kin' of that half quid I
dropped over 'White Lady' and your lor'ship comin' along--It gets me!"

Up to this moment of parting he had not once Lordshipped Jones.

Jones, feeling in his pocket, produced the half sovereign, which, with
five pounds one and nine pence made up his worldly wealth at the moment.

He handed it over, and the tramp spat on it for luck.

Then they parted, and the fugitive resumed his way with a lighter pocket
but a somewhat lighter heart.

There are people who increase and people who reduce one's energy, it is
sometimes enough to look at them without even talking to them. The tramp
belonged to the former class. He had cheered Jones. There was nothing
particularly cheery in his conversation, all the same the effect had
been produced.

Now, along the cliff road and coming from the direction of Northbourne a
black speck developed, resolving itself at last into the form of an old
man carrying a basket. The basket was filled with apples and Banbury
cakes. Jones bought eight Banbury cakes and two apples with his one and
nine pence, and then took his seat on the warm turf by the way to devour
them. He lay on his side as he ate and cursed Hoover.

To lie here for an hour on this idyllic day, to watch the white gulls
flying, to listen to the whisper of the sea far below, what could be
better than that? He determined if ever he should win freedom and money
to return here for a holiday.

He was thinking this, when, raised now on his elbow, he saw something
moving amongst the bushes and long grass of the waste lands bordering
the cliff road.

It was a man, a man on all fours, yet moving swiftly, a sight natural
enough in the deer-stalking Highlands, but uncanny on these Wessex
downs.

Jones leaving four Banbury cakes uneaten on the grass, sprang to his
feet, so did the crawling one.

Then the race began.

The pursuer was handicapped.

Any two sides of a triangle are longer than the third. A right line
towards Jones would save many yards, but the going would be bad on
account of the brambles and bushes, a straight line to the road would
lenghten the distance to be covered, but would give a much better course
when the road was reached. He chose the latter.

The result was, that when the race really started the pursuer was nearly
half a mile to the bad. But he had not recently consumed four Banbury
cakes and two apples. Super-Banbury cakes of the dear old days, when
margarine was ninepence a pou