nds
assuaged my restless spirit of investigation. Letters from the squire
and my aunt Dorothy urged me to betake myself to Riversley, there
finally to decide upon what my course should be.

'Now that you have the money, pray,' St. Parsimony wrote,--'pray be
careful of it. Do not let it be encroached on. Remember it is to serve
one purpose. It should be guarded strictly against every appeal for
aid,' etc., with much underlining.

My grandfather returned the papers. His letter said 'I shall not break
my word. Please to come and see me before you take steps right or left.'

So here was the dawn again.

I could in a day or two start for Sarkeld. Meanwhile, to give my father
a lesson, I discharged a number of bills, and paid off the bond to which
Edbury's name was attached. My grandfather, I knew, was too sincerely
and punctiliously a gentleman in practical conduct to demand a further
inspection of my accounts. These things accomplished, I took the train
for Riversley, and proceeded from the station to Durstan, where I knew
Heriot to be staying. Had I gone straight to my grandfather, there would
have been another story to tell.

CHAPTER XLV. WITHIN AN INCH OF MY LIFE

A single tent stood in a gully running from one of the gravel-pits of
the heath, near an iron-red rillet, and a girl of Kiomi's tribe leaned
over the lazy water at half length, striking it with her handkerchief.
At a distance of about twice a stone's-throw from the new carriage-road
between Durstan and Bulsted, I fancied from old recollections she might
be Kiomi herself. This was not the time for her people to be camping on
Durstan. Besides, I feared it improbable that one would find her in any
of the tracks of her people. The noise of the wheels brought the girl's
face round to me. She was one of those who were babies in the tents when
I was a boy. We were too far apart for me to read her features. I lay
back in the carriage, thinking that it would have been better for my
poor little wild friend if I had never crossed the shadow of her tents.
A life caught out of its natural circle is as much in danger of being
lost as a limb given to a wheel in spinning machinery; so it occurred to
me, until I reflected that Prince Ernest might make the same remark, and
deplore the damage done to the superior machinery likewise.

My movements appeared to interest the girl. She was up on a mound of
the fast-purpling heath, shading her eyes to watch me, when I call