rges, cleaned
and reloaded it with scrupulous care. Next I became preoccupied about my
horse. It might break loose, or fall to neighing, and so betray my camp in
the Sea-Wood. I determined to rid myself of its neighborhood; and long
before dawn I was leading it over the links in the direction of the fisher
village.

III

For two days I skulked round the pavilion, profiting by the uneven surface
of the links. I became an adept in the necessary tactics. These low
hillocks and shallow dells, running one into another, became a kind of
cloak of darkness for my inthralling, but perhaps dishonorable, pursuit.

Yet, in spite of this advantage, I could learn but little of Northmour or
his guests.

Fresh provisions were brought under cover of darkness by the old woman
from the mansion house. Northmour, and the young lady, sometimes together,
but more often singly, would walk for an hour or two at a time on the
beach beside the quicksand. I could not but conclude that this promenade
was chosen with an eye to secrecy; for the spot was open only to seaward.
But it suited me not less excellently; the highest and most accidented of
the sand hills immediately adjoined; and from these, lying flat in a
hollow, I could overlook Northmour or the young lady as they walked.

The tall man seemed to have disappeared. Not only did he never cross the
threshold, but he never so much as showed face at a window; or, at least,
not so far as I could see; for I dared not creep forward beyond a certain
distance in the day, since the upper floors commanded the bottoms of the
links; and at night, when I could venture further, the lower windows were
barricaded as if to stand a siege. Sometimes I thought the tall man must
be confined to bed, for I remembered the feebleness of his gait; and
sometimes I thought he must have gone clear away, and that Northmour and
the young lady remained alone together in the pavilion. The idea, even
then, displeased me.

Whether or not this pair were man and wife, I had seen abundant reason to
doubt the friendliness of their relation. Although I could hear nothing of
what they said, and rarely so much as glean a decided expression on the
face of either, there was a distance, almost a stiffness, in their
bearing which showed them to be either unfamiliar or at enmity. The girl
walked faster when she was with Northmour than when she was alone; and I
conceived that any inclination between a man and a woman would rather