wide with
frank welcome.

"I've been just bursting with a painful longing for the sight of a
living man with two arms and two legs, and anything else that goes to
make up a human companion," he said delightedly. "Say, how far do you
guess a fellow could ride by himself without needing to be sent into a
home to be looked after?"

Fyles's manner was more guarded. The police officer was uppermost in
him now, but he smiled a certain cordiality at the other's frankly
unconventional greeting.

"That mostly depends on how many things there are chasing around in
his brain-box to keep the works busy," he said gently.

The stranger's smile broadened into a laugh.

"That don't offer much hope," he replied dryly. "I've been riding
around this eternal grass for nigh a week. God knows where I haven't
been during that time. Nobody ever did brag about the ideas I've got
in my head, not even my mother, and any I have got have just been
chewed right up to death till there isn't a blamed thing left to chew.
For the past ten miles I've been reviewing the attractions of every
nursing home I've ever heard of, with a view to becoming an inmate. I
think I've almost decided on one I know of in Toronto. You see there
are a few human beings there."

Fyles's eyes had taken in the stranger from head to foot. Even the
horse did not escape his closest attention. He recognized this man as
being a stranger in the country. He was obviously direct from some
eastern city, though not aggressively so. Furthermore, the beautiful
chestnut horse he was riding was no prairie-bred animal, and
suggested, in combination with the man's general get-up, the
possession of ample means.

"A week riding about--trying to find yourself?"

Fyles's question was one of amused speculation.

"Sure," the man nodded, with a buoyant amusement in his eyes. "That,
and finding some forgotten hole of a place called Rocky Springs."

Fyles lifted his reins and his horse moved on.

"We'd best ride together. I'm going to Rocky Springs, and--you've
certainly hit the trail at last."

The fair-haired giant jumped at the suggestion, and even his horse
seemed to welcome the companionship, for it ambled on in the
friendliest manner by the side of the police horse.

"How did you manage to--lose yourself?" Fyles inquired presently. "Did
you start out from Amberley?"

The stranger's look of chagrin was almost comical. He shook his head.

"That's where I ought to've started from