he
race. You know me. Me word's me bond. It's all out this time."

With a proud and priestly air he strode back to the house.

CHAPTER XL

Man and Woman

Silver and Joses went back to Cuckmere by the same train from Brighton.

The young man was well-established in a first-class smoker, and the
train was about to start when the fat man came puffing along the
platform. He was very hot; and out of his pocket bulged a brown paper
parcel. The paper had burst and the head of a wooden mallet was exposed.

Silver, quiet in his corner, remarked that mallet.

That night he took a round of the stable-buildings before he went to
bed, as his custom had been of late. There was nobody stirring but
Maudie, meandering around like a ghost who did not feel well.

He went to the back of the Lads' Barn, and looked across the Paddock
Close. A light in the window of a cottage shone out solitary in the
darkness.

It was the cottage in which Joses lived, and the light came from an
upper window.

Silver strolled along the back of the stable-buildings toward it.

Under Boy's window he paused, as was his wont.

A light within showed that the girl was in her eyrie. Then the light
went out, and the window opened quietly.

Shyness overcame the young man. He moved away and went back to the
corner in the saddle-room he had made his own--partly because he could
smoke there undisturbed, and far more because it was directly under the
girl's room, and he loved to hear her stirring above him.

He lit his pipe, settled himself, and began to brood.

The girl was still there--he could tell by the sound; and still at the
window.

A vague curiosity possessed him as to what attracted her. Then she
crossed the floor with that determined step of hers, and went along the
loft, the planks betraying her.

He heard her swift feet on the ladder, and coming down the gangway
toward the saddle-room.

In another moment she stood before him. A woolly cap was on her head,
and a long muffler flung about her throat. It was clear that she was
going out. He noticed with surprise that her race-glasses were slung
over her shoulders.

"I came for the electric torch," she remarked.

He rose and pocketed it.

"Right," he said. "Whither away?"

"I don't want you," she answered.

"I'm coming along, though."

"You can't," coldly.

"Why not?"

"I'm going spying."

"Good," he answered cheerfully.

She led out into the night. He followed her.