ly rejected by five
ex-other ranks on the score that it is "not good enough"; as an
ex-officer myself, I disagree with them; incidentally, I can pay no
more; sorry to have to add that applicants must be physically fit.
Write, Box 1078, c/o "The Times," E.C.4._

Immediately he had applied by telegram, paying for a reply....

Three days later he and Patch had emerged from the London train into
the keen night air of Chipping Norton.

There on the platform to meet him had stood his new employer--a
tremendous figure of a man, with the eyes of an explorer and the
physique of an Atlas, and, after a little delay, Lyveden had found
himself seated in a high dog-cart, which, in the wake of an impatient
roan, was bowling along over the cold white roads, listening to the
steady deep voice foretelling his fate.

"We're going to Girdle. I've taken a room at the inn there for you
to-night. Your cottage is two miles from there. I'll show you the way
and meet you there in the morning--at half-past eight, please. It's
water-tight--I had the thatch tended this year--and it's got its own
well--good water. It's in the park, by the side of the London road, so
you won't be too lonely. Now, your work. Woodman, road-maker, joiner,
keeper, forester, gardener--that's what I want." Anthony's brain
reeled. "That's what I am myself. Listen. I've inherited this
estate, which has been let go for over a hundred years. There isn't a
foot of fencing that isn't rotten, a road that you can walk on, a
bridge that is safe. The woods--it's all woodland--have gone to
blazes. I want to pull it round.... Fifty R.E.'s and a Labour
Battalion is what it wants, but that's a dream. I've tried the obvious
way. I asked for tenders for mending a twelve-foot bridge. The lowest
was seventy pounds. I did it myself, single-handed, in seven days....
I've saved my stamps since then. Well, I've got a small staff."
Anthony heaved a sigh of relief. "Two old carters, two carpenters,
three magnificent sailors--all deaf, poor chaps--and a little lame
engineer. But I haven't an understudy.... I hope you'll like it, and
stay. It's a man's life."

"I like the sound of it," said Lyveden. "What are you on now?"

"Road-making at the moment. The fence is the most important, but the
roads are so bad we can't get the timber through. It's all sawn
ready--we've got a toy saw-mill--but we can't carry it. You see..."

The speaker's enthusiasm had been infectio