, and Jock came leaping over the
dyke there with a great brown dog, and stopped as if he'd been shot--"

"I thought you were a ghost, you see."

"And I couldn't believe my eyes. Then I asked him what he meant by
following us here, and it turned out that it was we who had followed
him, and turned him out of his cottage moreover."

"Deuced odd!" said Charles Svendt, screwing in his eye-glass and
regarding them comprehensively. "Almost makes one believe in--er--"

"Telepathy and that kind of thing," said Miss Penny.

"Er--exactly--just so, don't you know!" and his glance rested on her
with appreciation as upon a kindred soul.

XVI

Charles Svendt dined with them that evening, and in the process
developed heights and depths of genial common-sense which quite
surprised some among them.

They took him for a stroll up to the Eperquerie in the cool of the
gloaming, and showed him more shooting stars than ever he had seen in
his life, and a silver sickle of a moon, and a western sky still
smouldering with the afterglow of a crimson and amber sunset, and he
acknowledged that, from some points of view, Sark had advantages over
Throgmorton Street.

In the natural course of things, Margaret and Graeme walked together,
and since they could not go four abreast among the gorse cushions,
Charles Svendt and Miss Penny had to put up with one another, and
seemed to get on remarkably well. More than once Graeme squeezed
Margaret's arm within his own and chuckled, as he heard the animated
talk and laughter from the pair behind.

"I'm very glad he's taken a sensible view of the matter," said
Margaret.

"Oh, Charles Svendt is no fool, and he certainly would have been if
he'd done anything but what he has done. He saw that he could do no
good and might get into trouble. The Seigneur scowled dungeons and
gibbets at him, and he looked decidedly uncomfortable."

"I will tender the Seigneur my very best thanks the first time I see
him."

When the men had seen the ladies home, they strolled up the garden to
the Red House for a final smoke.

"Say, Graeme, I've been wondering what you'd have done if I'd played
mule and persisted in kicking up my heels in church. I asked Miss
Penny--and, by Jove, I tell you, that's about as sensible a girl as
I've met for a long time--"

"Miss Penny is an extremely clever girl and an exceptionally fine
character. Good family too. Her father was the Brigadier-General Penny
who was killed in Afghan