Tavernake?" he exclaimed. "Are you
drunk, by any chance?"

"No, I am quite sober," Tavernake answered. "I have made one or two bad
mistakes, that's all. You have a power of attorney for me. You can do
what you like with my land, make any terms you please. Good-day!"

"But, Tavernake, look here!" the lawyer protested, springing to his
feet. "I say, Tavernake!" he called out.

But Tavernake heard nothing, or, if he heard, he took no notice. He
walked out into the street and was lost among the hurrying throngs upon
the pavements.

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER I. NEW HORIZONS

Towards the sky-line, across the level country, stumbling and crawling
over the deep-hewn dikes, wading sometimes through the mud-oozing swamp,
Tavernake, who had left the small railway terminus on foot, made his
way that night steadily seawards, as one pursued by some relentless
and indefatigable enemy. Twilight had fallen like a mantle around him,
fallen over that great flat region of fens and pastureland and bog.
Little patches of mist, harbingers of the coming obscurity, were being
drawn now into the gradual darkness. Lights twinkled out from the
far-scattered homesteads. Here and there a dog barked, some lonely bird
seeking shelter called to its mate, but of human beings there seemed to
be no one in sight save the solitary traveler.

Tavernake was in grievous straits. His clothes were caked with mud,
his hair tossed with the wind, his cheeks pale, his eyes set with the
despair of that fierce upheaval through which he had passed. For many
hours the torture which had driven him back towards his birthplace had
triumphed over his physical exhaustion. Now came the time, however, when
the latter asserted itself. With a half-stifled moan he collapsed. Sheer
fatigue induced a brief but merciful spell of uneasy slumber. He lay
upon his back near one of the broader dikes, his arms outstretched, his
unseeing eyes turned toward the sky. The darkness deepened and passed
away again before the light of the moon. When at last he sat up, it was
a new world upon which he looked, a strange land, moonlit in places, yet
full of shadowy somberness. He gazed wonderingly around--for the moment
he had forgotten. Then memory came, and with memory once more the stab
at his heart. He rose to his feet and went resolutely on his way.

Almost until the dawn he walked, keeping as near as he could to that
long monotonous line of telegraph posts, yet avoiding the r