A Romance of Wastdale

rning, the door was thrown open an

our fatigue yet?" he asked

e, th

ressions of his appearance. He had been unconsciously developing the man's features and body to express the qualities which he now attributed to him, moulding them, as it were, by the model of his own thoughts. So that, at the f

soundly?" a

eciable by his observer, and a faint symptom of a

hummin

to Eskdale, aren't y

if I ha

lans?" The query was put

arrived at the Inn thi

wso

ow him, but he was a

Everything depended on the answer. For the presence of this interloper,

f the distance, and we mean to spend an hour or so on the Pilla

mean a

the way, that is what brought me up here. I shall be l

the previous night. Gordon just managed to check an involunt

one!" he said

hey any at

th a perfect assumption of careless

broken. So I thought

it you, but it belongs to the house.

shadow darkening the doorway effectually prevented any further investigation

said he was going to borrow your lanthorn. Why, the landlady had two or three," he went on, t

ver could unravel her dialect." He abruptly introduced his friend to Gordon, and resu

the night's proceedings remained a secret. It was interrupted, however, by the servant, who bustled in with the tray to clear the table, and Gordon thought with a tremor: Suppose she had en

girl," said Lawson, wh

inquired. "I have

broke in: "Oh, it's true enough! Gordon never n

am told," Lawson replied. "Well, I s

a mistake if you d

hy

between Diana and Phryne at a jump. They are mere moods, and always

grammatical study of the

ng moods, they are unintelligble, and the man who tries to solve the

experience?" Gor

You may call it a theory of mine if you like. But I believe that it is true all the same. All that you want to know about a woman

to be talked to about h

to most women," he added, seeing that the other was

have neve

n as the latter spoke; but the remark had fallen quite casual

ributed to personal causes. An anc

is good," s

n to think about it, and the more you think, the more it perplexes you, and, consequently, the stronger the hold it se

eed!

begin to respect her, sh

me along, Hawke! That is enough lecture for to-day

nventional truths," Hawke answe

k of my theory? D

s one of those theories which, to use your own

ten noticed that!" he continued musingly. "When a man comes to grief over facts, he can pull round if

felt so certain of the accuracy of his opinion that the actual utterance of the views sounded to him little more than a repetition. His resolve, besides, to exact a full and speedy retribution from Hawke was mail of proof

adjust the rucksack in which he carried their lunch on to his back, and shot a careless "I may see you again th

the side of Kirkfell into Mosedale, and every now and then he caught a flash as the sun glittered on the steel head of an ice-axe. Mosedale forms, as it were, a recess in Wastdale, running back from the valley on the side opposite to Scafell, and the Pillar mountain makes the end wall of t

ealing to him with a sense of appropriateness. Hawke, he reflected, would have to cross Great Gable, and the Styhead, continue in the same direction southwards along Esk-Hause, the pass to Langdale, and then turn to the right into Eskdale, which is separated from the val

d then

conviction. He had come to look upon himself as the tool and agent in the completion of an ordained plan. So keen indeed had this feeling of personal irresponsibility become, that he gave no t

weapon in t

just

a law what was in reality only the gratification of a savage lust for revenge; a distinction which he might have

ountain, suspicion would be diverted from the idea of a premeditated attack. It would look as if Hawke had changed his route by chance, made the circuit of the valley, and then slipped on the cliffs at the opposite end. For Gordon reckoned that no one but Lawson and himself knew of Hawke's projected expedition, and the former, being ignorant of the hostility between the two men, would have no reason to connect him with the accident. Tha

to his room. The day before he had brought over such few articles as he required in a rucksack--the bag, half knapsack, half haversack, peculiar to mountaineers--and at the bottom of this lay, still folded up, an extra coat and pair of knee-breeches of the same

ect to be in till then, I am going over to Rosthwa

iend some time since. He knew that, but when did they expect him home? They were not quite sure, late they gathered, but Mr. Hawke had said nothing of the matter to them. In fact it was his friend who had borrow

rd in a recess by the side of the fireplace. There was another of a similar make in a corresponding position on the farther side, but that stood open, while this one was locked and the key removed. Gordon stooped to examine the lock; it belonged to that type which appears to have been invented in a genial spirit in order to excite curiosity and gratify it, and Gordon's knife proved a quick skeleton-key. He found the shawl, as he had expected, carelessly tumbled on to the shelf, and he took it down and ran the white fleecy wool through

arks or scratches about the lock might, he thought, draw attention to himself, and suggest the possibility of an ulterior motive for his visit beyond the mere inditing of a note. As to the lock itself, in all probability no one but Hawke knew that it had been fastened, and Hawke's knowledge, he reflected,

ess every feature of that previous journey, he recollected it with no shadow of emotion, and almost without interest. The facts recurred to him, but devoid of personal

air was growing heavy and still with a prophecy of a storm; so that he was not surprised, when he came out on the summit of the crags, to find the clouds brooding angrily about the tops of the fells. Far away, it is true, from one broad solitary rift, he could see

hen he stood finally upon the top of the gap, and already growing rapidly dark. The cold, moreover, had become intense; so that that silent wilderness of stones, overhung by black crags, seemed to him in the dim light the most desolate spot in all the world. On both sides the ridge sloped steeply down in an incline of scree

into an aimless activity. He descended the ridge towards Wastdale in hot haste. There, to add to his dismay, he beheld a mist floating quickly up the valleys in tongues of smoke, and he knew that the moment it swept across Mickledoor, adding its thick confusion to the increasing gloom, his chances of discovering Hawke, even if he, came that way, were practically destroyed. He turned on his steps in a panic and raced back to the top of the ridge. The same stagnant silence enveloped it. There was not even a stir of the wind. Looking back, he saw the mist was already licking the boulders at the bottom of the steep incline. It would pour over the gap in a minute, he thought, and, without stopping to reason, he ran down the slope from it on the Eskdale side. It occurred to him, upon subsequent thought, that this a

Broad Stand. So he turned back once more and reascended the incline, treading cautiously and feeling along the mountain as he went, lest in the darkness he should pass the point at which the climb began. After proceeding in this manner for about a minute, he came to a narrow vertical slit in the rock, which was just discernible. It was the spot of which he was in search, and he entered it, appearing to be swallowed up in the cliff, A walk of a few yards brought him to some huge blocks piled one above another, and shaped in pyramidal steps. These formed the pathway of his ascent. They present no great difficulty as a rule, but now they were coated with a thin glaze of ice, and as Gordon had

A thin buttress of rock ran down shoulder-high between the two men, and this Gordon had forgotten. He came upon it unawares as he was moving with outstretched hands, and, understanding that he had traversed the space diagonally instead of in a direct line, he descended a little to round it. As he was doing this he heard the spirt of a match. There was not a breath of wind, and the tiny flame burnt steadily, throwing out a brown light upon the mirky gloom. To Gordon it seemed blood-red. He paused and waited for the match to blow out. Instead of that, however, it grew brighter, and he remembered that Hawke carried a lanthorn. For a second he was stagg

wke, lifting the lantho

with its open blade into his pocket, and the flame of th