uickly that I forgot all
about the snow until he drew my attention to its having stopped for
the moment. Then, just as I was turning to go, what in the world do you
suppose that he did? He took a step towards me, looked in a sad pensive
way into my face, and said: `I wonder whether you could care for me if
I were without a penny.' Wasn't it strange? I was so frightened that I
whisked out of the shed, and was off down the road before he could add
another word. But really, Hector, you need not look so black, for when
I look back at it I can quite see from his tone and manner that he meant
no harm. He was thinking aloud, without the least intention of being
offensive. I am convinced that the poor fellow was mad."

"Hum! There was some method in his madness, it seems to me," remarked
her brother.

"There would have been some method in my kicking," said the lieutenant
savagely. "I never heard of a more outrageous thing in my life."

"Now, I said that you would be wild!" She laid her white hand upon the
sleeve of his rough frieze jacket. "It was nothing. I shall never see
the poor fellow again. He was evidently a stranger to this part of the
country. But that was my little adventure. Now let us have yours."

The young man crackled the bank-note between his fingers and thumb,
while he passed his other hand over his hair with the action of a man
who strives to collect himself.

"It is some ridiculous mistake," he said. "I must try and set it right.
Yet I don't know how to set about it either. I was going down to the
village from the Vicarage just after dusk when I found a fellow in a
trap who had got himself into broken water. One wheel had sunk into the
edge of the ditch which had been hidden by the snow, and the whole thing
was high and dry, with a list to starboard enough to slide him out of
his seat. I lent a hand, of course, and soon had the wheel in the road
again. It was quite dark, and I fancy that the fellow thought that I was
a bumpkin, for we did not exchange five words. As he drove off he shoved
this into my hand. It is the merest chance that I did not chuck it away,
for, feeling that it was a crumpled piece of paper, I imagined that it
must be a tradesman's advertisement or something of the kind. However,
as luck would have it, I put it in my pocket, and there I found it when
I looked for the dates of our cruise. Now you know as much of the matter
as I do."

Brother and sister stared at the black and white cr