nd had then gone
up the grass road to the hill. Delane, looking out from the dark stable,
had been able to watch him through the dusk, keeping an eye the while to
the opposite door opening on the farm-yard. But the labourer disappeared,
and in the dark roomy stable, with its beamed roof, nothing could be
heard but the champing and slow tramping movements of the splendid
cart-horses. Rachel's horses! Delane passed his free hand over two of
them, and they turned their stately heads and nosed him in a quiet way.
Then he vaulted again over the half door, and hurried up the hill, in the
gathering darkness.

He was aware of the ghost-story. He had heard it and the story of the
murder from a man cutting bracken on the common; and he had already
formed some vague notions of making use of it for the blackmailing of
Rachel. It amused him to think that perhaps his sudden disappearance
would lead to a new chapter of the old tale.

Then at the recollection of Rachel's prosperity and peace, of her sleek
horses and cows, her huge hay and corn stacks, her comfortable home, and
her new lover, a fresh shudder of rage and hatred gripped him. She had
once been his thing--his chattel; he seemed to see her white neck and
breast, her unbound hair on the pillow beside him--and she had escaped
him, and danced on him.

Of course she had betrayed him--of course she had had a lover! What other
explanation was there of her turning against him?--of her flight from his
house? But she had been clever enough to hide all the traces of it. He
recalled his own lame and baffled attempts to get hold of some evidence
against her, with gnashing of teeth....

* * * * *

"_For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are
not seen are eternal!_"

He caught the words staring at him from the page of the open prayer book
beside him, and automatically the Greek equivalent suggested itself. He
had always done well in "divinners"! Then he became aware that the
blessing had been given, that the organ was playing, and the congregation
was breaking up.

* * * * *

Twenty-four hours later, Delane found himself on a road leading up from
the town where he was lodging to the summit of the wide stretch of common
land on the western side of which lay Great End Farm. Half way up a long
hill, he came upon a young man in uniform, disconsolately kneeling beside
a bicycle which he seemed to