said he there are a few ant id m the of dr folk for whom i can t answer but g i the farmers or gentry there is no one whose i are those wait a bit though he added after a i pause there is her are l l but she lives in who is she i asked she is s daughter what old the exactly she married an artist named ly s i who came on the he proved to i be a and deserted her the fault i what i hear may not have been entirely on one side i her father refused to have anything to do with her i because she had married without his consent and s for one or two other reasons as well so i between the old sinner and the young one the has had a pretty bad time how does she i fancy om allows her a but it cannot be more for his own affairs are considerably involved whatever she may have deserved one could not allow her to go hopelessly to the bed her story got about and several of the people here did something to enable her to earn an honest did for one and sir charles for another i gave a trifle myself it was to set her up in a business he wanted to know the object of my inquiries but i managed to satisfy his curiosity without ted ing him too much for there is no reason why we an in h tbe hound of the take anyone into our confidence to morrow morning i shall find my way to and if i can see this mrs of reputation a long step will have been made towards clearing one incident in this chain of am certainly developing the wisdom of the for when pressed his questions to an convenient extent i asked him casually to what type s skull belonged and so heard nothing but for the rest of our drive i have not lived for years with for nothing i have only one other incident to record upon this and melancholy day this was my conversation with just now which gives me one more strong card which i can play in due time had stayed to dinner and he and the played afterwards the brought me my coffee into the library and i took the chance to ask him a few questions well said i has this precious relation of yours departed or is he still lurking out yonder i don t know sir i hope to heaven that he has gone for he has brought nothing but trouble here i ve not heard of him since i left out food for him last and that was three days ago did you see him then no sir but the food was gone when next went that way the of wi t then he was certainly there so you would think sir unless it was the man who took it i sat with my coffee cup half way to my lips and stared at you know that there is another man then yes sir there is another man upon the have you seen him no sir how do you know of him then told me of him sir a week ago or more he s in hiding too but he s not a as as i can make out i don t like it dr i tell you straight sir that i don t like it he spoke with a sudden passion of earnestness now listen to me i have no interest in this matter but that of your master i have come here with no object except to help him tell me frankly what it is that you don t like hesitated for a moment as if he re his outburst or found it difficult to express his own feelings in words it s all these on sir he cried at last waving his hand towards the rain lashed window which faced the there s foul play some where and there s black to that i ll swear i very glad i should be sir to see sir henry on his way back to london again but what is it that you look at sir charles s death i that was bad the hound op thb enough or all that the said look at the on the at night there s not a man would cross it after if he was paid for it look at this stranger hiding out yonder and watching and waiting what s he waiting for what does it mean it means no good to anyone of the of and very glad i shall be to be quit of it all on the day that sir henry s new servants are ready to take over the hall but about this stranger said i can you tell me anything about him what did say did he find out where he hid or what he was he saw him once or twice but he is a deep one aod gives nothing away at first he thought that was the police but soon he found that he had some lay of his own a kind of gentleman he was as far as he could see but what he was doing he could not make out and where did he say that	4

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.