ner
that I became aware of it.

The squire had left the table with a severe headache, and retired to
his own room where, with drawn blinds and absolute quietude, he usually
finds ease, and I was left to my own devices and the tender mercies of
the Cynic, when he should arrive.

But his train was not due until eight, and it would take him a good
thirty minutes to walk from the station, so I had more than an hour at
my disposal, and I was anxious to find out how little Lucy was
progressing. She had been under the care of the doctor for several
days, and was still in bed and very feverish.

I put on my ulster, wound a wrap about my head, and stepped out on to
the drive, and it was then that I became aware of the raging elements
around me.

The wind blew bitingly from the north, charged with smarting pellets of
sleet. I had known strong winds before, but never anything like this.
It howled and roared, it hissed and shrieked; it was as much as I could
do to force my way forward against the pressure of its onrush; but
though my head was bent I saw that every bush and shrub was shaken as
by some gigantic Titan, and that the tall and naked trees swayed
towards me with groans that sounded human and ominous.

On the topmost branches, black bundles which I knew to be deserted
nests were rocked violently to and fro, like anchored boats in the
trough of a storm-lashed sea. The night was grim and black, save when
for a brief moment the full moon gleamed down upon the angry scene from
the torn rifts of the scurrying clouds.

The thought crossed my mind that it might be wiser to return, but Fate
or Providence urged me forward, and I laughed at my fears and set my
shoulder to the storm.

Phew! if it was a gale along the drive it was a hurricane in the
village street, and a hot-headed, impetuous hurricane, too. Pausing
for a second in its mad rush it leaped upon one the next moment with a
sudden fury that seemed almost devilish and was well-nigh irresistible.
Twice I was flung against the wall, but as I was hugging it pretty
closely I suffered no harm. As I struggled onward the wind was in my
teeth; a dozen steps farther and it leaped the wall on my right with a
roar, like a pack of hounds in full cry, and tore down the fields with
reckless velocity to hurl itself into the black mystery of the wood.

Not a soul was to be seen, but the clatter of a dislodged slate upon
the pavement brought a frightened woman to the door of