mouredly that soon they would all be
homeward bound; so, apathetically, Bubbles walked on, her feet and her
head aching.

The old Roman embankment now formed part of the works connected with a
big reservoir, and at last the walkers reached a kind of platform from
whence they could see, stretching out to their right, a wide,
triangular-shaped piece of water.

Blanche Farrow was for turning back; but Helen Brabazon, Sir Lyon, and
Varick were all for going on, the more so that Varick declared that at a
cottage which formed the apex of the reservoir they would be able to get
some tea. So off they started again, in the same order as before, to
find, however, that the narrow brick-way, instead of being drier--as one
would have expected it to be above the water--was more slushy and
slippery than had been the path running along the top of the older part
of the embankment. Yet the steep bank leading down to the sullen,
half-frozen surface of the reservoir had been cleared of the grass and
bushes which covered the slopes of the rest of the causeway.

They had all been walking on again for some minutes when Donnington
turned round. "Take care, Bubbles! It's very slippery just here."

"I'm all right," she called back pettishly. "Mind your own business,
Bill. I wish you wouldn't keep looking round!"

Donnington saw Varick put out his right hand and grasp the girl's arm
firmly; but even so it struck him that they were both walking too near
the edge on the side to the water. Still, he didn't feel he could say
any more, and so he turned away, and again began trudging along by the
silent Tapster's side.

For a while nothing happened, and then all at once there occurred
something which Donnington will never recall--and that however long he
may live--without a sensation of unreasoning, retrospective horror
welling up within him.

And yet it was only the sound--the almost stuffless sound--of a splash!
It was as if a lump of earth, becoming detached from the wet bank, had
rolled over into the deep water.

At the same moment, or a fraction of a moment later, Varick laughed
aloud; it was a discordant laugh, evidently at something Bubbles had
just said, for Donnington heard the words, "Really, Bubbles!" uttered in
a loud, remonstrating, and yet jovial voice.

And then, all at once, some instinct caused the young man to wheel
sharply round, to see, a long way back from the others, Varick standing
solitary on the brick path.

His co