arily deserted road. There were no lights from
houses, so far as he could make out, and the four miles that had been
declared at their last stopping-place to separate them from the next
village appeared already more like five or six. Certainly the three of
them had between two and three shillings, all told; there was no actual
need of a workhouse just yet, but naturally it was wished to spend as
little as possible.

Then on a sudden he caught a glimpse of a light burning somewhere, that
appeared and vanished again as he moved, and fifty yards more brought
him to a wide sweep, a pair of gate-posts with the gate fastened back,
and a lodge on the left-hand side. So much he could make out dimly
through the November darkness; and as he stood there hesitating, he
thought he could see somewhere below him a few other lights burning
through the masses of leafless trees through which the drive went
downhill.

He knew very well by experience that lodge-keepers were, taken
altogether, perhaps the most unsympathetic class in the community. (They
live, you see, right on the high road, and see human nature at its
hottest and crossest as well as its most dishonest.) Servants at back
doors were, as a rule, infinitely more obliging; and, as obviously this
was the entrance to some big country house, the right thing to do would
be to steal past the lodge on tiptoe and seek his fortune amongst the
trees. Yet he hesitated; the house might be half a mile away, for all he
knew; and, certainly there was a hospitable look about the fastened-back
gate.

There came a gust of wind over the hills behind him, laden with wet....
He turned, went up to the lodge door and knocked.

He could hear someone moving about inside, and just as he was beginning
to wonder whether his double tap had been audible, the door opened and
disclosed a woman in an apron.

"Can you very kindly direct me--" began Frank politely.

The woman jerked her head sharply in the direction of the house.

"Straight down the hill," she said. "Them's the orders."

"But--"

It was no good; the door was shut again in his face, and he stood alone
in the dark.

This was all very unusual. Lodge-keepers did not usually receive
"orders" to send tramps, without credentials, on to the house which the
lodge was supposed to guard.... That open gate, then, must have been
intentional. Plainly, however, he must take her at her word; and as he
tramped down the drive, he began to form theor