hind it, his green net waving in the
air. His gray clothes and jerky, zigzag, irregular progress made
him not unlike some huge moth himself. I was standing watching
his pursuit with a mixture of admiration for his extraordinary
activity and fear lest he should lose his footing in the
treacherous mire, when I heard the sound of steps, and turning
round found a woman near me upon the path. She had come from the
direction in which the plume of smoke indicated the position of
Merripit House, but the dip of the moor had hid her until she was
quite close.

I could not doubt that this was the Miss Stapleton of whom I had
been told, since ladies of any sort must be few upon the moor,
and I remembered that I had heard someone describe her as being a
beauty. The woman who approached me was certainly that, and of a
most uncommon type. There could not have been a greater contrast
between brother and sister, for Stapleton was neutral tinted,
with light hair and gray eyes, while she was darker than any
brunette whom I have seen in England--slim, elegant, and tall.
She had a proud, finely cut face, so regular that it might have
seemed impassive were it not for the sensitive mouth and the
beautiful dark, eager eyes. With her perfect figure and elegant
dress she was, indeed, a strange apparition upon a lonely
moorland path. Her eyes were on her brother as I turned, and then
she quickened her pace towards me. I had raised my hat and was
about to make some explanatory remark, when her own words turned
all my thoughts into a new channel.

"Go back!" she said. "Go straight back to London, instantly."

I could only stare at her in stupid surprise. Her eyes blazed at
me, and she tapped the ground impatiently with her foot.

"Why should I go back?" I asked.

"I cannot explain." She spoke in a low, eager voice, with a
curious lisp in her utterance. "But for God's sake do what I ask
you. Go back and never set foot upon the moor again."

"But I have only just come."

"Man, man!" she cried. "Can you not tell when a warning is for
your own good? Go back to London! Start to-night! Get away from
this place at all costs! Hush, my brother is coming! Not a word
of what I have said. Would you mind getting that orchid for me
among the mares-tails yonder? We are very rich in orchids on the
moor, though, of course, you are rather late to see the beauties
of the place."

Stapleton had abandoned the chase and came back to us breathing
hard and fl