of water, and the
gloss of grass, and deep relief of trees, began to lose their several
phase and mingle into one large twilight blend. And cattle, from
their milking sheds, came lowing for more pasture; and the bark of a
shepherd's dog rang quick, as if his sheep were drowsy.

In the midst of innocent sights and sounds that murderer's heart misgave
him. He left his vain quest off, and gazed, with fear and hate of
nature's beauty, at the change from day to night which had not waited
for him. Some touch of his childhood moved him perhaps, some thought of
times when he played "I spy," or listened to twilight ghost tales; at
any rate, as he rose and faced the evening, he sighed heavily.

Then he strode away; and although he passed me almost within length of
his rod, there was little fear of his discovering me, because his mind
was elsewhere.

It will, perhaps, be confessed by all who are not as brave as lions
that so far I had acquitted myself pretty well in this trying matter.
Horribly scared as I was at first, I had not allowed this to conquer
me, but had even rushed into new jeopardy. But now the best part of my
courage was spent; and when the tall stranger refixed his rod and calmly
recrossed those ominous planks, I durst not set forth on the perilous
errand of spying out his ways and tracking him. A glance was enough to
show the impossibility in those long meadows of following without being
seen in this stage of the twilight. Moreover, my nerves had been tried
too long, and presence of mind could not last forever. All I could do,
therefore, was to creep as far as the trunk of the hawthorn-tree, and
thence observe that my enemy did not return by the way he had come, but
hastened down the dusky valley.

One part of his labors has not been described, though doubtless a highly
needful one. To erase the traces of his work, or at least obscure them
to a careless eye, when he had turned as much ground as he thought it
worth his while to meddle with, he trod it back again to its level as
nearly as might be, and then (with a can out of his fishing basket)
sluiced the place well with the water of the stream. This made it look
to any heedless person, who would not descend to examine it, as if there
had been nothing more than a little reflux from the river, caused by a
flush from the mill-pond. This little stratagem increased my fear of a
cunning and active villain.

CHAPTER XLI

A STRONG TEMPTATION

Now it will b