mpetitions had been held in the morning, and some
of the crowd with them. Another portion streamed into the church, and
soon only a few scattered groups were left.

The tall man put down the child, and was seized with a fit of coughing,
which left him more pallid and sunken-eyed than before. When it was over,
he noticed a group of elderly labourers. They had come late into the
meeting, and were making for the bar of the Cow-roast Inn, but before
they entered it Delane went up to one of them.

"I'm a stranger here," he said carelessly. "Can you tell me who all these
people were in the wagons?"

The man addressed--who was old Halsey--gave the speaker a reconnoitring
look.

"Well, I dunno neither," he said cautiously, "leastways, many of 'em.
There was my old missus, in the first one. She didn't want to go, dressed
up in them sunbonnets. But they made such a fuss of her, she had to.
There was Farmer Broughton I seed, an' I don't know nobody else."

"Well, but the second wagon?" said Delane impatiently.

"Oh, the second wagon. Why, that was Miss Henderson. Don't ye know 'er? I
works for 'er?"

"Is she on the land?"

The old man laughed.

"That she be! She's a farmer, is Miss Henderson, an' she frames pretty
fair. She don't know much yet, but what she don't know Hastings tells,
her."

"Who's Hastings?"

"Why, her bailiff, to be sure. You do be a stranger, not knowin' Muster
Hastings?"

"I'm just here for a few weeks. It's a rum business, isn't it, this of
women taking farms?"

Halsey nodded reflectively.

"Aye, it's a queer business. But they do be cleverer at it than ye'd
think. Miss Henderson's a good head-piece of her own."

"And some money, I suppose?"

"Well, that's not my look out, is it, so long as I gits my wages? I
dessay Colonel Shepherd, ee sees to that. Well, good-day to you. I'm
goin' in to get summat to drink. It's a dryin' wind to-day, and a good
bit walk from Ipscombe."

"Is that where you live?"

"Aye--an' Miss Henderson's place is just t'other side. A good mile to
Ipscombe, and near a mile beyont. I didn't want to come, but my old woman
she nagged me to come an' see her 'ome."

And with another nod, the old man turned into the public, where his mates
were already enjoying the small beer of the moment.

For a few minutes, Delane strolled down the main road in silence, the
child playing at his heels. Then he turned abruptly, called the child,
and went up the side street from which