Geoffrey Hamlyn

s Made Accomplice to

rough long green meadows, after he has left Dartmoor, have little idea of the magnificent scene which rewards the perseverance

den whin, while on the right the lofty serrated ridge of Yestor starts boldly up, black agai

evis in height, and, with the exception of the Murray Gates in Australia, and a glen in Madeira, whose name I have forgotten, I have never seen among them

hot summer's day it is wearisome enough for the lonely angler to listen to the river crawling lazily through the rocks that choke his bed, mingled with the clocking of some water-moved boulder, and the chick-chick of the stonechat, or the sc

leave us, a lonely watcher was standing by the angry swelling river in the most desolate part of the pass, at a place whe

ving rain, as though expecting some one who came not. But at length, grown tired of watching, he with an oath descended to a sheltered corner am

es were black and piercing, and his lips thin. His face was battered like an old sailor's, and every careless, unstudied motion of his body was as wild and reckless a

away to other times and places, the whole appearance of the man seemed to change and become milder and kindlier; yet when some slight noise makes him lift his head and look round,

ng to win the dominion of all seas, or taking his trick at the helm through arctic iceblocks with Parry, or toiling on with steadfast

s, cursing, thrice convicted man. His very virtues - his impatient energy and undeniable courage - his greatest stumbling-blocks, leading him into crimes which a lazy

being broken by penal discipline, had earned him three fresh convictions in the colony. From the last of these sentences he had escaped, with a cunning and address which had ba

im as a suspicious stranger; and what cut him deeper still, his mother, his old, half-blind, palsied mother, whose memory he had in some sort cherished thro

away. But he was smooth-faced, like a girl, and ye're a dark

ilent from that day, and three weeks a

grey church on

through the little crowd, and as they threw the first earth on the coffin, stoo

eting a fellow-creature, he had acquired the habit of thinking aloud, and if anyone had been listening

rubbish won't burn, at least not to warm a man. If it wasn't for the whisky I should be dead. There's a rush of wind; I am glad for one thing there is no dead timber overhead. He'll be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to bounce me, but there ain't a public-house on the road six miles from this, so the drink will have pretty much died out of him by the time he gets to me, and if I can get him to sit in this rain, and smoke 'backer for five minutes, he won't be particular owdaciou

and Lee, putting his hand to his mouth, replied with tha

rse, now blundering among loose-lying blocks of stone. Lee waited till he was quite close, and then seizing a bunch of

t. If you had wanted to murder me, I could have understood it. B

llage. The whole house ain't mine, and we don't know who may be listening. I am suspected enough alre

o you bring me out here in the middle of the moor? We might have met on the hill underneath t

, but he was far from comfortable. He would have been still less so had he known that Lee's shou

so we had better be as comfortab

thing to

et's twist, that never paid duty as I know'd on, so just smo

d a drop of grog, s

do, when they can't get anyth

nd smoked in silence for a f

ad, there would be some of the

rel, isn't it

's some folks don't believe in witches and the like," he continued; "but a man

l's dam, dame Parker, that lives alone up in Hatherleigh Wood, got gibbering some infernal nonsense at me the oth

; "but I'd sooner kill

n any George had been accustomed to, combined wi

ked the crib, agreeing to meet here in this very place, and share the swag, for they had got nigh seventy pound. They met and quarrelled over the sharing up; and the

eorge; "you want to drive me into th

ed, somewhat sulkily, that they should begin to talk about what

to begin. What made you send

money,"

me. I am surprised that a man with your knowledge of the world should have se

filled the nook where they were sitting, and m

ng quiet and sly, eh? something worth a fifty-pound note, e

down for less than that. So you've been stagging this gentleman and me, and listening, have you? For just ha

nd made towards it, and as I come up I heard some mention made of money

, you may stop and hear what it's all about. I don't care

rted, and cursed Lee bitterly in his heart, but he s

s in debt, raising money in every way he could, hook or crook, square or cross, to satisfy certain creditors, who were becoming nasty impatient and vexatious. I thought something might be made of this young gentleman, so finding there was no pride about him, I cultivated his acquaintance, examined his affairs, and put him up to the neatest little fakement in the world, just showed him how to raise two hundred pounds, and clear himself with everybody, just by signing his father's name, thereby saving the old gent the trouble of writing it (he is very infirm, is dad), and anticipating by a few years what must be his own at last. Not to mention paying off a lot of poor publicans and horse-dealers, who could not afford to wait for their mo

e in Hawker, "you said

orge Hawker," he continued; "you are treed, and you can't help yourself. If I give information you swing, and you know it; but I'd rather ha

emies, but that glance showed him that it was hopeless, for they both stood close together, each holding in his hand a cocked pistol,

he'd have been at me then like a tiger. It would have been only man to man, b

hers waited for his answer, determined that he should speak first. At l

to get three h

ow your father is getting blind, so you need hardly take the trouble of altering the figures in the banker's book, and some slight hi

ts to get back to a part of the world he was rather anxious to leave a few years ago. If he likes to take me back with him, why he can. I rather fancy the notion myself. Give him the money, and in three months we'

orge. "You shall have the money this day week.

sonable. If it hadn't been for my necessities, I am s

ross the moor. The rain had ceased, and the sky was clear, so that there was not much difficulty in pickin

n't half like the wa

got some new move in his head, you may depe

aid Lee; "oh, only

f worthies walked h