I can say. He never did
such a thing before in all the ten years since he became master
there. They all noticed how he carried on with Martha, and how she
seemed to like it. It was the talk of everyone there. If I had not
gone away I should have made a fool of myself, though I have no
right to interfere with her, and her father and mother were there
and seemed in no way put out.

"I will go away and have a look at that lot of young cattle I
bought the other day. I don't know that I ever saw a more likely
lot."

It was dark when George returned. On his way home he took a path
that passed near the house whence he had turned away so angrily a
few hours before. It was not the nearest way, but somehow he always
took it, even at hours when there was no chance of his getting the
most distant sight of Martha.

Presently he stopped suddenly, for from behind the wall that
bounded the kitchen garden of the farm he heard voices. A man was
speaking.

"You must make your choice at once, darling, for as I have told you
I am off tomorrow. We will be married as soon as we get there, and
you know you cannot stop here."

"I know I can't," Martha's voice replied, "but how can I leave?"

"They will forgive you when you come back a lady," he said. "It
will be a year at least before I return, and--"

George could restrain himself no longer. A furious exclamation
broke from his lips, and he made a desperate attempt to climb the
wall, which was, however, too high. When, after two or three
unsuccessful attempts, he paused for a moment, all was silent in
the garden.

"I will tackle her tomorrow," he said grimly, "and him, too. But I
dare not go in now. Bennett has always been a good friend to me,
and so has his wife, and it would half kill them were they to know
what I have heard; but as for her and that villain--"

George's mouth closed in grim determination, and he strolled on
home through the darkness. Whatever his resolutions may have been,
he found no opportunity of carrying them out, for the next morning
he heard that Martha Bennett had disappeared. How or why, no one
knew. She had been missing since tea time on the previous
afternoon. She had taken nothing with her, and the farmer and his
two sons were searching all the neighbourhood for some sign of her.

The police of Stroud came over in the afternoon, and took up the
investigation. The general opinion was that she must have been
murdered, and every pond was dragged, ever