. She will laugh, and talk and
lie, and tell you everything--except what you want to know. What
strength is to a man, cunning is to a woman. They are the potters, we
are the clay, and--and--and my discourse is as discursive as that of
Praed's vicar,' finished the doctor, with a dry chuckle.

'It has led us a long way from the main point,' agreed Harry, 'and that
is--what is Dr Pendle's secret?'

Graham shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. 'You ask more than I
can tell you,' he said sadly. 'Whatever it is, Pendle intends to keep it
to himself. All we can do is to trust Baltic.'

'Well, doctor,' said Harry, taking a reluctant leave, for he wished to
thresh out the matter into absolute chaff, 'you know best, so I shall
follow your advice.'

'I am glad of that,' was Graham's reply. 'My time is too valuable to be
wasted.'

While this conversation was taking place, Baltic was walking briskly
across the brown heath, in the full blaze of the noonday. A merciless
sun flamed like a furnace in the cloudless sky; and over the vast
expanse of dry burnt herbage lay a veil of misty, tremulous heat. Every
pool of water flashed like a mirror in the sun-rays; the drone of myriad
insects rose from the ground; the lark's clear music rained down from
the sky; and the ex-sailor, trudging along the white and dusty highway,
almost persuaded himself that he was back in some tropical land, less
gorgeous, but quite as sultry, as the one he had left. The day was
fitter for mid June rather than late September.

Baltic made so much concession to the unusual weather as to drape his
red handkerchief over his head and place his Panama hat on top of it;
but he still wore the thick pilot suit, buttoned up tightly, and stepped
out smartly, as though he were a salamander impervious to heat. With his
long arms swinging by his side, his steady, grey eyes observant of all
around him, he rolled on, in true nautical style, towards the gipsy
camp. This was not hard to discover, for it lay only a mile or so from
Southberry Junction, some little distance off the main road. The
missionary saw a huddle of caravans, a few straying horses, a cluster of
tawny, half-clad children rioting in the sunshine; and knowing that this
was his port of call, he stepped off the road on to the grass, and made
directly for the encampment. He had a warrant for Mother Jael's arrest
in his pocket, but save himself there was no one to execute it, and it
might be difficult to