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All through thefor an hour or two at noon; and in the late afternoon they remounted their horses and fared forth once -place Sir Richard had in mind

By dint of compasses and an unusually accurate sense of location, the older man had staked their course with admirable directness, and as the moon rose they drew rein at the appointed destination, a wild and rocky valley whose caves offered a natural protection fro freshness over the loose, salt-inated sand

Here, thanks to the ever-useful thermos flask, they enjoyed a sufficient meal of hot soup, followed by a multitude of sandwiches of divers kinds; and when, after a pull at their respective flasks, the two lit their pipes and stretched their limbs, cramped by the day's exertions, Anstice, at least, felt more at peace with the world than he had felt for years

To be hastening towards Iris Cheniston, to be sure ofthe kind friendliness of her wide grey eyes, of hearing the soft cooing notes of her voice, was enough to make atowards her in order to do his best to save the life of the one hu who stood between him and his happiness lost all its irony when he remembered that it was in reality Iris herself for who found them early astir; and as their horses danced over the sand, literally throwing the miles behind the, rose with a bound He whistled gaily as they rode, ever and anon breaking off to conjecture on the nature of the welcoht reasonably expect to receive; and when he spoke, as he did frequently, of his son-in-law, his prognostications, in striking contrast with his fore

Strange to say, as his spirits rose, so did those of Anstice sink An odd foreboding, a preladness from his heart; and as they rode on and ever onwards he told hiedy

Possibly it was the Celtic strain in hie and perverse forebodings of evil On sundry other occasions in his earlier youth he had fallen with appalling swiftness frolad anticipation to the depths of a certain and loom; and now, quite suddenly, he found himself involved in a black and raylessat hand