ss land to hide in I never
beheld, and I was confirmed in my reckless resolution. Chance alone
must protect me.

Down a still steeper hill I rode, only now amid numberless small farms
and with another bay shining ahead. The road ran nearly straight into
the water and then bent suddenly and followed the rim of the bay, with
nothing but empty sea-links on the landward side. The farms were left
behind, a mansion-house by the shore was still a little distance ahead,
and there was not a living soul in sight as I came to a small
stone-walled enclosure squeezed in between the road and the beach
below. I jumped off, led my cycle round this and laid it on the
ground, and then seated myself with my back against the low wall of
loose stones and my feet almost projecting over the edge of the steep
slope of pebbles that fell down to the sand.

I was only just out of sight, but unless any one should walk along the
beach, out of sight I certainly was, and it struck me forcibly that
ever since I had given myself up to luck, every impulse had been an
inspiration. If I were conducting the search for myself, would I ever
dream of looking for the mysterious runaway behind a wall three feet
high within twenty paces of a public road and absolutely exposed to a
wide sweep of beach? "No," I told myself, "I certainly should not!"

There I sat for hour after hour basking in the sunshine, and yet
despite my heavy clothing kept at a bearable temperature by gentle airs
of cool breeze off the sea. The tide, which was pretty high when I
arrived, crept slowly down the sands, but save for the cruising and
running of gulls and little piping shore-birds, that was all the
movement on the beach. Not a soul appeared below me all that time.
The calm shining sea remained absolutely empty except once for quarter
of an hour or so when a destroyer was creeping past far out. To the
seaward there was not a hint of danger or the least cause for
apprehension.

On the road behind me I did hear sounds several times, which I confess
disturbed my equanimity much more than I meant to let them. Once a
motor-car buzzed past, and not to hold my breath as the sound swelled
so rapidly and formidably was more than I could achieve. The jogging
of a horse and trap twice set me wondering, despite myself, whether
there were a couple of men with carbines aboard. But the slow
prolonged rattling and creaking of carts was perhaps the sound that
worried me most. They