uch would
be the cause. Yet he had never consciously acknowledged the thought. It
had lain sluggish in the deeps beneath surfaces agitated by emotions
more poignant and immediate. Still, it had been there--that
understanding. That, and that only, had so poisoned his rest....

But he shrank shuddering from the thought of the work that lay to his
hand--work that must be accomplished at once and completely; for she
must know nothing of it. She had suffered enough, as it was.

Hastening back to the farmstead, he secured a spade from the barn and
made his way quickly down to the beach by way of the road through the
cluster of deserted fishermen's huts.

Fifteen minutes' walk brought him to the pool. Ten minutes' hard work
with the spade sufficed to excavate a shallow trench in the sands above
high-water mark. He required as much time again to nerve himself to the
point of driving off the gulls and moving the body. There were likewise
crabs to be dealt with....

When it was accomplished, and he had lifted the last heavy stone into
place above the grave, he dragged himself back along the beach and round
a shoulder of the bluff to a spot warmed by the rays of the rising sun.
There, stripping off his rags, he waded out into the sea and cleansed
himself as best he might, scrubbing sand into his flesh until it was
scored and angry; then crawled back, resumed his garments, and lay down
for a time in the strength-giving light, feeling giddy and faint with
the after-effects of the insuppressible nausea which had prolonged
intolerably his loathsome task.

Very gradually the bluish shadows faded from about his mouth and eyes,
and natural colour replaced his pallor. And presently he rose and went
slowly up to the house, all his being in a state of violent rebellion
against the terror and mystery of life.

What the gulls and the crabs and the shattering surf had left had been
little, but enough for indisputable identification.

Whitaker had buried Drummond.

XVIII

BLIGHT

By the time he got back to the farm-house, the woman was up, dressed in
the rent and stained but dry remnants of her own clothing (for all their
defects, infinitely more becoming than the garments to which she had
been obliged to resort the previous day) and busy preparing breakfast.

There was no question but that her rest had been sound and undisturbed.
If her recuperative powers had won his envy before, now she was wholly
marvellous in his eyes