Hawtrey's Deputy

ale of Northern England. On arriving in London a week or two earlier he had found a letter from Mrs. Hastings, who was then in Paris, await

from Miss Rawlinson, went on again to a certain little town which s

smay. There then remained the question, what to do with the next few days. A conversation with some pedestrian tourists whom he met at his hotel, and a glance at a map of the hill-tracks dec

ir great astonishment the brown-faced stranger, who wore ordinary tight-fitting American attire and rather pointed American shoes, went up it apparently without an effort, and for the credit of the clubs they belonged to, it seemed incumbent on them to

s wrong; for it was the trick the bushman learns when he plods through leagues of undergrowth and fallen branches, or the tall grass of the swamps; and it is a memorable experience to make a day's journey with such a man. For the fir

g black against the evening light, and the stream came boiling down clear as crystal among great boulder stones; but he had wandered through many a grander and more savage scene of

rinkled with tiny flecks of crimson and wondrous green. Great oaks dotted the meadows, each one perfect in symmetry. It seemed that the men who held this land cared for single trees. The sleek, tame cattle that rubbed their necks on the level hedge-top and gazed at him ruminatively were very different f

in this man, and the elusive beauty of these things curiously appealed to him. He had seen the riotous, sensuous blaze of flowers kissed by Pacific breezes, and the burnished gold of wheat that rolled

ot remember ever having done anything of that kind before. His life had been a strenuous one, spent for the most part in the driving-seat of great ploughs that rent their ample furrows through virgin prairie, guiding the clinking binders through the wheat under a blazing sun, or dr

aph of an English girl. He had got it from the lad he had buried among the ranges of the Pacific slope, and it had been his companion in many a desolate camp and on many a weary journey. Th

o speak to her. This was, after all, not so extravagant a fancy as it might appear, for romance, the mother of chivalry and many graces, still finds shelter in the hearts of such men as him f

man moving towards the river, and he watched her with a quiet interest, for his perceptions were a little sharper than usual then, and it seemed to him that she was very much in harmony with what he thought of as the key-tone of the place. She was tall and shapely, and she moved with a quiet gra

he latter had sometimes exasperated him, but it was becoming comprehensible, and taking on a more favourable aspect now. It was, he felt, born of the tranquillity of this well-trimmed land, a s

row of stepping stones that stretched across it somewhat dubiously. One or two had apparently fallen over, or been washed away by a flood, for there

o get acros

, she turned towards him quietly. Then a momentary sense of astonishment held him almost embarrassed, for

d by the bridge, but some of the stones seem t

st of all a man of action, and, somewhat to her astonishment, he forth

g step. You ought to

ranger's face was darkened by the sun. There was also an indefinite suggestion of strength in the pose of his lean, symmetrical figure, which, though she did not recognise that fact, could only have come from strenuous labour in the open ai

tone until she came to a rather wider gap, where the stream was deeper. Then she stopped a moment, gazing at th

d, "I won't l

id, 'I won't

ure, but glad to see that his face was perfectly unmoved, and that he was evidently quite unconscious of havi

aid. "I'm afraid y

h," he said, "I'm used to it. Isn't there a vill

he way. The path goes up to the

s face, while there was, after all, no reason why he should stay behind when he was going the same way. He accompanied her silently for several minutes as they

of those trees ov

spoken without perceptible accent, she had been slig

t uncommon. You are a

as English as you are, in some respects, though I never quite realised it unt

n expensive education, and she remembered that the influence of the isle she lived in had in turn fastened on Saxons, Norsemen, Normans, and made them Englishmen. What was more, so far as she had read, those who h

dom, "how can you be s

rees, but she fancied there was

imply, "you couldn'

had met him scarcely suggested such a lack of sense. She was becoming mildly interested in this stranger, but she possessed several essential

ad who went out to Canada some few years ag

t. Besides, the name is not an uncommon one.

e, have been easy to describe him, but Wyllard was shrewd, and noticing that there was now a restraint in his companion's manner he was not prepared to do that yet. He was aware that

e said, "I shall no doubt get

d a minute or two later,

go straight on you will come to the v

oot of the fell, and roofed, as he noticed, with ponderous flags. In Canada, where the frost was Arctic, they used thin cedar shingles. The room his meal was brought him in was panelled with oak that had turned black with age. Great rough-hewn beams of four times the size that anybody would have used for the purpose i

nd she was a little, withered old woman, immaculately neat,

tting-room," she said. "We've three young me

quite know yet if I'll go on to-morrow. One can get throu

trians often went that way, and W

ous folks-people of sta

you'd call prosperous. Then there's Mr. Martin

four years of age?" and Wyllard described th

y did not recognise the descrip

that; but I did hear that they'd a

y, and Wyllard once more decided tha

tranger, si

the fells, and I'm glad I did. It's a great and wonderful country you're living in. That is," he add

ray's too heavy for you.

ssistance, and when she went out Wyllard, who sat down again, took out the

I want to keep it now," he said. "It's way behind the original. She h

smoked thoughtfully until he a

They don't like it," he said. "I'll lie by a

hostess was discuss

an, but he walks like a fell shepherd, and his hands are like a navvy's. A man's hands now and then tell you a

e's an American. There's