STRANGE ROADS 
 
 MAUD DIVER
 
 1 

 
 STRANGE ROADS
 
 'BOOKS "BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Popular Edition, Cloth, is. (Revised and 
 Rewritten.) 
 
 Captain Desmond, V.C. 
 
 " A brilliant and convincing study of an undying problem. Its bracing atmosphere 
 ol sanity and directness make one the better for reading it." Morning Post. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Popular Edition, is. net. 
 
 The Great Amulet 
 
 " Mrs. Diver may be said to have uprooted the conventional aspect of Anglo- 
 Indian life. . . . The vigour of her characterisation and her subtle psychology again 
 give us figures that assume the importance of living persons to the reader." Court 
 Journal. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Popular Edition, is. net. 
 
 Candles in the Wind 
 
 " In her three frontier novels, Mrs. Diver has produced a comprehensive and full 
 drama of life ; rich in humanity, noble, satisfying it is not too much to say great." 
 New York Times. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Popular Edition, is. net. 
 
 Lilamani : A Study in Possibilities 
 
 " Lilamani is a triumph." Daily News. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Popular Edition, is. net. 
 
 The Hero of Herat 
 
 " It is the finest work of imagination that Mrs. Diver has ever produced." The 
 World. 
 
 Crown 8vo, 6s. Cheap Edition, 25. 6d. net. 
 
 The Judgment of the Sword 
 
 " For making such a one as Eldred Pottinger live and move before us ; for proving 
 once more, with convincing force, that ' the path of duty is the way to glory,' Mrs. 
 Diver should have the grateful recognition of those who believe these to be the things 
 that really matter to man. ... In these two books the author has emphasized 
 what her novels already declare, that she belongs to the frontjankof living English 
 writers." New York Times. 
 
 Desmond's Daughter by MAUD DIVER. 6s. 
 
 ".It is not easy to find fitting words of praise for this work because it is so different 
 from the average novel of to-day. To say that it is powerful and realistic gives but a 
 poor description of the real strength and humanness of the tale. . . . There is much 
 in it that is of special interest at the present time, dealing as it does with the effect 
 of the army on personality. . . . Mrs. Diver's work acts as a tonic its wholesome 
 clear- minded atmosphere giving one renewed hope and vigour to face the troublous 
 problems of to-day." . . . . The Bookman. 
 
 " There is a most inspiring sanity and balance about her writing ; a sturdy prag- 
 matical outlook on life which fortifies and ennobles every episode." PaU Mall 
 Gazette. 
 
 Unconquered. 6s. 
 
 " A true picture of the early phases of public opinion in regard to the war as well 
 as a good love story." Spectator. 
 
 " Mrs. Diver tells her story with force and conviction. The conception of Sir Mark 
 is perfect in detail" Aberdeen Free Press. 
 
 " Sir Mark Forsyth is not ' a woman's hero,' but a real man. . . . Mrs. Diver's 
 character-drawing is most artistic. ' Unconquered ' would place her in the front 
 rank of our novelists, were she not already there." Daily Graphic.
 
 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 BY 
 
 MAUD DIVER 
 
 Author of "Captain Desmond, V.C.," " Desmond's Daughter, 
 " Judgment ot the Sword," " Unconquered," etc. 
 
 " Launch out into the deep." 
 
 ST. LUKE, 5. 4. 
 
 "His spirit's meat 
 
 Was freedom ; and his staff was wrought 
 Of strength; and his cloak woven of thought." 
 
 SWINBURNE. 
 
 LONDON 
 CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
 
 First Published 1918
 
 To 
 the Memory of my old Friend and Critic 
 
 In early years he was Secretary and Librarian to 
 John Henry Newman ; and from contact with that 
 great Englishman he acquired his delicate sense of 
 what is genuine in Literature, his rare knowledge of 
 English letters, which was ever at the service of his 
 intimate friends, among whom I was proud to be 
 numbered. For many years a member of the Savage 
 Club, it was there through my father that he came 
 into personal touch with my early work. From that 
 time forward, he was my most constant reader, my 
 most devoted, yet candid, critic ; and my debt to him, 
 in every way, is far greater than this small tribute 
 
 can adequately express. 
 
 M. D. 
 
 1821572
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 ONE MERE DAY . . . . . . . n 
 
 BOOK I 
 BEYOND THE SKY LINE ..... 33 
 
 BOOK II 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 99 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 INTO THE DEEP . . . . "- 20 7
 
 PROLOGUE 
 One Mere Day 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 r If 
 
 "The cruellest lies are often told in silence." R. L. S. 
 
 THE April sun shone full upon the* easterly 
 windows of Avonleigh Hall, transfiguring the 
 stern, grizzled face of the house, where Blounts of 
 Avonleigh had lived and died since the days of 
 Coeur de Lion ; caressing it with light and warmth, 
 as a child caresses the face of an old man to make 
 him smile and play at being young again. 
 
 And the house responded after its kind. Its 
 rough stones looked a few shades less sombre than 
 usual. Golden and wine coloured leaf-buds gleamed, 
 half-open, on the thorny traceries of the Gloire de 
 Dijon that framed the three tall windows of Lady 
 Avonleigh 's morning room. Under the low, broad 
 ledge daffodils made stars and splashes of brightness ; 
 and the centuries-old lawn, across the gravel pathway, 
 was gaj' with grape hyacinth and blue scilla. The 
 breeze brought a whiff of fresh-cut grass and a 
 
 11
 
 12 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 mowing machine purred steadily somewhere out of 
 sight. The sun that, for all his million years, 
 alone possesses the secret of immortal youth was 
 luring the whole world to play at being young again 
 on that radiant spring morning. 
 
 Suddenly there broke upon the stillness a patter 
 of scurrying feet followed by the vision of a slim 
 sturdy figure, in a brown jersey suit, that dashed 
 out of the shrubbery and sped along the gravel path 
 toward the house. Faster and faster it sped ; 
 shoulders squared, head flung back, hair flying, the 
 small blunt-featured face set in resolute lines. At 
 eight years old it is a very serious matter to be a 
 smuggler, caught red-handed, fleeing for dear life 
 from the clutches of Outraged Authority ; and Derek 
 was always terribly in earnest over the game of the 
 moment. 
 
 He had a fair start of Authority in the person of 
 a tall boy in flannel shirt and trousers, who came 
 loping after him with long strides. This was young 
 Evan Trevanyon Blount, heir of Avonleigh ; a 
 lordly schoolboy, with a soul above childish games, 
 and not given to being terribly in earnest over any- 
 thing. He had revived the smuggler drama an 
 invention of old standing because he had nothing 
 better to do and because it mildly amused him to 
 work Derek up over it and give the youngster a 
 pommeling. Not that he had an ounce of the bully 
 in his nature ; but it had been rubbed into him at 
 school that his own early sufferings were entirely for 
 his good : and it occurred to him that Derek might
 
 ONE MERE DAY 13 
 
 as well have a little benefit of that kind in advance. 
 It enlivened the holidays and it didn't hurt the 
 " kid." 
 
 His long legs were gaining steadily, now, on the 
 short ones ahead of him ; and Derek could feel his 
 heart beating all over his bq4y. As he came level 
 with the morning-room windows a wild inspiration 
 flashed through him. If he could touch wood it 
 was " sanctuary." That was one of the unwritten 
 laws of the game. With a sudden swerve to the 
 right, and a flying leap, he landed on the broad 
 window-sill breathless, but safe. 
 
 There he stood in full sunlight, clutching the wood- 
 work with one very square brown hand ; his resolute 
 lower lip thrust out ; his eyes screwed up against the 
 glare so that they almost vanished under the thick 
 straight line of his brows a sufficiently engaging 
 picture of half-nervous defiance to soften any heart 
 but that of a brother who was simply enjoying 
 the joke. 
 
 " You can't touch me now, Van. Yah ! I'm 
 sanctuary ! " he cried as the older boy stood regard- 
 ing him out of a pair of cool grey eyes. 
 
 '' Can't I ? " Van drawled, looking him up and 
 down with the air of an ogre mentally scrunching 
 the bones of his predestined prey. It was a horrid 
 moment for Derek ; but his faith in Van was absolute 
 and he stood his ground. 
 
 " You know you can't on your honour," he 
 retorted with an out-thrust of his chin ; and, confi- 
 dent in security, the tip of a tongue appeared between
 
 I 4 ' STRANGE ROADS 
 
 his teeth. The joy it was, and the relief, even for 
 a few moments, to be master of the situation. Yet, 
 come what might in the way of retribution, he would 
 rather be the smuggler than Outraged Authority 
 any day. 
 
 " Well, as to that," Van answered suavely, "you 
 can't stand hanging on to the window frame for 
 ever ; and when I do get at you I'll scalp you extra 
 for your cheek. I'm in no hurry. I can wait ! " 
 
 And seating himself on the grass, hands clasped 
 round his knees, he proceeded to stare his small 
 brother out of countenance. 
 
 As a mere game this was well enough and Derek 
 Could brazen it out with the best. But he was 
 not playing a game. He was acting a thrilling 
 drama. It was not Van who sat there staring at him. 
 It was Authority, waiting to pounce on him, to 
 inflict punishment, merciless and condign. He had 
 been " scalped " once this morning, without the 
 extra, and had no ambition to repeat the experi- 
 ence. The joy of mastery had been brief indeed. 
 He could not have explained why, but he felt 
 ensnared ; held fast by those immovable eyes. 
 Queer small sensations began to creep down his 
 spine. Stubborn though he was by nature, and no 
 coward, he began to wonder how much longer he 
 could hold out. 
 
 A bold attempt to spring clear of Van and dash 
 off again seemed his only chance of salvation. But 
 though he had regained his breath a little, he frankly 
 shirked the risk and the terror of it. Still even if
 
 ONE MERE DAY 15 
 
 things were hopeless he was not'going to let himself 
 be tamely caught ; he, Dirk of the Red Hand, the 
 terror of the country-side ! As mere Derek Blount 
 he had no business to be standing there with muddy 
 boots on the window-sill of his mother's morning 
 room. If she or any one else came in, an undignified 
 scolding would be his portion. He hovered, in very 
 truth, between the devil and the deep sea. 
 
 The only alternative to a daring outward leap was 
 sudden and swift retreat through the room behind 
 and up the wide staircase to the schoolroom ; for, 
 according to the old rule of the game, if he could 
 reach the schoolroom unscathed he was entitled to 
 free pardon. Both the morning room and the stair- 
 case were forbidden ground and the mud of the 
 shrubbery was on his boots. But the element of 
 risk made retreat seem less ignominious ; and the 
 small person on the window-ledge had a good deal 
 of pride in him, though he had not yet learnt to call 
 it by that name. 
 
 Almost before Van was aware of it, he had taken 
 a backward leap and was making for the door, forti- 
 fied by a desperate resolve to lock it behind him. 
 
 Van, a punctilious person, lost a few seconds by 
 hurriedly wiping his shoes on the grass. But he 
 could be swift footed when he chose and the Kid's 
 unexpected move had revived the excitement of 
 pursuit. 
 
 Half way across the room he pounced on Derek 
 and pinioned him in a grasp that was firmly unyield- 
 ing.
 
 16 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Now then, young 'un, you may as well throw up 
 the sponge," he said with his slight drawl. " Give 
 in with a good grace and it'll be the better for 
 you." 
 
 " Shan't ! " Derek flashed out furiously, and fought 
 like a wild thing so far as his imprisoned elbows would 
 alloNv. 
 
 He was hopelessly at a disadvantage, but pride 
 and temper were now thoroughly aroused. He 
 cared nothing for the result. He would die fighting. 
 Foot by foot Van dragged his struggling victim back 
 towards the window. 
 
 " Give over, you little fool, and come out of this. 
 We've no business in here, you know," he said at 
 last, by way of bringing the boy to his senses. 
 
 There was no answer. For a moment Derek 
 ceased to struggle ; and Van who disliked all undue 
 exertion slightly relaxed his grip. 
 
 It was enough. With a fierce unexpected twist, 
 Derek freed himself and fled behind a table on which 
 stood a tall Satzuma vase. 
 
 '' Pax I'm safe ! " he panted, clutching" wood " 
 with both hands. 
 
 But this time Van was angry a rare event. 
 
 '' You deliberately hoaxed me, you little deviL 
 Nothing' 11 save you now." 
 
 With due caution he slipped a long arm half round 
 the table. Derek jerked himself away, still clinging 
 to it, and giving it so sharp a tilt that the vase fell 
 crashing to the ground. 
 
 Disaster brought them to their senses. The game
 
 ONE MERE DAY 17 
 
 was forgotten in face of a reality that filled them 
 both with dismay. 
 
 Derek stood motionless gazing at the murdered 
 treasure. Tears pricked his eyeballs. Apart from 
 fear of consequences, he felt as always a queer 
 pang at sight of any newly-broken object. He was 
 also thinking ruefully that " things " always went 
 against him. If it was possible to get himself into 
 trouble he never missed the chance. But this was 
 a terribly serious business ; only the knowledge that 
 Van shared the responsibility gave him any hope that 
 justice might be tempered with mercy. 
 
 Dimly, through the confusion in his brain, he 
 heard his brother remark with quiet emphasis : 
 " Well you've jolly well done for yourself this 
 time " ; saw him retreat towards the window ; 
 wondered, with a mental shiver, must they " go and 
 tell." . . . 
 
 Then the door of the room opened and their mother 
 stood before them, very tall and slender in a grey 
 gown with a flounce that trailed upon the ground 
 lending her added height and dignity. One saw at a 
 glance whence Van derived his natural grace, his 
 good looks and his cool grey eyes. 
 
 " Boys ! What's the meaning of this ? " she 
 exclaimed, looking from one to the other Van, 
 placid and detached, half seated on the window-sill ; 
 Derek with flushed cheeks and bright eyes, obviously 
 guilty, standing by the slaughtered vase. 
 
 The sharp note of reproach in her voice struck at 
 his heart. In a swift "impulse of remorse he ran to
 
 18 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 her, unmindful of muddy boots upon her trailing 
 gown they trailed copiously that year and, 
 being Derek, he promptly stumbled on a hidden 
 foot. 
 
 Before a contrite word could be spoken, he found 
 himself being scolded for clumsiness, his besetting 
 fault. The words he had meant to speak fled from 
 his brain. The injured toe and muddied flounce 
 aggravated Lady Avonleigh's vexation at his original 
 offence ; and there were tell-tale marks on the 
 carpet. 
 
 " Really, Derek, I don't know what to do with 
 you," she concluded with a sigh of weary impatience. 
 ' You don't even try to improve. Direct disobedi- 
 ence to orders and my valuable vase smashed " 
 
 " C-can't it be mended ? " the boy stammered, 
 gulping down his tears. 
 
 "It doesn't look much like it," his mother an- 
 swered unmoved. " And it wouldn't be the same 
 thing if it could. Besides you've no business to 
 be in here at all. You know that perfectly well." 
 
 " I er I didn't really mean to come in here," 
 Derek plunged in a desperate attempt at self- 
 defence. " It was a game . . . and Van I " 
 
 He broke off, too loyal to implicate his brother, 
 taking it for granted that Van would help him out 
 and shoulder his share of the disaster. 
 
 Van, however, still sat there in the window swing- 
 ing one leg, -looking distressed and sympathetic but 
 entirely aloof. And in response to Derek's appealing 
 glance he said "never a word. Nor did his mother
 
 ONE MERE DAY 19 
 
 dream of questioning him. In her eyes Van was 
 sacrosanct. He could not possibly have, any con- 
 nexion with breakages and mud-marks on the carpet. 
 Things of that kind were Derek's specialities ; and they 
 kept Lady Avonleigh in a chronic, half-despairing 
 state of annoyance with her younger boy, who seemed 
 to have nothing of herself in his composition. 
 
 Van's silence fell on Derek's heart like a stone. 
 It took him several seconds to grasp all it implied ; 
 and while he floundered in stormy depths of bewilder- 
 ment and protest, his mother stood awaiting further 
 explanation, looking down upon her small son with 
 curiously little of sympathy or understanding in her 
 heart. It is to be feared that, just then, the broken 
 vase affected her more than the child's very evident 
 confusion and remorse. 
 
 " Well, Derek ? " she said at last. 
 
 " I I can't prop'ly explain. I'm sorry," he 
 muttered without looking up : and it is just possible 
 that Van felt faintly remorseful when he perceived 
 that Derek though a mere kid knew very well 
 how to play the game. But the meshes of his own 
 silence entangled him. He could not, now, free 
 himself without risk of falling in his mother's esteem; 
 a risk he was not prepared to take for the pluckiest 
 kid in creation. 
 
 And Derek's pluck was undeniable. Outwardly 
 stoical, inwardly raging, he accepted the rest of his 
 scolding and his sentence of punishment in a silence 
 that simply appeared sullen and tended to aggravate 
 his sin. It was hard on Derek, who never sulked,
 
 2 o STRANGE ROADS 
 
 that his face, in moments of intense gravity, had 
 a distinctly sulky look. 
 
 He would be in disgrace for the rest of the day, 
 his mother told him in her low even voice, which, 
 to Derek, always sounded beautiful, even when 
 pronouncing judgment. He would not come down 
 to the dining room for lunch. He was to stay alone 
 in the schoolroom all the afternoon ; have tea there 
 by himself and go to bed at six. He would not 
 be locked in. He was simply put on his honour. 
 At least Lady Avonleigh did not make the mistake 
 of distrusting this troublesome rebel of her own 
 creating. 
 
 " But of course," she concluded sternly, " no mere 
 punishment can make up for the loss of my beautiful 
 vase a piece of rare old Japanese china 
 
 This was too much for Derek's feelings. ' You 
 can take all the three-pennies out of my money-box, 
 there's quite a lot there now," he murmured in 
 a desperate rush that failed to hide the quiver in his 
 voice. 
 
 That unconscious and pathetic touch of humour 
 might well have disarmed a sterner monitor ; but 
 Lady Avonleigh unhappily for herself and others 
 was almost impervious to humour. She merely 
 saw, in Derek's offer, the first real sign of remorse ; 
 and her voice was a shade gentler as she said with 
 becoming gravity : " My dear child, I wouldn't dream 
 of such a thing. Besides, it would be useless, and I 
 think you are being sufficiently punished as it is. 
 Now go upstairs, and if you want me to believe you
 
 ONE MERE DAY 21 
 
 are sorry, try for once to do exactly what you are 
 told." 
 
 That " for once " hurt Derek like the flick of a 
 whip. With one more glance in Van's direction, he 
 went out of the room no longer Dirk the Red- 
 Handed, but just a discomfited small boy, smarting 
 under the sting of injustice and his brother's utterly 
 unexpected desertion.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 "She who slays, is she who bears who bears." 
 
 ALICE MEYNELL. 
 
 ALONE up in the schoolroom, he shut the door 
 upon himself with a sort of tragic deliberation, 
 and scrambled on to the low polished oak cupboard 
 that ran round the bay window, forming a wide seat. 
 There, huddled together, knees drawn up to his 
 chin, he bowed his forehead on them and cried, hot 
 passionate tears that seemed as if they would never 
 come to an end : tears for the broken vase, for his 
 mother's distress, for the discovery that Van, his 
 hero, could be cowardly and mean like any ordinary 
 mortal : and not least for his own persistent ill-luck 
 and the severe punishment meted out to him for 
 an accidental sin. 
 
 To do Lady Avonleigh justice, she had too little 
 imagination to realize how harsh was her sentence 
 of imprisonment for a creature of eight years old, 
 on a day of April sun and wind. But for Derek, 
 the real tragedy of that eventful morning was Van's 
 behaviour. By flagrant disregard of the unwritten 
 law, he had been indirectly responsible for the dis- 
 aster ; and, in the face of that to let another bear 
 
 22
 
 ONE MERE DAY 23 
 
 all the blame. . . . Loyal little soul that he was, 
 Derek would never have believed it possible. He 
 could scarcely believe it now, except for the fact 
 that his own sensations at the moment were too 
 painfully vivid to be forgotten or readily forgiven. 
 
 Nor was he alone in this exalted view of his elder 
 brother. Faith in young Evan Blount was part of 
 the Avonleigh creed. The entire household revolved 
 round him, as planets round the sun. True, there 
 were heretics among them ; notably Malcolm 
 Viscount Avonleigh's land agent and Mrs. Cons- 
 bigh, the housekeeper ; but, being wise in their 
 generation, they revolved with the rest and kept 
 their heresy to themselves. 
 
 Mrs. Consbigh, it is true, made no secret of her 
 devotion to Master Derek. 
 
 " Goin' to be a man, he is," she would remark 
 with significant emphasis, when goaded into cham- 
 pionship by some over-coloured laudation of Van. 
 " His mother hadn't much hand in the making of 
 him. He's the living image of the old Viscountess, 
 who can't abide my Lady. Seems as if he's to be 
 paying for that poor lamb ! " 
 
 The last was her own private reflection ; for she 
 was a retainer of the old order, loyal to every member 
 of the great house she had served for twenty years. 
 If, in Derek's case, loyalty was tinged with a deeper 
 feeling, that was her own affair : and she accepted 
 as part of the boy's inherent masculinity the 
 fact that her motherly kindness evoked curiously 
 little response.
 
 24 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 It did not occur to her that the surreptitious affec- 
 tion she lavished on him emphasized all that was 
 lacking in his mother's rare and coveted caresses. 
 Naturally it did not occur to Derek either. He felt 
 it simply with a child's vague, unerring instinct 
 formatters of the heart as one of the many bewilder- 
 ing things in life that somehow hurt you and you 
 couldn't tell why. There were moods, as he grew 
 older, when he almost hated the good woman who 
 gave him, out of her large hearted abundance, .that 
 which he craved from his mother and from no one 
 else on earth. 
 
 And to-day, as the first passion of grief subsided 
 into long, shivering sobs, the fear crept in that, when 
 she heard of his disgrace, she would seek him out and 
 try to comfort him. But in the main his thoughts 
 circled round Van, his shattered idol, who would 
 never again be perfect in his eyes. Probably, if he 
 cared enough, Van would manage to patch things up 
 in his persuasive fashion : but dimly Derek knew 
 that within himself something had been broken that 
 morning quite as precious as his mother's vase and as 
 impossible to mend. . . . 
 
 A turn of the door handle brought back the dread 
 of Mrs. Consbigh. Hoping she would think he was 
 asleep, he did not stir or lift his head. Then with 
 a shock half amazement, half anger he realized 
 that it was Van. Still he did not move. What right 
 had Van, after basely deserting him, to come and 
 gloat over his misery ? He wished now that he had 
 locked himself in.
 
 ONE MERE DAY 25 
 
 Van paid no heed to his silent rebuff, but came 
 straight to the window-seat ; and the next moment 
 Derek felt his thick shock of hair being lightly 
 towselled and rubbed " every which way " by Van's 
 long fingers. Derek set his teeth and remained 
 motionless. He did not understand that Van, by 
 coming to him, was implicitly confessing himself in 
 the wrong. 
 
 "I'm scalping you ! I told you I would ! " he 
 said at last in his gentlest voice, so like his mother's 
 that it went straight to Derek's heart. But, in his 
 childish fashion, he was inflexible. His emotions, 
 did not easily flare up or readily subside. Van 
 being pre-eminently flexible had come too soon. 
 
 " Oh go away ! " was all the response he received 
 in a voice of muffled misery, and Derek jerked his 
 head ungraciously from under those caressing fingers 
 that could neither reach nor heal his hidden wound 
 
 Van drew himself up. " Thanks," he said coolly. 
 " I think it was jolly decent of me to come. But 
 you're the most obstinate little beggar in creation. 
 If you weren't, all this would never have happened. 
 You deserved it for hoaxing me. I just did it to 
 punish you." 
 
 That had been Van's excuse to himself for a slip 
 out of the straight path that had, in point of fact, 
 been simply instinctive : and it was significant of the 
 vital difference between the brothers, that the elder 
 could not, or would not see what the younger 
 vaguely felt that any reference to his own deserts 
 was altogether wide of the mark.
 
 36 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Oh, Van " he flung up his head in sheer 
 desperation, and pushed back the dark hair from his 
 forehead " that's not fair you can't just because 
 of me. If I'm obst'nate, you can hammer me. But 
 you can't . . . break rules and . . . sort of . . 
 half tell lies . . ." 
 
 It was a life-long drawback for Derek that he 
 could never call a spade an agricultural implement : 
 and at that ill-judged word Van drew himself up 
 sharply, a queer glint in his eyes. 
 
 " Confound your cheek ! " he said ; he was rather 
 proud of the new swear. " D'you think I came here 
 to be lectured by a chit of an infant like you ? I 
 just came to cheer you up because you got rather 
 more than you bargained for ; but I shan't trouble 
 to come again, and I wish you joy of your own 
 company for the whole afternoon." But as he 
 turned to go a thought struck him. " You don't go 
 blabbing about this, mind to old Con or Ina." 
 
 Ina was the sister who came between them. 
 
 ' 'Course not," Derek retorted with scornful 
 emphasis. " / wouldn't tell any one never ! " 
 
 The patent sincerity of that asseveration softened 
 the flexible Van. " You're a game little beggar, 
 Derek," he said with his drawl. Then after a 
 thoughtful investigation of his pockets. " Have 
 some choc. Give you something to do." 
 
 He proffered a whole stick of Suchard. Such 
 unwonted generosity might have savoured of bribery, 
 but for Derek's proud confidence that Van did not 
 doubt his word. Probably the elder boy himself
 
 ONE MERE DAY 27 
 
 hardly realized that his impulse, like his visit, was 
 prompted by an uneasy conscience. 
 
 In any case, a stick of Suchard was irresistible. 
 It could comfort if it could not heal. Derek held 
 out his hand. " Thank you, Van," he said gravely. 
 
 Van deposited his peace offering, and for a moment 
 his fingers closed over Derek's open palm. 
 
 ' You're too much in earnest over things, little 
 'un," he said lightly. " You must get the better 
 of that or you'll have a rotten time at school." 
 
 And Derek was left alone to digest, at leisure, that 
 sagacious piece of advice. 
 
 The upper housemaid, who had removed the 
 fragments from the morning room, brought him his 
 dinner. Her attempt to convey mute sympathy 
 was baulked by Derek, who looked steadily out of 
 the window till he heard the door close behind 
 her. 
 
 Mrs. Consbigh appeared later with an offering of 
 dried figs, and was not to be evaded by such simple 
 means. Besides Derek had a pronounced weakness 
 for dried figs, as the good soul very well knew. She 
 was a spacious, deep-breasted woman, with a frame 
 as large as her heart and a rather gruff voice that 
 was a sore trial to her because it " went against " 
 her with children ; a natural-born mother of men, 
 which could not be said of. her mistress. 
 
 " In trouble again, are you, my lamb ? " she 
 greeted him, essaying a sympathetic note that only 
 made her voice sound huskier than ever. " Well, 
 well, we're all mortial, and accidents do happen to
 
 28 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 the best of us. You take it like a man an' the 
 worst '11 soon be over." 
 
 Derek nodded quite unconvinced. For him the 
 five hours that loomed between dinner and bedtime 
 seemed an eternity. But if Mrs. Consbigh's philo- 
 sophy was unconvincing, her figs were a very present 
 help in trouble. Derek privately resolved to eke 
 them out as long as possible by taking small bites 
 and counting his " chews " like a certain famous old 
 gentleman whose name he had forgotten. 
 
 " I oughtn't to have them, you know," he mur- 
 mured with his mouth full. " Because it was very 
 bad. It can't be mended, Mother said." 
 
 Mrs. Consbigh sighed. " Ah, that's a pity. Still 
 there's lots of things broken in this world, without 
 intention, that can't be mended ; more vallible, too, 
 than a vawse. You'll learn that, my pretty, one o' 
 these days." 
 
 This time Derek's nod was charged with conviction 
 and a touch of tragic self-importance ; but he con- 
 soled himself with another bite of his fig. 
 
 Mrs. Consbigh lingered, reluctant to leave him. 
 She strolled towards the window and stood looking 
 out. Derek watched her uneasily. She ought not 
 to be there. Solitary confinement was his sentence, 
 and he was to try and do, " for once," exactly what 
 he had been told. Also she was interfering with the 
 plan to count his " chews." 
 
 " How long have you to stay here ? " she asked 
 suddenly, and Derek's face clouded. He resented 
 the painful question.
 
 ONE MERE DAY 29 
 
 ' Till six o'clock. And then I'm to go to bed." 
 
 Mrs. Consbigh stifled something that sounded like 
 " Horrid shame ! " Aloud, she said again " It'll 
 soon be over. Have you got a nice tale to read ? " 
 
 " I've got my Hans Andersen." A pause. Derek 
 grew still more uneasy : and at last he spoke. 
 
 " Please, Mrs. Con . . . I'm afraid you mustn't 
 be here. Mother would be vexed. I've got to stay 
 quite alone and ... do what I'm told." 
 
 That was too much for Mrs. Consbigh. She turned 
 and swept towards him. 
 
 " Oh, bless your little heart ! " And to his 
 unspeakable amazement faintly tinged with wrath 
 she flung her arms round him and kissed the top 
 of his head. 
 
 ' You shan't get into any further trouble through 
 your old Con. But I'll bring you something for tea," 
 she assured him, as she went out. 
 
 With the help of the figs and the chocolate and 
 Hans Andersen the interminable afternoon dragged 
 itself to an end. The garden below him was full 
 of sunshine and song ; but the world seemed utterly 
 empty of people. Van, having salved his conscience 
 with a gift, had gone out riding with his father ; 
 and not even an under gardener came within Derek's 
 range of vision. He tried to fancy he was Dirk the 
 Red Handed, in gaol, looking out for his accomplice 
 to help him to escape. But the game had quite 
 lost its hold on him. He felt he would never want 
 to play it again. . . . 
 
 At tea-time Mrs. Consbigh reappeared with two
 
 30 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 sugared cakes. But on this occasion she did not 
 linger : nor did she outrage his dignity by further 
 caresses. 
 
 Punctually at six, the young governess who taught 
 him and Ina .came and fetched him to bed. When 
 that melancholy rite was over, she shut out the 
 friendly daylight with blinds and curtains and left 
 him with the pious hope that he would be a " better 
 boy to-morrow." 
 
 She was not sympathetic. He disliked and defied 
 her ; and she had endured a good deal at his hands. 
 He was very thankful to be rid of her ; in spite of 
 the fact that being left alone in the dark, horribly 
 wide-awake, was the worst part of his punishment. 
 
 Who except a dog could be expected to go to 
 sleep at six o'clock ? 
 
 In the hope of inducing weariness, he screwed up 
 his eyes tight ; because the sooner sleep came, the 
 sooner it would be to-morrow. But after five 
 minutes of vigorous screwing he only felt more wide 
 awake than before. Evidently sleep could not be 
 wooed ; it must be waited for. And as he lay there 
 waiting, a faint hope crept into his heart that perhaps 
 his mother might come up to tell him he was for 
 given, and then he could say properly how sorry he 
 had been all along. It would be easier in the dark 
 if she was holding his hand. And supposing she did 
 come . . . and found him asleep ! 
 
 The fear of that calamity banished all attempts to 
 coax weariness. He lay strained and tense, his 
 eyes wide open, his ears alert to catch the first
 
 ONE MERE DAY 31 
 
 sound of her footsteps : while she, downstairs, sat 
 in her favourite arm-chair, by the freshly-lighted 
 fire, reading a novel. 
 
 She had been writing letters till after six ; and 
 in signing the last but one, a vague idea of going up 
 to see Derek had crossed her mind. She was not 
 one of those mothers who make a regular rule of 
 the good-night function, either from duty or from 
 a natural impulse of love. Only with her first-born 
 it had been a matter of course ; and when he grew 
 too old for it, she became careless ; simply followed 
 the mood. 
 
 To-night, for obvious reasons, Derek had intruded 
 once or twice upon her thoughts. After all, he had 
 been punished severely and had taken it well. 
 Hence the impulse to go up and see him. But that 
 last letter had driven it from her mind, and the sight 
 of her novel lying open at a critical point in the tale, 
 had completed her oblivion of the troublesome small 
 son, who was so curiously like his Scottish grand- 
 mother that at times he scarcely seemed her own. 
 
 Half an hour later, in a pause at the end of a 
 chapter, she suddenly remembered him again. Per- 
 haps the intensity of his longing found its way, by 
 some mysterious process, into her brain. 
 
 She glanced at the clock and suffered a passing 
 twinge of self-reproach. " Too late now," she 
 decided, half sorry, half relieved ; for she was very 
 comfortable and not strong and she hated stairs. 
 He probably had not expected her, and by now he 
 would be fast asleep. Not for a moment did she
 
 32 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 suppose that the morning's disaster had made any 
 deep impression on him. He was not sensitive like 
 her dear Van 
 
 And she went on reading till it was time to dress 
 for dinner. 
 
 Derek still lying tense and alert heard the 
 tap-tap of her heels when she reached the polished 
 first-floor landing and his heart thumped jerkily in 
 expectation. But the sound retreated then ceased 
 abruptly, and he knew he was either forgotten or not 
 forgiven 
 
 A feeling of utter loneliness swept through him. 
 He longed to spring out of bed and run down to 
 her room and pour out all that was in his heart. But 
 she was so much a goddess, so little a mother to 
 him, that he did not dare. Instead he found sobs 
 coming thick and fast. Too proud to let them be 
 heard, he burrowed under the bedclothes, stuffed the 
 sheet into his mouth, and, when passion had sub- 
 sided, quietly cried himself to sleep.
 
 BOOK I 
 Beyond the Skyline 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " Deep in the man sits fast his fate, 
 To mould his fortunes, mean or great : 
 Or.'say, the foresight that awaits 
 Is the same genius that creates." EMERSON. 
 
 IT was a mild blustering afternoon of September ; 
 the face of the sky moody and variable like the 
 face of a spoilt child. Clouds scudded across the blue, 
 and a sharp squall of rain dashed petulantly against 
 the windows of the Southampton express. Before 
 the burst of temper was well over, the sun, flashing 
 through a rift, changed the last of the raindrops 
 into a shower of jewels ; and away across the heather 
 there sprang a rainbow. 
 
 The shimmering arc of colour, bright against 
 lowering clouds, lost itself in the heart of a pinewood 
 that gloomed darkly between moor and sky. The 
 whole spacious landscape throbbed with light, life 
 and colour. Nature, in her most enchanting mood, 
 seemed challenging that trainioad of human restless- 
 
 33 B
 
 34 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 ness to be unaware of her surpassing beauty. But 
 for the most part, their eyes were holden from habit 
 or glued to the printed page. 
 
 Happily there are always exceptions. One of 
 them, on this occasion, was a young man who oc- 
 cupied a corner seat, in a second-class carriage, on 
 the side of the rainbow. His appearance proclaimed 
 him a genuine devotee of the road. The grey-green 
 Norfolk coat, though of good parentage, was shabby 
 to a degree. The pockets bulged, the elbows were 
 rubbed and a leather button was missing. Worse 
 still, its air of well-bred vagabondage clashed out- 
 rageously with a pair of new grey flannels very 
 vilely cut, nor was there even a waistcoat to modify 
 the effect. Of these distressful details the wearer 
 seemed serenely oblivious ; and that trifling fact 
 bespoke breeding as plainly as the repose of his 
 square sunburnt hands bespoke strength. His face, 
 that was noticeable, without any claim to good 
 looks, matched the hands, sunburn and all. There 
 was latent power in the modelling of the broad brow 
 and dark, uncovered head ; in the blunt nose and 
 slightly aggressive lower lip. But it was the eyes 
 clear and direct under eave-like brows that held 
 the attention even of casual observers ; so that those 
 who looked once were apt to turn and look again. 
 
 For the face of that ill-dressed young Englishman 
 was still, in essence, the face of the'boy who had 
 stood in the morning-room window, some fourteen 
 years ago, defying Outraged Authority to the knife. 
 In detail, certain lines of character had been empha-
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 35 
 
 sized and the soft contours of childhood chiselled 
 away. His eyebrows made a thicker smudge across 
 his forehead. His nose was more definitely square 
 at the tip ; the dent between mouth and chin was 
 sharper, the jaw more clearly defined. The face 
 still looked a little sullen in repose ; still lit up aston- 
 ishingly when he smiled : and he was altogether the 
 old Derek or rather the young in his attitude 
 towards those accidental flannels which, until they 
 could be remedied, could at least be ignored. What 
 his fellow travellers might be thinking about his 
 clothes or himself concerned him not at all. 
 
 For the most part he devoted his attention to the 
 window and sat perfectly still, absorbed in the pass- 
 ing scene. The fact that he had just returned from 
 a nine weeks' pilgrimage on the Continent made 
 him more alive than usual to the beauties of his 
 own land on this day of peculiarly English mutability. 
 From the moment suburbs loosened their strangle- 
 hold on the country, and disfigured Surrey shook 
 herself free from encroaching hordes, he had dis- 
 carded Punch in favour of pinewoods, orange-tawny 
 gravel pits and amethystine sweeps of ling in full 
 bloom. Later, came emerald sweeps of meadow- 
 land ; hawthorn hedges bright with ripening berries ; 
 a farm or two, a townlet and a golf course. Then 
 more heath and pinewoods, as the express dashed 
 through the wild waste region round Aldershot, the 
 scene of countless mimic battles, bloodless victories, 
 and invasions repelled 
 
 For Derek fresh from the stark grandeur of the
 
 36 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Dolomites and the oleographic brilliance of Switzer- 
 land in summer the charm of the whole misty 
 shifting landscape was summed up in one word 
 England. What a mellow, friendly land it was ! 
 No harsh lines, no sharpness of contrast, even where 
 moor and meadow kissed each other. A lazy, slow- 
 moving, comfort-loving land ? Yes on the surface. 
 Derek frankly admitted the common cry of England's 
 detractors. He was, by nature, critical and clear- 
 sighted, even where he loved. And remembering 
 the well-tilled fields of France, he added, on his own 
 account an unproductive land : tragically so, for 
 the country-side, that is the true England ; danger- 
 ously so, perhaps ? 
 
 And where lay the blame ? Derek, with the 
 enviable assurance of youth, had his answer 
 ready to hand Free Trade and the Industrial 
 Vote. As the younger son of a peer, whose belief 
 in the land was no barren faith apart from works, 
 he had been reared in close touch with its deliber- 
 ately neglected problems. Talk at Avonleigh often 
 turned upon the subject ; and Derek was a born 
 listener. Things heard left a deep impression on his 
 eager brain : and now, while it travelled along these 
 familiar lines, his attention was, for the first time, 
 seriously arrested by the Industrial Vote incarnate 
 that flaunted its bank account, so to speak, under his 
 challenging gaze. 
 
 Directly opposite him sat a stout woman, expen- 
 sively upholstered, clutching a restless Pekinese and 
 quieting the creature, at intervals, with macaroons.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 37 
 
 A purple " lancer " feather careened high above her 
 hat, and her plump feet were mercilessly compressed 
 into smart patent leather shoes. Beyond her more 
 frankly expansive husband, sat two young men of 
 much the same genus : one lean and pasty, the other 
 fleshy and pasty. Both were fitfully studying the 
 columns of a leading Radical journal. It did not 
 need any particular gift for observation to detect 
 the stamp of the counter on their neat persons, 
 featureless features and disjointed chaff with a 
 couple of girls opposite, who were sharing a box of 
 chocolates and the doubtful wit of " Society Chatter." 
 
 To Derek, with the country-side on his brain, that 
 chance handful of town products strikingly presented 
 the other side of the shield. These, and hundreds 
 like them, were the gifts of Industrialism to England. 
 That they and their kind might increase and multiply, 
 the town was sitting every year more heavily on the 
 country's chest. . . . 
 
 At this point he checked a certain tendency to 
 lapse into the leading article vein ; the dire result 
 of being very young and very much in earnest : and 
 it was then that he discovered the girl in the far 
 corner, next to the fleshy and pasty young man. 
 
 There was nothing very conspicuous about her, 
 except her conspicuous unlikeness to the others. 
 Her gloved hands were folded on a book she had not 
 troubled to open ; and as she looked persistently out 
 of the window he had little more than a profile view 
 of her face. Not exactly pretty, was his first thought ; 
 but emboldened by her absorption, he looked again.
 
 38 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 * 
 
 She had moved a little now. Her eyes were lifted 
 watching a mass of luminous cloud a riot of high 
 lights and ink-grey shadow that sailed lordly in 
 the blue. His impulse to look again had no con- 
 nection with such obvious items as a small straight 
 nose, forehead and brows tenderly curved, or the 
 touch of childlike wonder that lightened her serious 
 eyes. It was something about her whole aspect ; 
 something clear and swift and confident without a 
 shadow of complacence. Contrasted with the three 
 full-blown specimens of middle-class womanhood, 
 she seemed a creature of another sphere. She wore 
 everything, to her very gloves, with a difference ; 
 and the colour in her cheeks was not the wild-rose 
 bloom of England, but the deeper carmine of the 
 south. 
 
 " No industrial bankbook there ! " thought Derek ; 
 and a moment later he was jerked violently forward, 
 almost into the stout lady's arms. The train had 
 stopped with a jar that quivered through all its 
 amazed and startled occupants. The next station 
 was still miles away. Every one sprang up. The 
 young men emitted pious interjections ; the stout 
 lady, clutching her treasure, rushed panic-stricken to 
 the farther window ; hers being blocked by Derek's 
 head and shoulders. 
 
 All along the line a score or so of other heads were 
 shot out : but their owners discovered nothing 
 beyond a few mildly astonished cows and an agitated 
 guard, doing his official best to temper agitation with 
 dignity.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 39 
 
 " I say, guard, what's the row ? " Derek demanded 
 when the man came within earshot. 
 
 " Some one's pulled the alarm chain, sir," was all 
 the answer he got, as the badged and belted one 
 hurried past anticipating murder or outrage at the 
 very least. 
 
 " Alarm chain," Derek informed his fellow 
 passengers over his shoulder. 
 
 As he spoke, his attention was attracted by a 
 bare-headed sailor, three windows down, very young 
 and very pink with repressed excitement. 
 
 " Please, sir, 'twas me," the boy called out 
 eagerly to the approaching guard. 
 
 " Well where's the bloke ? Out with him. 
 Look sharp ! She's five minutes over time " 
 
 " Please, sir there ain't no bloke." The boy's 
 voice was a shade less confident. " It's the wind 
 that done it. I were just a takin' a squint at the 
 old country and it snatched me cap clean oft", it 
 did. A brand new cap it was, sir," he added feelingly, 
 as the guard's expression awakened a dim sense of 
 the enormity he had committed and anti-climax 
 was complete. 
 
 Shouts of laughter rippled along the train. But 
 to the guard it was no matter for mirth that the 
 sacred Southampton express should be held up by 
 an infantile blue-jacket who had lost his cap. 
 In scathing terms he explained to that preposterous 
 infant that the London and South Western Company 
 did not stop their trains for his private convenience. 
 " And maybe you 'aven't 'appened to notice," he
 
 40 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 concluded with fatherly concern, " that there's a 
 trifle of five pounds penalty for this sort of practical 
 joke. Who's yer 'atter ? " 
 
 The boy's colour ebbed and his jaw fell. He 
 had noticed nothing, in that moment of distraction, 
 except the providential chain. He was home on 
 first leave since joining his ship, he explained with 
 woefully diminished confidence. And no self- 
 respecting sailor could knock .around the town 
 bareheaded. And the cap was brand new. And he 
 hadn't stopped to think. 
 
 " Well, if you stop to jaw now, sonny, you'll lose 
 the lot," the man interposed in a kindlier tone. 
 " Nip out and back like a lightning streak, or you'll 
 have to leg it " 
 
 But the infant was already legging it for dear 
 life, cheered as he went by sympathetic third-class 
 passengers. 
 
 In the twinkling of an eye he was back again, 
 the costly cap jammed down to his eyebrows ; and 
 what breath remained in his body was completely 
 taken away by the discovery that a miraculous, 
 shabby-looking " gent " had dropped from heaven, 
 placated the guard and relieved him of that stagger- 
 ing fine into the bargain. 
 
 His mumbled attempt at thanks was nipped in 
 the bud by a gruff, " All right, old chap. Don't 
 fuss," from the boy of another world who was only 
 a few years his senior. 
 
 For a second the two stood looking at each other. 
 Then, " I'd know ye again, sir, anywhere ... if we
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 41 
 
 should 'appen to meet," the sailor stammered 
 awkwardly. 
 
 Derek smiled and nodded ; and before the boy 
 sprang on to the step he flung ardaring question at 
 the guard. 
 
 " Please, sir, 'oo is he, sir ? " 
 
 " He's the Hon'able Derek Blount, son o' Lord 
 Avonleigh of these parts. You're in luck, young 
 stiver. Nip up. She's ten minutes over time now, 
 thanks to you." 
 
 Derek, meanwhile, had seen the magic word 
 " smoking " on the window next his own. He 
 decided to enjoy a pipe and rescue his belongings at 
 Elverstone : but as he grasped the door handle, he 
 found himself hailed from his own carriage by a 
 clear feminine voice. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Blount, you're the very person 1 want 
 to see ! Do please come back." 
 
 That amazing invitation came from the girl who 
 was different. He had seen her leaning out while 
 he settled matters with the guard. " What the 
 
 dickens ? " But there was no time for surprise 
 
 or argument. The guard had raised his flag and 
 swung himself on to the train. It started with a 
 jerk just as Derek transferred his grasp to the next 
 handle, pushed the door open and sprang in mysti- 
 fied exceedingly and not a little vexed at being 
 deprived of his pipe. 
 
 He found her sitting opposite him, a little flushed, 
 her eyes alight. 
 
 " I must apologize," she said, speaking rather
 
 42 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 rapidly without a trace of shyness. " But I heard 
 your name. I'm Jack's step-sister so you'll under- 
 stand." 
 
 His mystification evaporated. JackBurlton had 
 been the companion of his trip. 
 
 " Oh, then you are Gabrielle Miss De Vigne ? " 
 he said puzzled and a little awkwardly. 
 
 " Yes I'm Gabrielle," she answered smiling : 
 and fresh perplexity assailed him. 
 
 " But why are you here ? I thought he was 
 meeting you in town." 
 
 " So did he, poor dear ! It's very distracting, 
 but it couldn't be helped. You changed your dates, 
 you see, and my French Canadian cousins in Brittany 
 wired that I must join them sooner " 
 
 " I say you're not actually . . . off, how to 
 Canada ? " Derek broke in. Concern for Jack put 
 shyness to flight. 
 
 " Practically off." 
 
 " And Jack's clean missed you ? I'm awfully 
 sorry. I'm afraid it's partly my fault " 
 
 "I'm afraid it is ! " she agreed sweetly. " But 
 please don't distress yourself. He'll get across 
 before I sail. I've left a letter with instructions." 
 
 Her smiling friendliness and her intimate connexion 
 with Jack made him almost forget she was a stranger 
 and a charming girl to boot. He usually admired 
 the last from a very respectful distance : the more 
 charming, the more respectful the distance. But 
 this one was already known to him as " Gay," the 
 daughter of Jack's dead mother by her first husband.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 43 
 
 Jack, who had no sisters, was devoted to her ; and 
 Derek's twinge of self-reproach, on his friend's 
 account, helped him to forgive her for depriving 
 him of a smoke. If he did not answer her last 
 remark it was only because the counter-jumpers and 
 '' Society Chatter " young women embarrassed him 
 by t staring frankly and giggling over some joke 
 that might or might not be connected with Miss de 
 Vigne's unorthodox behaviour. He confounded 
 their impertinence. Why on earth couldn't a girl 
 obey a natural impulse without becoming a butt for 
 their third-rate humour ? Rather than cater for 
 their amusement he sat silent, gazing abstractedly 
 out at scurrying trees and fields, recalling the keen- 
 edged joy of life reduced to its simplest elements. . . . 
 
 Very soon they all became bored and returned 
 to their papers. The young woman next to him 
 shut her eyes and seemed to fall asleep ; and Derek 
 was just beginning to hanker for his pipe when the 
 girl's head lolled sideways, lower and lower. He 
 glanced at it apprehensively and edged nearer the 
 window. Miss de Vigne's eyes caught him in the 
 act and they smiled. 
 
 "It is odd," she remarked, " our meeting like 
 this, when Jack's plans have never come off." 
 
 " My fault again ! " he admitted frankly. " I've 
 always funked Commem. Not my line." 
 
 " You don't know what you'vejmissed." 
 
 " Just as well, perhaps. The girls didn't miss much 
 anyway." ' 
 
 He evidently meant it, and she politely forbore to
 
 44 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 smile. There was a moment of silence ; then, with 
 a tentative note in her voice, she asked : " Did you 
 merely tramp the coiintry ? Or did you try and 
 get at the peasants the people, out there ? " 
 
 " Oh, we tried after a fashion in Public School 
 German ! But we weren't fooling round on a 
 ' better understanding ' mission, if that's what you 
 mean ? " 
 
 " You sound rather scornful. Have you no faith 
 in them ? " she asked, an anxious crease between 
 her brows. 
 
 Derek shook his head. " Not a shred of faith. 
 I don't say we're not sincere, or the French either. 
 But the sincerity is as one-sided as the sort of bar- 
 gains that spring from it. Look at the Baghdad 
 line " Suddenly he became aware of her dis- 
 tress. " Have you been reared to think otherwise ? " 
 he asked in a changed voice. 
 
 " To hope otherwise," she answered, her colour" 
 rising a little. " You see Jack's father has a lot 
 of German friends and business connections," she 
 went on, turning her face away from inquisitive 
 eyes. " He thinks very highly of some ; too highly, 
 I'm afraid. In fact, that's the chief thing I wanted 
 to see Jack about, and why I spoke to you. All 
 this summer, the Schonbergs, especially, have been 
 getting more and more friendly, and it bothers me. 
 All that's most French in me distrusts that man 
 by instinct. Dad Mr. Burlton says it's simply 
 
 prejudice. He may be right ; but still ' She 
 
 was silent a moment, gazing out over the wide sweep
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 45 
 
 of open country, her small even teeth compressing 
 her lip. Then with a quick turn of her head she 
 looked round again and said lightly : " I don't know 
 why I'm boring you like this ! " 
 
 Derek wrinkled his brows. " Does it worry Jack 
 too ? " 
 
 " Badly." 
 
 " Odd he's never mentioned it. Shall I say 
 anything to him ? " 
 
 ' Yes do. It'll ease his mind, now he hasn't got 
 me to ease it on ! " 
 
 Slackening speed warned him they were approach- 
 ing Elverston. " I get out here," he said, rising as 
 the train slowed down. He pulled his modest 
 luggage out of the rack, hesitated a moment, then 
 held out his hand. "Good-bye good luck ! It's a 
 great country. And if I can help in any way- 
 She sighed. " I don't think any one can or J 
 wouldn't be leaving England." 
 
 Then he sprang on to the platform and stood there 
 a few seconds looking absently after the vanishing 
 train. A quite unexpected adventure that ; not at 
 all in his line. 
 
 " Car's a bit late, sir," remarked a friendly porter 
 who had known Derek from a boy. 
 
 " No car for me, James," he said. " They don't 
 know I'm coming." 
 
 " Pleasant surprise, sir, I'm sure," purred the 
 kindly old man. " Get you a fly, sir, from the ' Good 
 Intent ' ? " 
 
 " No, thanks. I'd rather walk. You can freeze
 
 46 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 on to my riicsack and the bag. Send 'em along by 
 the carrier to-morrow." 
 
 He dived into his trouser pocket and brought out 
 a shilling. " All the cash I've got left ! " he said ; 
 " you're welcome to it," and passed out through the 
 wooden gate into the familiar road that ran, white 
 and smooth, over High Down, through Haddon 
 Wood and Coombe St. Mary's, to Avonleigh Hall. 
 Journeys and adventures were over. He was at 
 home.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " Between the born adventurer and the community man 
 there is a great gulf fixed." TENNYSON JESSE. 
 
 BY this time, the sun definitely had the best of it. 
 A brisk south wind was dispersing the last strag- 
 glers of the storm, splashing the uplands of High 
 Down with flying shadows ; and away on the crest of 
 the ridge, a coppice of larch and birch tossed plume- 
 like boughs against the sky. On the left, as it were 
 in the shallow dip of a wave, red roofs and hayricks, 
 barns and nibbling sheep basked in the mellow after- 
 noon light. Derek, steadily breasting the hill, knew 
 by heart every line and curve, every chimney-stack, 
 every lone tree printed darkly upon the sky. It 
 was more to him than a happy conjunction of woods 
 and hills and dwellings. It was part and parcel of 
 his inner life. 
 
 From the sunlit ridge he swung down through 
 the semi-twilight of Hadden Wood to the village of 
 Coombe St. Mary's that had dozed unruffled through 
 the centuries ; and was not fully awake, even now, 
 to the ominous rumble of machinery in the North. 
 
 Already Derek was on his father's land ; and here 
 
 47
 
 48 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 the sense of home struck deeper. More than the 
 average young men of his age and station he had 
 genuinely tried to make friends with those most 
 inexpressive of all human creatures, the born tillers 
 of the soil. Here and there he had succeeded better 
 than he knew ; better than any member of his 
 family would have believed possible. For he had 
 a knack of achieving a good deal, while apparently 
 doing nothing in particular : a knack very character- 
 istic of his race. 
 
 He had several friends of low degree in Coombe 
 St. Mary's ; but he did not talk about them ; and 
 they, for the most part, were dumb as their own 
 kine. None of them were loafing at this hour in 
 the one semblance of a street. Presently they 
 would come slouching home from the fields, to 
 congregate at the " Bull and Beetle." There they 
 would drink their " usual," sitting on the same worn 
 seats as their fathers, and probably their grand- 
 fathers, had done before them every working day 
 of the year. Evening after evening they would 
 exchange the same rough pleasantries and thrash 
 out the same old grievances grown so mellow with 
 time that their belated -removal would be but one 
 grievance the more. Derek felt suddenly oppressed 
 by the realization that all this bovine life of farm 
 and field had been droning on unchanged, unen- 
 livened, while he had been wandering at large ; each 
 day an uncharted realm of adventure ; living, 
 moving, learning all manner of vital odds and ends 
 about other men's thoughts and ways
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 49 
 
 On the hill above the village he paused and looked 
 back into the sleepy hollow that had already lost 
 the sun. He could see the first of the labourers 
 trailing home from the fields ; and, watching them, 
 he wondered idly which groove, after all, was deeper, 
 more barren of healthy human vagaries the 
 agricultural ruts of his friends down there, or the 
 narrow way of convention along which his mother 
 and Van moved with such unerring precision ? If 
 either of them could have seen him struggling against 
 the mighty current of the Yser, for the sake of a bath 
 and the mere sport of the thing, or crouching naked 
 between two rocks within a few yards of clothed and 
 spectacled propriety ! 
 
 He chuckled to himself at thought of the shock 
 it would give them. For it is hardly too much to 
 say that his own people knew almost as little of the 
 real Derek, as he himself knew of the real working 
 man. If home relations were not all that they might 
 have been, it was tacitly assumed to be Derek's 
 fault ; and, after a period of bitter inward rebellion, 
 he had arrived at supposing they must be right. 
 Of his recent trip abroad he had told them little or 
 nothing. From Oxford he had written that he would 
 devote the long vacation to a walking tour abroad 
 and would probably be home about the middle of 
 September. Since then, a few brief letters to his 
 mother and an occasional postcard had given them 
 a rough idea of his movements. That was all 
 they knew about it all they were ever likely to 
 know.
 
 50 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Sometimes, in a regenerate mood, it pained him 
 to realize how increasingly reticent he had grown 
 about himself and his doings. But his mother's 
 vague, polite inquiries were not calculated to unloose 
 his tongue ; and Lord Avonleigh held with Dr. 
 Johnson, that " questioning is not a mode of 
 conversation among gentlemen." As for Van, 
 except in rare moods of expansion, he was frankly 
 bored with most things that did not directly concern 
 himself. 
 
 From this it may be gathered that Derek, at two 
 and twenty, was still too square a peg for his very 
 round and polished hole ; which is not to say that 
 he undervalued for a moment his goodly heritage 
 of fine traditions stretching backward through the 
 centuries. But those very traditions involved 
 certain limitations that must not be allowed to 
 hamper his choice of a path in life. 
 
 As a younger son, a certain amount of latitude 
 was his ; and a fourth year at Oxford was still on 
 the cards. Pure luxury : no denying it. But he 
 must be an unnatural son of Oxford who can lightly 
 break his tie with that city of generous delusions, 
 and life-long friendships. Personally, Derek was in 
 no hurry for the decisive plunge. No gusty winds of 
 ambition stirred his soul ; but he recognized the 
 wisdom of his father's insistence on a definite 
 occupation for Van and a definite profession for 
 himself. 
 
 Already his supposed indecision had caused a 
 certain amount of home friction. Lord Avonleigh
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 51 
 
 had failed to divine the cause ; and Derek himself 
 had signally failed to convey any impression of his 
 complicated state of mind. The fact that he secretly 
 craved his father's good opinion and admired the very 
 qualities that made him so little accessible did not 
 smooth the way for him rather the reverse. After 
 three months, presumably devoted to consideration 
 of his future, decisions would be expected of him 
 and they would hot be forthcoming ! 
 
 That consideration cooled, a little, the glow of 
 welcome in his heart when the ivy-mantled pillars 
 and wrought iron gateway came into view. A 
 narrower entrance near the Lodge stood open : but 
 Derek suddenly conscious of his own shabbiness-. 
 passed it by. Skirting a stone wall, that enclosed 
 the Park, he found an iron-studded door, beloved 
 from boyhood for its mediaeval flavour. It opened 
 on to a narrow path that meandered up through 
 the rising sweep of parkland and finally struck into- 
 the drive, between dense ten-foot hedges of yew, close 
 to the house itself. 
 
 Derek sauntered leisurely through that scattered 
 company of great and ancient trees : oaks with their 
 far-flung boughs defying the law of gravitation ; 
 beeches with boles like grey satin, their cascades 
 of incomparable leafage sweeping almost to the 
 ground. Often and often, when the hands of all 
 his world seemed against him, a small, lonely Derek 
 had stolen away to his favourite beech tree as to a 
 sanctuary. There, perched in the fork of a friendly 
 bough, where the wrath of man could not come at
 
 52 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 him, he had shed his " insect miseries]" and found 
 courage to return to the dusty arena of the nursery 
 and the schoolroom and the dense stupidity of 
 grown-ups who could not or would not understand. 
 Derek was a catholic lover of trees ; but the beech, 
 for more than mere personal reasons, stood first in 
 his heart. 
 
 Now the level sun struck shafts of light through 
 them and stretched out to interminable lengths their 
 prodigies of shade. In the distance he sighted a 
 herd of deer ambling down to the lake ; and the 
 little wind that had chilled the glow within him died 
 away. He felt suddenly eager to see them all again 
 especially his mother. Absence invariably quick- 
 ened his deep natural feeling for her ; and he had 
 never quite discovered why it evaporated so strangely 
 after the first few days at home. Loyalty prevented 
 him from analysing this plain proof of failure some- 
 where. He supposed, ruefully, that the fault must 
 be his. 
 
 Van he knew, from her last letter was lately 
 back from Scotland : and if they were ah 1 at home, 
 he might stumble on the remnants of tea under the 
 cedars. The prospect quickened his movements. 
 He was hungry and thirsty after his walk. 
 
 Emerging from between high walls of yew, he 
 came full upon the house a stately stone facade 
 with mullioned windows and a square tower in the 
 left wing. Ivy grew thick on the tower ; and across 
 the whole wide front spread the tentacles of a giant 
 wistaria ; it's plume-like foliage softening the sever-
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 53 
 
 ities of the stern old place. In a good blossoming 
 year it was one of the sights of the neigh- 
 bourhood. Week-end parties had been given in its 
 honour. 
 
 Without entering the house, Derek passed through 
 the long conservatory alight with chrysanthemums 
 on to the main lawn, where three friendly cedars 
 made a continent of shadow. The lawn itself swept 
 on, innocent of impertinent flower-beds, down to the 
 winding lake. Beyond the lake rose two wooded 
 hills and the sweep of their interlacing curves framed 
 a vision of blue distances darkly clear against the 
 storm-swept sky. 
 
 Under the cedars were two small tables, garden 
 chairs, and Persian rugs : Lady Avonleigh was 
 mortally afraid of damp, burglars, telegrams and 
 cockchafers. Between two low boughs a hammock 
 was slung ; and in the hammock Evan Blount 
 sprawled at ease. One faultlessly flannelled leg 
 hung over the edge revealing a glimpse of silk sock 
 above a white tennis shoe. On a table at his elbow 
 stood a cut glass jug and tumbler, a box of chocolates 
 and two half-eaten peaches. His head, deep in a 
 cushion, was hidden from view ; but an ascending 
 plume of cigarette smoke showed that he was not 
 asleep. 
 
 Derek's footsteps made no sound on the turf ; 
 and he had just reached the shadow of the trees when 
 Van, turning to flick the ash from his cigarette, was 
 confronted by his brother's powerful, ill-dressed 
 figure. But Van was not easily taken aback ; and
 
 54 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 at sight of Derek, he was simply rather more aware 
 than usual of the contrast they presented a contrast 
 decidedly in his own favour. 
 
 As in boyhood, so in manhood, these two sons of 
 one mother were astonishingly unalike. Van, the 
 taller by several inches, had all the grace and pli- 
 ability that Derek conspicuously lacked. In appear- 
 ance he had changed less than his brother. He was 
 still good-looking in a quite unaggressive, gentle- 
 manly way. He had sleek mouse-coloured hair, 
 cleanly cut features and a good-tempered mouth, 
 under a carefully cherished moustache, the colour 
 of ripe corn. The cut of his flannels was irre- 
 proachable and the tint of his socks was re- 
 peated in trie butterfly bow of his tie. Inside and 
 out, he was the finished product of his age and 
 type. 
 
 " Hullo ! There you are," was his brotherly 
 greeting. " The parents were wondering at lunch 
 when you would deign to let them know if you were 
 still on terms with this mortal coil and all that 
 
 " He had raised himself on one elbow and at 
 
 this point his brows went up a fraction of an inch 
 " Great Scott ! where the deuce did you pick up those 
 unholy garments ? " 
 
 " At Munich," Derek answered coolly, " from a 
 bland and beery Teutonic gentleman, who prided 
 himself on his English cut ! " 
 
 Van laughed a pleasant, lazy laugh that matched 
 his voice and person. " About as English as the 
 cut of the Wilhelmstrasse ! But why patronise a
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 55 
 
 gentleman of that persuasion ? What was the 
 desperate stroke of Fate ? " 
 
 Derek paused a moment. The unholy garments 
 had fairly given him away, and the fact that Van 
 would not in the least understand made the tone of 
 his explanation almost aggressively cool. 
 
 " Fact is, an enterprising Italian navvy relieved 
 me of my only pair." 
 
 " You were trapesing about Europe with no more 
 than you stood up in ? " 
 
 " Just a shade more ! A spare shirt and socks 
 and some literature. In three months we covered 
 quite a respectable deal of the Austrian and Bavarian 
 landscape. Great sport ! Streets better than 
 slaughtering grouse. You should try it one summer. ' ' 
 
 " And return to Avonleigh looking like an escaped 
 scarecrow ! No tha-anks. Grouse and salmon are 
 good enough for me. Of course if you go hob-nob- 
 bing with such riff-raff as Italian navvies 
 
 " It didn't quite amount to hob-nobbing," Derek 
 remarked reassuringly ; a certain expansiveness 
 born of Jack's friendly company was still upon him. 
 " In fact it came from deserting barns and haystacks 
 for the flesh-pots of a respectable inn, where a gang 
 of Italians, at work on the railway, were swilling 
 beer. We left 'em swilling. We had tramped 
 twenty miles over rough country and we were dog- 
 tired. Our box of a room was like an oven. \Ve 
 flung everything open and Jack fixed up a simple 
 booby trap across the door. But it was I who 
 figured as the booby next morning ! The whole
 
 56 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 gang had moved on down the line ; and anyhow I 
 wasn't likely to raise a hue and cry after my valuable 
 property ! Luckily our money what remained of 
 it was safe in my sovereign belt. Nothing for it 
 but to tramp on to Munich in Jack's shabby old 
 Burberry and knickerbocker stockings on a blazing 
 hot day, and the Wagner Festival in full swing ! 
 You can fan'cy Jack and our host enjoyed that part 
 of the joke more than I did." 
 
 Van chuckled. 
 
 " Upon my soul, Derek, you're the limit. For 
 the honour of Avonleigh, Father ought not to let you 
 run round on the loose except under a nont de plume ! 
 As for Mother ! . . . Lucky it's her Cottage 
 Hospital afternoon ; so you can get rid of your 
 trophies before she sets eyes on you. The shock 
 might bring on a heart attack ! " 
 
 It was the first chilling whiff of home atmosphere 
 and it checked Derek's expansive mood. 
 
 " Just the sort of thing I would do eh ? by way 
 of making myself thoroughly welcome ? " he said in a 
 changed voice. 
 
 " Rot ! I was only ragging you. But the poor 
 dear's had one jolt already to-day. At breakfast, 
 Father calmly announced that he had an urgent 
 letter from old Wyntoun offering him the Governor- 
 ship of Bombay. Poor Fareham's crumpled up 
 with the climate and they want to relieve him as 
 soon as possible. I fancy they need a cooler head 
 and a stronger hand out there. Anyhow, the upshot 
 was if Father cared to consider the appointment,
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 57 
 
 would he come to town at once ? And he's there 
 now." 
 
 Derek let out his breath in a low whistle. " I 
 suppose that means he'll be going soon. And 
 Mother ? " 
 
 Van lifted his eyebrows. " She hasn't said much, 
 but I can see it's shaken her a bit. I believe if 
 there's one thing she hates more than a jolt it's a 
 decision." He paused and chose a particular shape 
 of chocolate that contained his favourite cream. 
 " Rather hard luck on her that you should have 
 chosen this particular day to drop out of the blue 
 without a word of warning. Knowing her little 
 weaknesses, old chap, you might have favoured her 
 with some sort of intimation " 
 
 Derek jerked up his head. " Damn ! Never 
 occurred to me. Fact is " he flung out the truth 
 that rankled " my coming and going seems to 
 make no great odds to any one. However, lucky 
 she's out. I can easily take myself off again. 
 Tramp over to Ashbourne. Put up at the Avonleigh 
 Arms and write to-night announcing the precise 
 moment of my arrival " , 
 
 " My good idiot, you'll do nothing of the sort," 
 Van struck in with drawling emphasis. " I merely 
 submit the rational suggestion that you make your- 
 self scarce when you've quite done with my chocs 
 and get into something presentable. Then, when 
 Mother appears, I can break the news to her with 
 due tact. . . ." 
 
 " As if I were some sort of disaster ! Thanks very
 
 58 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 much. I'll spare you the trouble." He rose 
 abruptly, almost over-setting the small table. 
 " Another five miles won't hurt me. I'm in topping 
 form " 
 
 " But I say have you had any tea ? " 
 
 " No. This'll do." 
 
 He poured out the contents of the jug and tossed 
 them off at a gulp. Van lay watching him with a 
 faint moue of distaste. Not even in extremity 
 could he see himself drinking out of another man's 
 tumbler. Bat Derek was queer. From the superior 
 height of six and twenty, he regarded his young 
 brother's whole behaviour as flagrantly juvenile. 
 
 " But I say," he protested again. " It's ludicrous 
 farcical." 
 
 " / can't help that " The obvious reflection 
 
 on their mother checked further comment. " When 
 does father get back ? " 
 
 " To-morrow I think. Early afternoon." 
 
 ' Then I'll turn up a bit later. I'd be superfluous 
 at the family council, if there is one." 
 
 Van shrugged and gave it up. " Oh well if you 
 will be a fool " 
 
 "I'm not being a fool. I'm considering mother. 
 But I prefer to do it in my own way. I'll go on 
 through the woods over Burnt Hill ; and I'll pinch 
 the rest of your chocs to keep me going. Many guests 
 this week end ? I've asked Jack to keep me in 
 countenance." 
 
 " And I've asked Karl. Comte d'Estelles may 
 be coming. Also Ina, with her recently annexed
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 59 
 
 K.C. And, I believe, Sir Eldred Lenox with the 
 plain daughter. Women as plain as that ought to- 
 be painlessly extinguished at a tender age ! " 
 
 " Van, you're a beast. You and your pretty 
 women ! Miss Lenox is a real good sort." He 
 put on his cap. " Well I'm off. See you all 
 to-morrow." 
 
 Van, who had re-settled himself, merely waved 
 his hand ; but the distressful view of his brother's 
 retreating figure spurred him to a final effort on his 
 behalf. 
 
 " I say, Dirks," he called out and the boy swung 
 round in his stride. " For God's sake don't turn 
 up again in those Teutonic atrocities ! I'll post you 
 a decent pair to-night." 
 
 Derek grimaced. " Thanks awfully. Sorry they 
 gave you a shock." And very soon a curve of the 
 hill hid him from view. 
 
 Van heaved a sigh of relief, lit a fresh cigarette 
 and resumed his placid contemplation of cedar 
 branches, enamelled with turquoise where the sky 
 gleamed through. He was just pleasantly tired. 
 He wanted no more human eruptions. And once 
 again he reflected that Derek was queer. A thorough 
 good chap at bottom ; but, in the ordinary way of 
 life confoundedly uncomfortable. What the deuce 
 did a fellow in his position want with tramping round 
 Europe in shabby clothes, like any seedy school- 
 master, hob-nobbing with foreign peasants and get- 
 ting into a thoroughly undignified scrape for his 
 pains. When a man had the privilege of belonging
 
 60 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 to one of the oldest families in England ; when he 
 had a beautiful home and the best houses open to 
 him for shooting and fishing, with intervals for 
 flirtation, why this deplorable craze for bemusing 
 himself with the other fellow's point of view ? 
 
 From certain remarks Derek occasionally let fall, 
 he gathered that this was one of the mainsprings 
 of his brother's superfluous activities ; but from his 
 own higher vantage point, he clearly perceived the 
 futility of it all. The sense of status was very strong 
 in Van. Even at Derek's age, he had never wasted 
 his time or energy in worrying about the man on 
 the other side of the hedge. A fellow didn't need to 
 be a " crusted Conservative " to resent the vagaries 
 of the " social conscience " crew. Personally Van 
 counted himself a Liberal of the cultured, theoretical, 
 peace-loving order. His social and political creed 
 had been imbibed mainly from the intellectuals of 
 his own set at Balliol, just as he had imbibed his 
 code of conduct from the prevailing standard of 
 Eton. A taste for ready-made views and values was 
 of the essence of his character. For all practical 
 purposes, it was quite as effective, and far less trouble 
 to annex the nearest match to the fashion of the 
 moment ; to live by those phrases and shibboleths 
 that so pleasantly temper the harsh light of facts. 
 
 Such was Evan Blount'sunformulated philosophy : 
 one that he shared with quite a large number of 
 so-called educated- men. Yet he was no more a 
 fool than are the majority of those others. His 
 easy-going nature was enriched with a very fair
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 6r 
 
 measure of his father's brains and humour. But 
 from his mother he inherited an ingrained mental 
 laziness, rooted in the love of material comfort ; 
 that fatally overflows into the region of the mind 
 and spirit ; refusing tacitly to probe too deep 
 below the surface lest it stumble on disconcerting 
 realities. It was this quality in him not the 
 aristocratic blood in his veins that was mildly 
 irritated by Derek's random, undignified interest 
 in the world at large. 
 
 Van's interests, like his activities, travelled within, 
 the prescribed limits of his own particular circle 
 in London and his own insignificant niche in the 
 Government machine. When Lord Avonleigh wisely 
 insisted on some definite form of occupation, Van 
 a Londoner at heart had dutifully acquiesced in a 
 decree that gave him an excuse to live in the only 
 city on earth. For two years, now, he had been 
 Private Secretary to a distinguished member of the 
 Foreign Office. He believed in Sir Edward Grey as 
 the prince of pacifists, and in the divine right of 
 every man to go his own way, so long as he refrained 
 from treading on his neighbour's toes. He also 
 believed in a friendly Germany and the financial 
 impossibility of a European war. These were 
 distinctly comforting beliefs, which was perhaps 
 the main reason why they found favour in his eyes. 
 
 It was Derek's chief failing that he could not or 
 would not accept the face value of men and things. 
 He had too much of the Moray element in his 
 composition. It might be very admirable, but it
 
 62 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 made him rather a doubtful blessing to his family. 
 Van thanked Heaven that he himself bore the impress 
 of his very English mother. He also reflected with- 
 out conscious pharisaism, that for the honour of 
 Avonleigh which was genuinely dear to him Fate 
 had done well to bring him first into the world. 
 Upon which satisfying conclusion he presently fell 
 asleep.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 *" One near one is too far." BROWNING. 
 
 " I want no opiates, 
 
 I want to be co-equal with their fates . . . 
 I want to be awake and know ; not stand 
 And stare at waving of a conjurer's wand." 
 
 T. E. BROWN. 
 
 IT may safely be asserted that no member of the 
 family would have been readier to endorse that 
 conclusion than Derek himself ; in spite of early 
 disillusion and the fact that his robust allegiance 
 was tempered with criticism and occasionally tinc- 
 tured with envy. This evening both were in the 
 ascendant. Van had a perfect genius for putting 
 him in the wrong ; and the fact that he, Derek, had 
 brought it on himself did not mend matters to any 
 extent. 
 
 Swinging down the gentle slope to the lake, 
 he began to feel half ashamed of his resentment at the 
 idea of having his own carelessness thrown into strong 
 relief by an exhibition of Van's consideration for 
 their mother's little fads. As an isolated incident, 
 the thing seemed too trivial for words. But it was 
 not isolated. It was symptomatic of a chronic state 
 
 63
 
 64 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 of things. And, because, at heart, he was angry 
 with himself, Van's characteristic offer had touched 
 him on the raw. For the moment sheer temper had 
 mastered him and he had acted like a fool. But 
 that honest admission did not dispel the smouldering 
 jealousy and soreness sensations that hurt none 
 the less because they were familiar as the outline of 
 Burnt Hill against the sky. For, in the deep of his 
 stormy heart, he loved his parents and Avonleigh 
 with a hidden intensity of which his brother was 
 sheerly incapable. And he had always been secretly 
 jealous of Van especially as regards their mother. 
 The very fact of her faintly repressive sweetness and 
 graciousness as of one moving in becalmed regions 
 of the soul had increased his natural tendency to 
 set her in a place apart. Yet as far back as he 
 could remember that healthy boyish impulse of 
 worship had been checked and chilled at every turn. 
 Either through clumsiness, or through his very 
 honesty, he never seemed long out of trouble. It 
 had become a nursery and schoolroom saying that 
 " hot water was Derek's natural element " ; and on 
 an occasion of peculiar bitterness, he had flung back 
 the retort that cold water seemed to be his natural 
 portion. Always between him and his mother stood 
 Van kindly, easy-going, selfish, with an innate 
 aptitude for saying and doing the right thing. 
 Always between him and his awe-inspiring father 
 stood Ina lively and self-assured, hardening early 
 into the type that blossoms in society and reserves 
 its best gifts for the outside world.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 65 
 
 So it came about that, in this beautiful home of 
 his, surrounded with every physical care and com- 
 fort, he had missed the chief need of his nature ; 
 vaguely at first ; then more consciously, more 
 acutely as the years went on. And the colour of his 
 past tinged the colour of the future. Temperament 
 and circumstance combined to make him a pessimist 
 in the grain. 
 
 This evening as he climbed Burnt Hill, his mood 
 of smouldering antagonism to every one and every- 
 thing brought back to him, with peculiar vividness, 
 the emotions of that long ago night when he had 
 cried himself to sleep, poor little fool, because he 
 was convinced his mother did not really love him, 
 nor ever would. Scarcely realized by himself and 
 never to this hour realized by Van that incident 
 of the broken vase had proved a turning point 
 in their whole relation. It was the key to. much of 
 their underlying discord ; their odd alternations of 
 hostility and brotherly allegiance ; and it had 
 awakened, in Derek, the dim beginnings of jealousy 
 in respect of his gentle, soft-mannered mother, who 
 so obviously had eyes for no one but Van. ' The tacit 
 implication was that whatever he did must be right : 
 and it is scarcely surprising if Derek came to feel, 
 in bitter moments, that whatever he did must be 
 wrong. Very sharp is the sword of injustice wielded 
 by a blindly idolising mother ; and the wounds thus 
 inflicted sank deep into the younger boy's heart. 
 
 But if Derek was sensitive, he was also proud and 
 stubborn. His temper was of the formidable white- 
 
 o
 
 66 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 hot order ; and his very virtues were tinged with 
 this hidden intensity of spirit, so that he gave and 
 demanded a more robust sincerity than is favoured 
 by the easy-going majority. 
 
 Unhappily these were the last qualities that 
 Lady Avonleigh could be expected to approve 
 or understand ; but the full realization of this 
 had only been brought home to him by slow and 
 painful degrees. His faith in her had survived 
 in spite of many jars till the critical day when 
 first the insincerities and inconsistencies of life 
 and religion had begun to bewilder his soul. 
 Thrown back on himself and terribly in earnest, he 
 had so far done violence to his boy's reserve as to 
 make a clean breast of his doubts and difficulties, 
 in the sure conviction that she could not fail to 
 understand. . . . 
 
 But most completely and tragically she had failed 
 to understand. She had simply been pained and 
 puzzled, like a hen when the duckling she has hatched 
 shows a predilection for the wrong element and 
 wrong farm-yard morsels. 
 
 Derek, impelled by his urgent need, had persisted 
 and argued, till the truth came home to him that 
 she was shocked, even a little repelled, by his questing 
 attitude towards sacred conventions and mysteries, 
 which it was a Christian's duty to accept blindly 
 by an act of faith. Of course one knew that now- 
 a-days nothing was sacred, everything torn to pieces 
 by certain sorts of people ; but she had hoped that 
 her own sons .
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 67 
 
 The murmured word " blasphemous " revealed her 
 lamentable misunderstanding of this particular son. 
 It also closed his lips on the subject for good. He 
 had come to her, hungry and eager, asking for bread : 
 and she, quite unwittingly, had given him a stone. 
 He did not come to her again. 
 
 Gradually he had grown to accept misunder- 
 standing as his portion ; but although his faith in 
 her was shaken, his incurable boy's loyalty 
 remained. 
 
 Thus he had grown to manhood in a certain loneli- 
 ness of heart and spirit, mitigated by the comrade- 
 ship of school and the fuller, freer human fellowship 
 of Oxford. There was his real life. The impalpable 
 influences of that grave and stately city had lastingly 
 imbued his mind and character. As a Blue, and 
 finally Captain of the Trinity Fifteen, he had won 
 some measure of popularity, in his own despite : but 
 perhaps the chief personal event of those good years 
 at Winchester and Trinity had been his friendship 
 with Mark Forsyth ; his natural complement in all 
 things save one and that the keynote of both 
 characters a robust sincerity and a hatred of 
 shams. At Wynchcombe Friars he was always 
 happy, always at his ease ; though there were 
 moments when the perfect freedom and confidence 
 between Lady Forsyth and her sons hurt him a good 
 deal more than he cared to confess even to himself. 
 
 During the long pull up Burnt Hill, the unbidden 
 thought intruded : How different everything would
 
 68 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 have been had he dropped in there without warning ! 
 He rebuked himself for the comparison, but it rankled 
 none the less. 
 
 He reached the ridge just before sunset ; and there, 
 sitting on a clump of heather, applied himself to 
 Van's costly chocolates with a will. Hunger apart, 
 he was in no hurry for the stuffy inn parlour of the 
 Avonleigh Arms. Up here it was spacious and 
 wholesome and silent and there Would probably be 
 a fine flare-up after the storm. 
 
 By this time he felt almost grateful to Van for 
 having thrust upon him another twenty-four hours 
 of vagabondage. A yarn with old Tom Gosling, 
 the publican, would be more congenial to his present 
 mood^than the simple, perfectly-appointed, yet formal 
 dinner at Avonleigh Hall. 
 
 Moreover, if his father were likely soon to be 
 leaving England, the dreaded interview on the choice 
 of a profession could not much longer be postponed. 
 During this last year at Oxford he had considered 
 several possibilities with no very encouraging result. 
 Everywhere he found cast iron systems, a good deal 
 the worse for wear, shackling the free spirit of man ; 
 stultifying his genuine zeal. Everywhere ruts 
 and grooves lay in wait for his rebellious feet : deep 
 and ancient ruts that scored the face of the civilized 
 world like railway lines, along which one could move 
 swiftly and safely in certain directions and in those 
 directions only. Honesty compelled the admission 
 that without them human traffic would become woe- 
 fully disorganized ; but they irked him none the less.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 69 
 
 Last term, he remembered in his rooms, some one 
 had started a lively argument on the psychology of 
 grooves ; a brilliant and bewildering argument, 
 epigrams and cushions flying ; and Mark, in great 
 form, clinching the debate with a popular local 
 quatrain : 
 
 " There was a young man who said ' Damn ! ' 
 At last I've found out what I am. 
 
 I'm a creature that moves 
 
 In predestinate grooves ; 
 I'm not even a 'bus I'm a tram ! " 
 
 His guests had departed chanting the " Hymn 
 of Predestination " : but Derek would have none 
 of it. A tram symbolized all that he least admired or 
 desired in life. A 'bus was a free-lance by compari- 
 son ; and a 'bus he proposed to remain so long as 
 Fate and the inexorable laws of common sense would 
 permit. But the crux of the matter was how 
 would his father regard that very unorthodox 
 aspiration ? Mercifully he was of age and his allow- 
 ance secure ; but he felt the need of some definite 
 programme to mitigate inevitable disapproval 
 
 Meantime he had finished the chocolates ; and 
 if he sat mooning much longer on Burnt Hill he would 
 miss his last chance of a square meal. There was 
 also the note to his mother. He knew himself 
 capable almost of walking five miles in order to 
 write it and forgetting it in the end. 
 
 He rose briskly, and stood a moment surveying 
 the wide emptiness of the scene under a windy sky
 
 7 o STRANGE ROADS 
 
 dappled with flakes of cloud, that in the west, were 
 caught and changed to flakes of fire. 
 
 Burnt Hill though a mere heat-bump, as hills go 
 was, on its far side, sufficiently abrupt to command 
 sweeping views ; on one hand, towards the downs 
 and the sea ; on the other, across billowing country, 
 toward the pine and heather region round Aldershot. 
 Lord Avonleigh had been tempted, often, by offers 
 from the new-made rich, for one of the finest building 
 sites in the neighbourhood. But although his large 
 estate was heavily hampered, Burnt Hill was sacred ; 
 almost a part of his own grounds. Only in one 
 instance he had succumbed ; and as twilight engulfed 
 the valley, the visible sign of that surrender flaunted 
 its naked ugliness upon the skyline, breaking the 
 noble sweep of the ridge. 
 
 Derek vaguely resented that impertinent presence, 
 for which Jack's father was mainly responsible. In 
 provocative moods he would allude to it as " Your 
 family's commercial thumb mark on our holy hill." 
 Its tenant, a solitary man of science, was reputed to 
 be on the track of chemical discoveries that might 
 mean " a very big thing " for the Burlton Works, a 
 large old-established metal industry in the Midlands. 
 The whole venture was admittedly a speculation ; 
 and Lord Avonleigh as a prominent shareholder 
 took a mildly sceptical interest in it : hence his 
 surrender to Burlton' s importunity. Their protege 
 was a shy, inoffensive creature with a damaged lung ; 
 and it had been part of the compact that Burlton 
 should secure for him a peaceful retreat, in bracing
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 71 
 
 air, where he could set up laboratories and carry on 
 his work unmolested by the idle curiosity of country 
 neighbours. 
 
 That was three years ago : and the Hermit of 
 Burnt Hill was still pursuing his researches, appar- 
 ently without result. Derek, more often than any 
 member of the family, came across him in his wander- 
 ings on the ridge a small shrunken figure in a 
 shabby over-coat with a squash felt hat and smoked 
 glasses. As a student of mysteries, the boy had 
 regarded him with mingled interest and awe. He 
 had even made shy advances when they met ; but 
 the results had been disappointing, and Derek had 
 given him up as a bad job. Latterly he had come 
 to regard the household with vague suspicion ; 
 though what manner of harm that frail and lonely 
 body could be doing in his aerie Derek would have 
 found it hard to say. Perhaps on that account, 
 perhaps from mere habit, he had kept the feeling to 
 himself. 
 
 To-night he lingered a little while the flakes of 
 fire in the west faded to pinks and mauves and 
 ethereal greys watching that angular shadow on 
 the spur just below him ; wondering, with the 
 insistent curiosity of youth, what Mr. Bridgeman 
 really did with himself all day and whether those 
 mysterious researches would ever come to anything 
 and retrieve Burlton's affairs. He supposed his 
 father knew whatever there was to know about the 
 old fellow. And after all why should there be 
 anything wrong ?
 
 72 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " The poor chap's probably a saint with a passion 
 for stinks, who says his prayers a good deal oftener 
 than I do," was Derek's charitable conclusion, as 
 he turned away and strode rapidly down the hill
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " The gift is to the giver and comes back most to him." 
 
 WALT WHITMAN. 
 
 HALF an hour later he was enjoying a hearty 
 supper in Gosling's parlour behind the bar 
 of the Avonleigh Arms, with old Tom and young 
 Bert for company, quenching his thirst and drowning 
 fanciful suspicions in a mug of sound English ale. 
 
 The elder Gosling a devoted adherent beamed 
 all over his broad ugly face, sliced a home-cured ham 
 in his best professional manner and begged leave 
 to crack a bottle of " fine old crusty " in honour of 
 the occasion. 
 
 Bert, just turned twenty, gave no outward sign 
 of sharing his father's satisfaction. He was a shrewd 
 looking youth, equipped by the dangerous process 
 of semi-education with a mass of half-digested 
 knowledge and a flourishing crop of prejudices. His 
 innate distrust of the " real gentry " was tempered 
 with grudging admiration : the silver-gilt article, 
 rapidly over-running the earth, he distrusted 
 through and through. He would sell his soul to no 
 
 73
 
 74 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " blooming capitalist " not if he knew it. Yet- 
 in these degenerate days What promise of advance- 
 ment for any self-respecting man on the land ? 
 From the horns of this dilemma, he had leaped to 
 the one unfailing conclusion Canada : and he was 
 engaged in the critical process of persuading his 
 father to back his venture with a hundred pounds 
 of capital when Derek appeared on the scene. 
 
 The interruption was probably more welcome to 
 the father than to the son, whose respectful but 
 slightly guarded friendliness threw the old man's 
 geniality into stronger relief. 
 
 As for Derek either from sheer perversity, or 
 from larger, hidden causes he felt no gene here, in 
 this stuffy back room, over full of photographs and 
 horsehair furniture : no chilling sense of repression 
 that so often kept him silent at home. With his 
 brain still full of vivid memories, he gave his host 
 a lively account of other inns among the Austrian 
 Highlands, of alfresco suppers, of village bumpkins 
 prancing with local beauties to the scraping of 
 village violins. 
 
 They agreed, all three, in regretting that such 
 homely sociabilities no longer enlivened the English 
 country-side. Gosling laid the blame with a trowel 
 on the ubiquitous picture-palace, " where folks, too 
 lazy to do nothink else, sits an' gapes like a herd o* 
 penned cattle." But the interrupted talk with 
 Bert being much on his mind he could not long 
 keep thoughts or tongue from straying back to his 
 pet political grievance the land. Moreover
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 75 
 
 though Derek was young, he plainly had a head on 
 his shoulders ; and his opinion on the Canada scheme 
 might be worth hearing if no more. 
 
 A brief pause in the talk, while Bert refilled their 
 mugs, gave the old man his chance. 
 
 " It do be queer, Mr. Derek, how things fall out," 
 he began, turning his bleared blue eyes from one 
 young face to the other. " Just afore you come in, 
 there was Bert and me dead-locked, so to speak it, in 
 a argyment about a notion 'e's set upon ; and seems 
 like Providence sent you along at the fizzicological 
 moment as the noospaper men say to give us the 
 castin' vote." 
 
 Bert's attempt to kick his lather under the table 
 merely brought him up against Derek's foot, that 
 was politely withdrawn. 
 
 " Beg pardon, sir. A touch o' the cramp," he 
 muttered, reddening ; and Gosling babbled on, 
 unhindered unaware. 
 
 " It's a common tale enough, sir, these days. 
 Here's this boy of mine can't stomach the town nor 
 fact'ry line o' life no more'n his father ; but havin' a 
 better 'ead-piece and better schoolin', 'e's a bit too 
 ambitious, 'e says, to dump 'isself down on a farm an' 
 stick there." 
 
 ' Too much ever-an-ever-amen sort o' business 
 for my taste," objected Bert, still sulky but deter- 
 mined to get in his oar. " This world's a middlin' 
 big place ; an' jest reading about it all seems a 
 rotten okyerpation for a chap like me. What's the 
 bloomin' use of eyes and ears, an' trains an' steamers
 
 76 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 scootin' all over the earth, if a man's ter sit chained 
 up like a dog to a kennel all 'is days ? " 
 
 " There's kennel-dogs as can sniff out a deal o' 
 'uman nature when the fleas don't keep 'em too 
 busy," rejoined the good-natured old publican -with 
 a wink of his watery eye. " But them that grins 
 an' runs about the city carries their tails higher an' 
 barks the loudest." 
 
 ' They've more call to most of 'em." Bert 
 stuck stubbornly to his point. " They git a chance 
 to catch more'n fleas they. do. I'll lay Mr. Derek 
 takes my meanin'. He've just bin runnin' round 
 himself " 
 
 " Now then no impidence to a son of 'is 
 Lordship ! " 
 
 The old-time spirit of allegiance very strong in 
 Gosling moved his son to a smile, tinged faintly 
 with contempt. 
 
 " I hadn't any thought o' such narrer rot : nor 
 I'm sure Mr. Derek hadn't neither." And, as Derek 
 mutely confirmed that assurance, Bert went on : 
 ' The likes o' you, sir, can run around just for play- 
 time. The likes of us, if we want to catch more'n 
 fleas (as I said), we've got to take the plunge outright ; 
 sink or swim. See ? " 
 
 " And you want to take the plunge ? " Derek 
 asked with quickened interest. " In what direc- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " Australy or Canada for choice, where a chap 
 can work on the land for a decent livin' wage an' 
 get a chance to rise out o' the rut, if 'e's worth 'is
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 77 
 
 salt. I got a friend out British Columbia way, 
 makin' a good thing of it. Married an' all. 'E says, 
 ' Bring along a bit o' capital an' join in with me.' 
 Dad, here, says 'e's for laying 'is money on England. 
 I tell him he'll git twice the return for it out there." 
 
 " An' I says old England needs the money an' 
 she needs the men," Gosling lunged in, perceiving 
 Bert's attempt to enlist Derek against him. " An' 
 I say the mighty clever folks that ruined the land wi' 
 their Free Trade tomfoolery do be responsible for 
 this pretty state o' things ; that there's more good 
 British money an' men goin' out o' this country 
 every year. An' I call it damned unpatriotic if you 
 ar'st me. I'm none o' yer cosmipolitans no, thank 
 
 yer. An' as fer his demikratic twaddle ! " He 
 
 sniffed scornfully. " That's wot Bert's after, 'e is. 
 Ole England's not movin' that way fast enough to 
 suit 'is ejjicated taste. I tell 'im they kind can 
 sling the words, easy as winkin' ; but all it amounts 
 to is ' Pull down the man on top an' stand on 'is 
 'ead yerself. Pick 'is pockets in the sacred name o' 
 freedom an' stuff 'is money in yer own ! ' I may 
 be a old fool ; kennel-dogs mostly is, 'cordin' to 
 Bert. But it do seem like as we'd most on us be 
 better men and better off maybe if all sorts 'ud 
 'ave a good old try at pullin' together, 'stead o' 
 pullin' every which ways to once, and scratchin' 
 each other's eyes out, between whiles, for rekerea- 
 tion " 
 
 That word lit a spark in Bert's shrewd, greenish 
 eyes.
 
 78 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Recreation be jiggered ! " he retorted hotly. " If 
 it's a joke to them, it's life an' death to us. As for 
 pullin' together no fear ; seein' the interests o' both 
 parties pulls two ways." 
 
 " Aye, but do they, if ye take a straight look at 
 things 'stead o' squintin' contempshus down yer 
 nose ? Where' d labour be if there was no landlords 
 nor masters to screw more wages out of, eh ? In 
 my 'umble notion 'tis jes' the man and wumman 
 business all over. They must 'ave their slap at each 
 other to ease theirselves ; but atween the slaps they 
 got to pull together or what 'ud come to creation ? 
 But 'oo's agoin' to lam that to Bert an' 'is lot ? Not 
 no bloomin' furriners an' upstarts. 'Tis the jenny- 
 wyne article, like yerself, Mr. Derek, that's gettin, 
 too scarce in 'igh places. I 'ad one of 'em sleepin' 
 'ere on'y larst week ; trampin' the country, same 
 as you ; an' we got talkin' this way : an' 'e says to 
 me, ' Mr. Goslin',' 'e says, ' we'm natural born 
 alleys, we Tories, and them as work on the land. 
 That was Dizzy's notion,' 'e says ; ' an if any man 
 ever 'ad 'is 'ead screwed on tight it was 'im.' ' 
 
 Derek nodded. 
 
 " Quite so. But a good deal has happened since 
 then. Most of you fellows have simply become 
 pawns in the game of the middle-class Liberals. 
 With catchwords and half truths, they've made 
 bad blood between us and you for their own ends ; 
 and it's your vote they're counting on to help them 
 play old Harry with the British Constitution." 
 
 At that, the spark in Bert's eye leaped to a flame.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 79 
 
 " You mean they've took us in all along the line ? " 
 
 " About two thirds of the line, I should say." 
 
 " Mr. Derek, sir, that's a lie, no matter if the King 
 spoke it." 
 
 " Now then you keep yer mouth shut ! " old 
 Gosling shouted, emphasizing the command with a 
 very square fist. " No disrespeck to 'is Majesty 
 under my roof. Nor to 'is Lordship's son neither. 
 Mr. Derek ain't no fancy talker, telHn' you 'lection 
 lies such as you swallered without blinkin' year 
 before last. / kin remember the treacle they 
 powered over us in nineteen 'six better nor neither o' 
 you. All we 'ad to do was to fling in the votes, 
 damn Joe Chamberlain, dish the Tories an' 'ey 
 presto, a new 'eaven an' earth would come along by 
 express train ! That express got off the rails some- 
 where, I'm thinkin', afore ever it reached England." 
 
 Bert began to look a little crestfallen. " But we 
 got the People's Budget," he urged with less assur- 
 ance. " And the Land Scheme an' Insurance." 
 
 " Ninepence for fourpence ! Ef you believe in 
 it ! Eh, Mr. Derek ? " 
 
 " Precisely ! " Derek agreed with a twinkle. 
 
 " What's wrong with it then ? " the boy flung in 
 angrily. 
 
 " It's just tinkering, Bert," Derek said more 
 gravely. ' ' Clumsy, slap-dash tinkering with German 
 tools. That's been the tune of it all round, these 
 last few years : sops flung to those who shout the 
 loudest ; but no serious attempt to tackle the wages 
 problem, strikes, lock-outs, housing. It's more
 
 80 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 showy, smashing things up and hiding the damage 
 with a coat of varnish, than digging the real founda- 
 tions of a new heaven and earth. As for your 
 Insurances and things hasn't it ever struck you 
 that each time the State gives you ninepence for 
 fourpence with one hand, it steals away a bit of your 
 personal liberty with the other ? And when that's 
 gone on long enough you'll all be like so many sheep 
 in a pen, with the State for your shepherd and not 
 a foot of free space to kick your heels in. _If you 
 think I'm piling it on, go to Germany for a spell, 
 instead of Canada, and keep your eyes and ears open. 
 Over there the average man is so coddled by the 
 State that he can't call his soul his own ; and the 
 Radicals and Socialists you vote for are mapping 
 out their patent paradise on much the same lines." 
 
 " Oh Lord! I never saw it that way." 
 
 Derek suppressed a smile. 
 
 " Of course not," he said quietly. " If many of 
 you were allowed to see it that way it would spoil the 
 show." 
 
 " An' we got to walk into their sheep's pen blind- 
 folded ? Thanks orf'ly for nothin' ! " 
 
 He pushed back his chair impatiently and got upon 
 his feet. The meal was over and Gosling was filling 
 his pipe. 
 
 " Tell you what, Dad. You say I can believe Mr. 
 Derek. Well, if the old country's goin' the way he 
 says, that puts the top on my argyment for Canada. 
 You said Providence sent him along to give the 
 castin' vote. Let him give it. I'm agreeable."
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 81 
 
 Derek looked from father to son \vith his sudden 
 smile. " Gosling's right about England needing her 
 own men and money. But till she can produce a 
 statesman strong enough to save the situation, no 
 one can blame go-ahead young fellows like you for 
 preferring to try their luck elsewhere. As to the 
 capital you can't very well ask me to vote away 
 another man's money ! " 
 
 ' 'Ear, 'ear ! " Gosling applauded with his knife 
 handle. ' 'E'd vote away another chap's money on 
 'isself without blinking, would Bert ! A cool 
 'underd 'e's askin', an 'im not me first born, neither. 
 Thar's young Tom that steps into my shoes doin' 
 well on' is own. An' that's James workin' steady 
 under Farmer Groves. What'll 'e say, then, if I 
 plump a nice bit o' capital on Bert ? Not ter men- 
 tion thar's George comin' on and my two gals I ax 
 you, Mr. Derek, plain and straight afore you git 
 votin' away my earnjn's does Bert, there, strike you 
 as a likely sort o' 'vestment eh ? 'E's got the 
 brains, all right ; an' 'e's got the push. 'E swears, 
 if 'e does well, 'e'll pay me back : an' ef 'e gets 'isself 
 in a knot 'e won't come on me to fy-nance 'is resurrek- 
 shun. Ef you wos in my place would yer feel like 
 backin' 'im to the tune of a round 'undred ? " 
 
 The luckless Bert completely taken aback grew 
 red with mingled rage and awkwardness ; redder 
 still under the scrutiny of Derek's direct and smiling 
 gaze. Only acute curiosity checked the overflow of 
 his pent up wrath : and Derek's momentary hesita- 
 tion seemed to him interminable /
 
 82 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Tell him you wouldn't be no such dam-fool 
 and be done with it," he muttered, clenching and 
 unclenching the hands he had thrust into his pockets. 
 
 Derek's smile deepened. "I'm not so sure." 
 Then, turning to Gosling, he said quietly : ' The 
 truth is / feel like backing him myself to the tune 
 of fifty, if you can manage the rest. I can see he's 
 in earnest. Why not give him his chance ? " 
 
 If Bert had been taken aback before, he now simply 
 stood confounded. His mouth had gone dry with 
 nervous excitement ; the whole thing was so remote 
 from his wildest imaginings that he had not a ghost 
 of a notion what he ought to say. 
 
 Old Gosling, it seemed, was in no such dilemma. 
 His voice broke in harshly on the exultant confusion 
 of the boy's thoughts. 
 
 " Now then, Bert, be you struck deaf and dumb ? 
 Up and tell Mr. Derek you'll never fergit 'is generous 
 offer, but you an' me ain't got no right to 'is money 
 
 Bert's heart dropped like a stone into his boots ; 
 but before he could screw himself to the painful 
 point of obedience, Derek was speaking again. 
 
 " Nonsense, nonsense ! " he said, a touch of 
 brusqueness in his tone. " I'd sooner hear him speak 
 the truth and say outright that he'll be jolly glad 
 of that fifty and he wouldn't refuse it for a kingdom." 
 
 Bert's irrepressible grin told him he had hit the 
 mark ; and there flashed a look between them that 
 seemed to put the awkward business of giving and 
 taking on a perfectly natural footing. Lord's son
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 83 
 
 and publican's son, they were boys before all, with 
 the human link of youth between them. 
 
 " Thought so ! " Derek chuckled and rose from 
 the table as if to conclude the matter. " We'll take 
 it as said ! And that squares things so far as I'm 
 concerned. You can settle the rest without my help. ' ' 
 
 " But Mr. Derek sir " the old man protested ; 
 
 and Derek heard the ghost of a tremor in his voice. 
 
 " All right, Gosling. Nothing to worry about," 
 he said in a changed tone. " Give you my word, 
 my father would approve. And er look here, if 
 my room's ready, I think I'll turn in. I'm dog 
 tired." 
 
 ' Yes, sir. Quite ready, sir. Molly shall bring 
 the hot water." Gosling's professional manner came 
 timely to his aid. With remarkable alacrity he 
 pounced upon the door handle ; and perhaps for the 
 first time that automatic sign of respect was, for him, 
 a genuine expression of the real thing. 
 
 " I s'pose, sir," he ventured, emboldened by Derek's 
 friendly nod of acknowledgment " An old man an' 
 a fawther do be allowed to say thank 'ee ? " 
 
 Derek smiled. " Honour bright, Gosling, all the 
 thanks I want is to know you'll play up to my 
 lead." 
 
 ' You kin rely on me, sir. An' please God the 
 boy'll not shame yer good opinion, though 'e do seem 
 to 'ave lost 'is senses and 'is tongue " 
 
 '- He'll recover them ! Good night, Bert." He 
 nodded over his shoulder at the figure on the hearth- 
 rug.
 
 84 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Good night, Mr. Derek." 
 
 And if Bert had lost his tongue, there was an 
 unmistakable note in his voice that gratified Derek 
 more than any stumbling attempt at thanks, however 
 sincere.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " Aristocrats are the same everywhere, whether they have 
 titles, or whether they have none. They are those who 
 believe they owe their best to God and men and they 
 serve." PRICE COLLIER. 
 
 THE best bed-room of the Avonleigh Arms 
 was filled to overflowing with a curtained 
 four-poster, and an imposing suite of early Victorian 
 mahogany. In the negligible space between, it was 
 possible to move circumspectly as became the 
 discreet period to w^iich the room and its trappings 
 belonged. 
 
 Mrs. Gosling, Derek supposed, had slept in that 
 bed on her wedding night and every night after 
 except for an occasional seaside trip till the day of 
 her death, some five years ago. Above the washing 
 stand hung an enlarged photograph of her with 
 smooth-plastered hair and a medallion brooch as 
 big as a duck's egg. It was a pleasant, shrewd face, 
 with a strong look of Bert about the eyes and brow. 
 Perhaps she also, in feminine fashion, had yearned 
 beyond the skyline. Perhaps she would have under- 
 stood better than his father her son's remark, " too 
 
 85
 
 86 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 much ever-and-ever-amen sort o' business, for my 
 taste." 
 
 It was those words, more than anything else, that 
 had awakened Derek's sympathy for the sulky boy 
 who had so evidently resented his intrusion and old 
 Gosling's burst of confidence. In point of fact, they 
 were more than half responsible though he did not 
 guess it for the third act of sheer impulse that stood 
 to his credit or discredit in one short day. Yet, 
 had any one called him a creature of impulse, he 
 would have stoutly and rightly denied the 
 impeachment. It would be nearer the truth to say 
 that certain root qualities in him were so vigorous, 
 so assured, that when the appeal was to one of these, 
 action was swift and prompt, unhampered by the 
 wavering that besets a more complex frame of mind. 
 Perhaps this is why a genuine act of impulse as 
 distinct from the headlong rushings of the unbalanced 
 is so rarely regretted. We mistrust, at our peril, 
 the deeper promptings of the heart, which, in vital 
 matters, steers a truer course than the head through 
 the cross currents of life. 
 
 Derek went straight to the square bay window, 
 and flung every casement wide. After weeks of 
 living in the open, curtains and windows still seemed 
 inventions of the devil. 
 
 Outside there were stars and pale wisps of cloud. 
 A gibbous moon hung low and red over Burnt Hill 
 faintly illuminating the queer medley of houses, old 
 and new. The street was lighted in patches by 
 occasional lamp-posts set very wide apart. A ghost
 
 BEYONP THE SKYLINE 87 
 
 of a breeze stirred the sycamore under the win- 
 dow ; and that faint sound intensified the larger 
 stillness beyond. 
 
 Derek yawned, settled himself in the one armchair, 
 and leisurely filled his pipe a short-stemmed briar 
 of great virtue, given him by Mark. The statement 
 that he was dog-tired had been a pardonable exag- 
 geration, an excuse to escape from the consequences 
 of his own act. He was just sufficiently tired to feel 
 that smoking a pipe in an armchair and casually 
 turning over the contents of his brain was 
 occupation enough for any man of average intelli- 
 gence. And the day's events provided much 
 material for reflection. Breakfast and Paris seemed 
 endless ages away. He had parted from Jack, at 
 Waterloo, with the remark : " We're on the rails 
 again. No adventuress's journey !" And it was 
 quite in keeping with the general contrariety of 
 things that, since then, he had stumbled on the 
 unexpected at every turn. 
 
 More than ever now, he was glad of the impulse 
 though it sprang from temper that had sent him 
 on to Ashbourne. Queer how often such trifles 
 seemed to form hinges on which the big things turned. 
 To-night, in Gosling's stuffy little parlour, he had 
 stumbled, almost accidentally, on the fulfilment 
 of an ambition dating from the time when first his 
 acute sense of j ustice and sympathy with the under 
 dog had given him a tilt towards Socialism ; a tilt 
 hardly to be escaped these days, by any thoughtful 
 young man. How far it propels him, is largely a
 
 88 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 matter of temperament, circumstance and dare one 
 add ? an innate capacity for facing facts. Derek, 
 as has been seen, already began to detect the funda- 
 mental flaws in that Utopian panacea for every ill 
 that man's flesh and spirit and bank-book are heir 
 to. He was critical of men and things simply 
 because of his urgent need to know their real nature 
 and because the doubting, searching spirit of the 
 true sceptic lay at the root of his hunger for know- 
 ledge and truth. Very early he had realized that 
 the School and University he loved were mere 
 tributaries to the turbulent main stream of life. 
 Very early his brain and heart had reached out to 
 those vast regions beyond the fringes of mere pleasant- 
 ness in which he lived, he and his kind. 
 
 If only he could enter into those regions ! If he 
 could, even in a measure feel, from within, the 
 struggles of those who live bravely and bitterly, 
 whose hand is against the comfortable, the leisured, 
 the rich ! Then, perhaps, he might arrive at dis- 
 covering whether there was any virtue in the nostrums 
 of idealists for the sins and sorrows of the great 
 submerged. 
 
 State activities were all very well up to a point. 
 But so far as these had gone, under a wildly experi- 
 mental Government, they had not filled him with 
 enthusiasm. The selfish, demoralizing antagonism 
 between master and men seemed, if possible, more 
 acute than ever. Yet he distrusted, innately, the 
 champions of wholesale subversion. He refused to 
 believe that the world could possibly be a better
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 89 
 
 place to live in for any one, if Labour Members 
 wrangled in the House of Lords, and Buckingham 
 Palace were converted into a home for slum babies 
 or decayed gentlewomen. He was saved from such 
 futilities both by his own temperament and by his 
 inherited faith in England's moderate Constitutional 
 Monarchy. But he had his share of the divine 
 discontent and healthy rebelliousness that is the 
 Englishman's prerogative and a sure guarantee that 
 England is an abiding city. 
 
 One thing was certain, the move in the right 
 direction ought to come from the men at the top.. 
 If aristocracy meant anything it meant a genuine 
 spirit of service and of leadership toward those less 
 favoured by heritage and tradition ; a deeper, more 
 personal sense of responsibility among those who 
 have, toward those who have not. As for favoured 
 casuals, like himself, it was simply and obviously 
 " up " to them to give those others a hand out of 
 the mud and the ruts whenever opportunity offered. 
 
 This last conviction was no mere heady impulse of 
 youth haloed with vague sentimentalism. It was 
 a deep and dumb necessity of his nature that might 
 yet land him in troubled waters : a quality that 
 must have made his mother at once proud and 
 anxious, had she eyes for any one on earth but her 
 elder son. To-night his first real chance had been 
 given him ; and in his unhesitating response to it 
 you have the measure of his conviction. 
 
 But Bert's case was a comparatively simple affair : 
 just a matter of cash. Among those others the
 
 90 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 rank and file of the Many cash was not the only, 
 nor even the surest, solvent of the difficulties that 
 crushed their spirits and embittered their lives. 
 The puzzle of puzzles for Derek as for all who have 
 honestly travelled the same road was how to get 
 at them ; how learn to think their thoughts, see life 
 from their angle of vision ? 
 
 Superficially, of course, the thing was done, every 
 day by scores of zealous Churchmen and amateurs 
 in philanthropy. Derek knew something of that 
 from disconcerting personal experience. He had 
 spent part of more than one vacation at the East 
 End Mission House of his College ; strong in the 
 conviction that young Oxford, very much in earnest, 
 must have a genuine message, genuine gifts for those 
 outside the gates. But soon he had discovered, to 
 his frank astonishment, that young Oxford and 
 young Cambridge no less had more to learn and 
 to receive from that underworld of struggle and 
 limitation than had seemed possible upon a super- 
 ficial survey of both. 
 
 This, in itself, was a stimulating discovery. The 
 trouble began when he perceived that the bulk 
 of his fellow-workers earnest and sincere men, 
 honestly intent on " lifting the masses " had never 
 made it at all. It was as if one vital channel of 
 communication were blocked ; and it possibly 
 accounted for a good deal of disheartening failure. 
 Derek who preferred the uncoloured truth to rosy 
 phantasies had made the fatal mistake of supposing 
 that the inmates of clergy houses, mission centres
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 91 
 
 and clubs must be of the same mind in regard to this 
 first requisite of knowledge and understanding. 
 But again to his surprise he found that it was 
 not so ; and there had been more than one jar because 
 he had ventured to speak his mind. 
 
 Rebuffed and puzzled, he had turned from his 
 fellows, to the men and boys who came readily enough 
 to their meetings and clubs. With them he had 
 fared better up to a point. Beyond it, he could 
 make no real headway : and he came to feel, 
 increasingly, that the whole fabrication was built 
 upon a pleasant sham. In place of truths he was 
 offered shibboleths ; and half the young ordinands 
 he met seemed amazingly out of touch with realities : 
 well-meaning, spiritual minded men, content to live 
 and work in water-tight compartments, impervious 
 to the more rousing and staggering facts of life. 
 That there were notable exceptions goes without 
 saying : but in the end, Derek had retired baffled 
 by the intangible barrier of caste, by the complacence 
 of enthusiasts who dispensed their own particular 
 brand of other-worldly wisdom, like a patent med- 
 icine, too often with scant knowledge of the patient's 
 actual, urgent needs. 
 
 Derek's valiant efforts to emulate them had merely 
 made him feel a Pharisee for his pains. Everything 
 was so easy for him ; so hard for the men and boys 
 of whose handicaps and struggles he knew next to 
 nothing, except that most of them had probably never 
 been given a fair chance. 
 
 Baffled in his first round, he refused to accept
 
 92 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 defeat. He would get at them yet those others 
 in defiance of obstacles and grooves. He was begin- 
 ning to think it could best be done by trying to share 
 their experience and so catch a glimpse of their point 
 of view. But a large " but " how far was it 
 possible for a man, well-born like himself, to become 
 merged, for a time in the " unseen leaven of good- 
 will and fellowship working in the common bread." 
 Practical difficulties would be many and obvious ; 
 but the idea had not yet reached the practical stage. 
 It had lain hidden in him, for months, like a seed 
 germinating in the dark : and to-night stimulated 
 by Bert's ambition and Miss de Vigne's departure 
 for Canada it sent a green shoot above ground 
 in the shape of a feasible plan. 
 
 Admittedly, Lord Avonleigh's son could not 
 become a working man in any part of the British 
 Isles. But away there, on the other side of the 
 world, it would be a comparatively simple matter. 
 Why not have the courage of his conviction and 
 make the plunge ? 
 
 A few years of roughing it would do him no earthly 
 harm. He was blessed with a fine constitution. 
 Much " footer " and running had made him " hard 
 as nails." His family at home had no particular 
 use for him ; and he suddenly realized that Avonleigh 
 without his father would be unendurable. If he 
 intended to leave England, now was the acceptable 
 time. And again why not ? 
 
 His imagination caught fire. Details crowded 
 into his brain. He would go out steerage, of course.
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 93 
 
 The thing must be done thoroughly. And he would 
 take merely a handful of capital such as most emi- 
 grants scrape together for a nest egg against very 
 rainy days. Beyond that, he would not touch his 
 allowance. He would learn what it meant for a 
 man to make his own way against odds, in a world 
 where he was nothing more than so much raw 
 human energy and capacity to be hired by the week 
 or the month. If half the tales one heard were 
 true, the fact that he was of gentle birth would 
 excite no particular suspicion or surprise. Canada 
 and Australia were full of Army and University men 
 who had gone under, either through ill fortune or ill 
 doing : and he must resign himself to being reckoned 
 a fragment of that lost legion. 
 
 A passing temptation to go out with Bert- 
 unknown, of course, to any one but Bert was 
 promptly thrust aside. That would be to shirk the 
 genuine adventure ; to make* an artificial thing of 
 it, like fancy slumming. Also there was the honour 
 of Avonleigh ; dear to him as to any of them, in 
 spite of Van's velvety scratch about a nom de plume. 
 On this occasion, Van need feel no qualms. The nom 
 de plume was an essential part of his equipment 
 
 And with a start he discovered that this trifling 
 affair of changing his name was the most distasteful 
 part of the whole business : so distasteful that, for 
 a moment, he half swerved from his resolve. He 
 had as little self love in him as any young man of 
 his years : but he found with a touch of amused 
 dismay that he loved his own name. Its link with
 
 94 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 the inner Derek was vital and he felt sure he would 
 never answer to any other. The impulse that, in 
 its broad aspect, had seemed simple enough, grew 
 more complex the longer he looked at it ... 
 
 Suddenly, through the fog of his dilemma, there 
 flashed a happy idea. He had merely to knock 
 the " o " out of Blount and his name was shorn of 
 its link with his father's house. " Derek " he could 
 not bring himself to shed at any price. From the 
 moment that he took the plunge the Honourable 
 Derek Ivo Moray Blount would become plain Derek 
 Blunt. He felt he had been let down easily ; but 
 there remained the final question how much of all 
 this did he intend to tell his father ? 
 
 He was a clumsy hand at mangling the truth. 
 Suppose he made a valiant effort and confessed his 
 keen wish to arrive at a more intimate knowledge 
 of the working man's character and views ? Woulol 
 he ever succeed in making them understand ? 
 
 His mother's fastidious sense of propriety would 
 be outraged. His father would probably shrivel up 
 his immature arguments with a few sarcastic remarks. 
 Van and Ina would treat him to a mild flow of 
 chaff. At best, they Would look on him as a harm- 
 less lunatic. At worst, they would suppose him 
 infected with the rank spirit of industrial socialism, 
 in which case he would certainly lose his temper 
 and with it his slender chance of a fair hearing. 
 
 No : he supposed he was a coward ; but he did 
 not feel like facing that ordeal. His adventure 
 might seem no more to others than a mere boy's
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 95 
 
 prank ; an excuse to elude the shackles as long as 
 he could. It meant a great deal more to him 
 Right or wrong, the conviction grew while he sat 
 there smoking and dreaming late into the night 
 that if a fair percentage of young men in his 
 position could be induced to spend two or three 
 years of early manhood knocking round the world 
 in earnest instead of knocking about town and 
 sampling continental cities there might yet be 
 some chance of restoring the natural alliance between 
 peasant and landowner : an alliance undermined, in 
 the eighteenth century, by callous misuse of power ; 
 still further strained when the wedge of mutual 
 distrust was driven in at a vulnerable point, by the 
 Radical demagogue angling for votes ; and snapped 
 outright in these later days, by the absentee landlord, 
 the curse of the country. 
 
 For all his youth and his engaging touch of 
 Oxford omniscience, Derek was no mere tyro on 
 this vital question that England ignores or mis- 
 handles at Jier peril. He had been reared, not 
 among those who prattle of " The Land " at dinner- 
 tables or flourish it on party-platforms, but among 
 those who live on it and for it, whether high or low. 
 At Oxford, he had chosen the eighteenth and nine- 
 teeth centuries in England for his special period of 
 history ; and had probed deeper into his subject 
 to gain his modest Third than Van had done to secure 
 the Second that had so narrowly missed being a First. 
 Unquestionably, also, he owed a good deal to his 
 friendship with that keen and capable young land-
 
 .0,6 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 owner, Mark Forsyth. If he could not yet see more 
 than a few facets of a large and many-sided subject, 
 he had the root of the matter in him. He loved 
 the land pasture and arable, moor and forest and 
 billowing downs and its sturdy inexpressive people : 
 loved it all for its own sake, simply because it was 
 England : for which very good reason he felt 
 impelled, in his practical fashion, to try and enlarge 
 his understanding and widen his point of view. 
 
 Could he have poured out to his father, naturally 
 and simply, one half of what he thought and felt 
 about it all, matters might have taken another and 
 a happier turn for them both. But though the 
 very young and the very old have some mysterious 
 link of their own, the gulf between youth and middle 
 age is curiously deep and wide, only to be spanned 
 by certain rare qualities of mind and heart. Between 
 Derek and his father was no bridge of understanding 
 secure enough to tempt the boy across. Nor did 
 he feel competent, as yet, to express the large, 
 vague thoughts that were moulding his character 
 and his whole future life. A clumsy half attempt 
 at explaining himself would be worse than 
 useless. His pride refused to chance the risk. He 
 would simply state his wish to travel widely for a 
 few years, and get a little first-hand knowledge of 
 the Empire. 
 
 He did not look forward to that uncomfortable 
 half-hour : but he must make out the best case he 
 could for himself and hope to escape with a repri- 
 mand. Jack must be told of course. The good
 
 BEYOND THE SKYLINE 97 
 
 fellow would laugh at him and quite fail to see the 
 point. But in Jack's chaff lurked no flavour of 
 contempt, such as Derek was perhaps too ready to 
 suspect in the case of Van. The only close relation 
 he could have trusted to understand was his 
 grandmother, old Lady Avonleigh, whose open 
 championship had been one of the brightest spots 
 in his boyhood ; and whose death, five years earlier, 
 had been the first intense grief he had ever known. 
 Failing her, the only person with whom he felt eager 
 to discuss his notion was Mark, whose enthusiasm 
 would not fail to meet -him more than half way ; 
 and Derek was one of those difficult people who need 
 to be met half-way if anything like intimacy is ever 
 to be achieved. 
 
 A nuisance that the Forsyths were in Scotland. 
 But October would see them back at Wynchcombe 
 Friars and then things would really get a move 
 on. . . . 
 
 At this point he became aware that his pipe had 
 gone out and that his brain was bemused with sleep 
 too long deferred. He flung up his arms ; yawned 
 extensively and glanced with a shade less disfavour 
 at the forbidding double bed. Now that matters 
 were settled, he felt "better satisfied with things in 
 general than he had done for some time. 
 
 Rather odd, he reflected sleepily, as he turned up 
 the blue gas jet to a yellow flare, that a chance 
 meeting with Jack's sister and the mishap of his 
 inappropriate arrival should, between them, have 
 served to crystallize a decision so momentous to
 
 98 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 himself, so entirely disconnected with them. The 
 Hinges, again ! And as his head sank deep into his 
 pillow, he wondered still more sleepily what fresh 
 discoveries and failures lay in wait for him behind 
 the door that hung upon those hinges just tempt- 
 ingly ajar ? 
 
 It was characteristic of Derek that he practically 
 counted on failure. The very word success had 
 about it a suggestion of finality that weakened its 
 appeal to one who was an adventurer at heart. 
 
 END OF BOOK I
 
 BOOK II 
 Until the Harvest 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to 
 you again." ST. MATTHEW* 
 
 DEREK'S peculiar fashion of considering his 
 mother was, in the circumstances, very much 
 to the point. For once in a way he had done pre- 
 cisely what she would have had him do ; and 
 whether the knowledge would have given him more 
 pain or satisfaction it were hard to say. His jealousy 
 of Van would certainly have been sharpened could 
 he have trespassed on the privacy of her thoughts 
 that afternoon as she drove home from her fort- 
 nightly visit to the Cottage Hospital. 
 
 Of all her duties, as great lady of the neighbour- 
 hood, she found this one the greatest bore. But 
 she never admitted the fact, partly because it would 
 not " look well " ; partly because she was rarely 
 honest with herself in big things or small ; and she 
 religiously kept that particular engagement some- 
 
 99
 
 ioo STRANGE ROADS 
 
 times at slight personal inconvenience. It was a 
 social point of honour to keep one's engagements ; 
 also, she believed that the " poor dears " would 
 miss her if she failed to turn up. But to-day she 
 had felt almost grateful to them for diverting her 
 mind a little from this, the first serious worry that 
 had troubled the still waters of her life since Van 
 had frightened all Avonleigh by indulging in pneu- 
 monia on the top of influenza seven years ago. And 
 before Van was himself again, she too had succumbed 
 to the evil thing, that had left her a little deaf and 
 accentuated a tendency to nervous heart trouble 
 just sufficiently pronounced to be very useful on 
 occasion, without giving her family undue cause for 
 anxiety. It had saved her from succumbing to that 
 smelly and terrifying modern infliction the motor, 
 car.. And now as she rolled homeward in her 
 victoria, with a squirrel rug tucked round her knees 
 there crept into her mind a hope that it might 
 save her from the still more terrifying prospect of 
 five years' banishment from England and Avonleigh 
 and Van. 
 
 Of course the appointment was flattering to Evan ; 
 but her plans for the winter were practically 
 settled ; and she resented, almost as an imperti- 
 nence, this volcanic intrusion of the unexpected into 
 her daily round of pleasant, foreseen things. Really 
 it was most inconsiderate of Lord Fareham ! For 
 she didn't at all like the thought of Evan going with- 
 out her ; but the thought of going r with[him she liked 
 infinitely less.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 101 
 
 He had not said a word about it before he 
 started. That was so like him : leaving her to 
 worry things out alone, with never a hint of his own 
 wishes to help her. As a matter of fact, she felt 
 uncomfortably certain that he would expect her to 
 go ; and she had been telling herself at intervals 
 that she supposed she would go when it came to 
 the point. Even now she was still " supposing " ; 
 still holding off the inexorable moment when she 
 could no longer sit gracefully on the fence an atti- 
 tude singularly convenient for herself and singularly 
 irritating to the rest of her family. . . . 
 
 The prospect of twenty-four hours respite and an 
 evening alone with Van was balm in Gilead. Rather 
 a mercy that Derek had delayed his return : but it 
 was very tiresome of him, all the same, not to let 
 them know where he was or exactly when they might 
 expect him. These little uncertainties always wor- 
 ried her. He knew that perfectly well. But he 
 never troubled his head about anyone's convenience 
 except his own. Oxford had made him selfish and 
 had not cured him of his casual ways. He had all 
 the faults of this graceless, restless new century that 
 was rapidly making the world an impossible place 
 for decent quiet people. London social London 
 was already " impossible " : and even at Avonleigh, 
 one was not altogether immune. Derek and Ina 
 in their utterly different fashions brought eddies 
 from the modern whirlpool into her land-locked 
 harbour. Derek with his eternal how and why, his 
 uncomfortable trick of seeing through plausible
 
 102 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 reasons ; Ina, with her hard, eager pursuit of all 
 that was newest in clothes and crazes and slang. 
 Mercifully dear Van was enough of a Barnard to 
 have escaped the contagion. He was so well- 
 .mannered, so restful and considerate that she for- 
 gave him for telling her so little really about him- 
 self. They would talk things over to-night ; and in 
 a decently veiled corner of her heart lurked the hope 
 that he would fortify her own slowly gathering 
 resolve. 
 
 On reaching home she found him in the hammock 
 still asleep. His mouth had dropped open a little 
 not unbecomingly ; his half-smoked cigarette had 
 fallen and singed a favourite Persian rug. Had 
 Derek been the offender, her instant sensation would 
 have been pure annoyance. As it was, she merely 
 thought : " Poor darling ! He must have been 
 tired." And for a few moments she stood watching 
 him with a little, tugging ache at her heart. 
 
 It was the boy she still saw, rather than the man 
 who for all his affectionate ways had been slip- 
 ping insidiously out of reach for the last ten years. 
 Asleep, his face lost the imprint of the world and 
 regained its innocent serenity, from which .purely 
 natural phenomenon she gleaned comfort, in view 
 of certain fitful speculations about whole tracts of 
 his life that lay outside her ken. She liked the 
 smooth sweep of his eyebrows ; the fastidious curve 
 of his nostril, rather more marked than her own ; 
 the long lines of his figure and small aristocratic
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 103 
 
 <r 
 
 head. In effect it was the masculine projection of 
 herself that she worshipped in the person of her 
 sleeping son. The idea of leaving him for five years 
 roused in her the strongest emotion of which she 
 was capable. And Evan who did not trouble to 
 understand her was probably taking it all for 
 granted up there in Town 
 
 The prosaic dread of damp intruded on her mus- 
 .ings, and reluctantly she went back into the 
 house. g 
 
 The drawing-room was fragrant with the faint, 
 sweet scent of late roses, and a footman was putting 
 fresh logs on the fire. It was a lofty room, hung 
 with French and English water-colours. Long 
 windows heavily curtained looked out upon the 
 lawn. A portrait of herself, in grey velvet and old 
 lace, stood conspicuously near the grand piano. 
 It was still fresh enough to give her a small shock of 
 pleasure whenever she looked at it. But this even- 
 ing her gaze dwelt on a pastel study of Van, aged 
 ten, that hung above her inlaid bureau. She won- 
 dered how long he had been asleep out there. A 
 dim idea that he was not strong dated from pneu- 
 monia days. Slipping into the hall, she carried off her 
 squirrel rug and laid it cautiously over Van. After 
 that she felt happier. 
 
 Presently, with her maid's assistance, she 
 exchanged her dress for a silk wrapper and settled 
 herself, as usual, in an invalid chair by the fire. As 
 usual, she picked up a novel lying face downwards 
 on her table ; and, as usual, Powell discreetly with-
 
 104 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 drew, switching off the dressing-table light, leaving 
 only the shaded glow of the lamp at her mistress's 
 elbow. 
 
 Lady Avonleigh was not an imaginative woman. 
 But the morning's shock had galvanized into 
 activity such imagination as she possessed ; and 
 to-night she was very much aware of the stately 
 beauty, the comfort and sheltered peace of this 
 home that was her bulwark against the rising tide of 
 twentieth century unrest. If she agreed to go out- 
 with Evan, she must exchange all this for the dangers 
 and instabilities of a long voyage ; for " black ser- 
 vants," whom she would never trust, and snakes 
 and insects and damp. . . . 
 
 She would never get a wink of sleep, with the 
 uncertainty hanging over her ; so Van was to be her 
 touchstone. If he showed the slightest sign of 
 supposing she could go, then Evan would do a good 
 deal more than suppose ; and it was not altogether 
 without guile that she chose her gown of velvet and 
 old lace, completing the effect with one realistic 
 satin passion flower. Van noticed such things ; 
 and, in her heart, she wanted to please his fastidious 
 eye ; to make him feel he would miss her if she 
 were gone. 
 
 He did notice that she had on his favourite gown ; 
 and he thought : " Poor dear ! She's badly jarred. 
 She's wearing that top-hole gown for a kind of moral 
 support." 
 
 He had enough of the woman in him to under- 
 stand very well the mysterious link between good
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 105 
 
 clothes and good courage ; but her real reason 
 escaped him altogether. 
 
 Dinner was very much as Derek had imagined it. 
 The setting perfect in detail, the talk negligible. 
 
 Nothing of importance could be said while the 
 small butler and the tall footman hovered in the 
 penumbra, like benevolent birds of prey. Jennings, 
 the butler, suffered from an unorthodox twinkle in 
 his blue eye, due to a lurking sense of humour, which 
 he tried to conceal under a mask of fierceness. 
 When he looked fiercest he was secretly most 
 amused ; and his fierceness to-night was pheno- 
 menal. He knew perfectly well there was " some- 
 thing in the wind," that her ladyship was longing to 
 " have it out with Mr. Van." But he dared not 
 appear to hurry the sacred rite even out of considera- 
 tion for her. So for half an hour she made tri^e 
 remarks about the weather or mutual acquaint- 
 ances ; and Van made trite remarks about the food 
 and criticized the shooting of his friends in the North. 
 Then the door closed for the last time and he applied 
 the spirit lighter to his cigarette. 
 
 " Shall I stay, dear ? " she asked. Even cigar- 
 ettes in the drawing-room were taboo. 
 
 Van smiled and nodded ; and they moved into 
 armchairs by the fire. 
 
 ' You're feeling pretty worried, I expect," he 
 remarked sympathetically. " Are you hoping, sub 
 rosa, that it will come to nothing ? " 
 
 He was the only one of her children who would 
 have ventured such a remark : and she shook her
 
 io6 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 head at him with a tolerant smile of reproach- 
 
 " Father's interests must be one's first considera- 
 tion." 
 
 " That's to say, you aren't violently keen your- 
 self ? " 
 
 She sighed and sipped her coffee. " Well, hardly, 
 dear, at my age, and in my uncertain state of health. 
 I'm a bad traveller. Entertaining isn't one of my 
 strong points ; and as far as I can gather a woman 
 of position in India does very little else. The ques- 
 tion is with all these drawbacks, would I be any use 
 to your father out there, or would I simply add to his 
 worries and anxieties ? " 
 
 Light began to dawn on Van. 
 
 " What does father think about it ? " 
 
 " / don't know. Does one ever really get at what 
 he thinks about personal things ? " 
 
 " It's a bit of a problem certainly. But you can't 
 expect him to say outright that you wouldn't be 
 much use. Perhaps he's taking it for granted you'll 
 go." 
 
 " I'm afraid it's more likely that he hasn't yet 
 thought about me at all." 
 
 Van glanced at her under his eyelids. She was a 
 woman who strictly preserved the decent reticences 
 of home life, and she had never spoken so of his 
 father, even to him. Their feeling for each other, 
 if it existed, was so carefully hidden that it was 
 difficult to imagine they had ever been lovers. 
 Privately, Van believed they never had. 
 
 "She is badly jarred," he thought again, and the
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 107 
 
 conviction stirred his facile sympathy. But her 
 rather pathetic remark was not easy to answer, so 
 he maintained a tactful silence and applied hiiriself 
 dih' gently to his cigarette. 
 
 She leaned forward a little and held out one hand 
 to the blaze. The light made pink transparencies of 
 her long thin fingers, and the fact that they were 
 not quite steady made them look still more fragile. 
 Van thought : " She really isn't strong enough, and 
 she wants me to tell her so." And her next remark 
 confirmed him. 
 
 " How do you feel about it yourself, dear? I've 
 been a little better this summer ; but then that 
 heart attack last month and the Bombay climate 
 is so trying. Is it better to take the risk than to 
 fail him ? Or would it really be unfair on him and 
 you ? It is so hard to know what's best for every 
 one all round. Do tell me candidly what you 
 think ? " 
 
 Van was silent a moment, caressing his moustache 
 and noting the queer upward shadows of the firelight 
 on her face. His candid opinion was the last gift 
 he was likely to bestow on any one least of all on 
 her. . 
 
 " I think," he said at last, " that it's very hard 
 on you being suddenly faced with such a big decision 
 when you're so far from strong. Still, it would be 
 rough on father going without you. As a Governor, 
 he must have some sort of hostess." 
 
 " Yes. That's the difficulty," she began ; and 
 suddenly he had an idea.
 
 io8 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Of course there's Aunt Marion. She knows 
 India and she's A.I. at that sort of thing " 
 
 Her gasp of relief was irrepressible. Marion 
 Blount was her husband's favourite sister : unmar- 
 ried : the very person ! 
 
 " My dear Van, how clever of you ? It would 
 take such a load off my mind. Aunt Marion is so 
 capable, and they are the best of friends " 
 
 " Perhaps father had her in his mind," Van 
 waxed bolder, seeing he had made a happy shot. 
 " He probably thought things would be easier for 
 you if he found out first about her. After all, 
 suppose anything went seriously wrong with you, 
 the extra worry and anxiety would come hard on him. 
 But it's for you not for father to say that sort of 
 thing isn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes, of course," she agreed with alacrity. 
 " How stupid of me not to realize ! It was very 
 thoughtful of your father. ... And you really do 
 feel my going would be inadvisable on his account, 
 as well as my own.' 
 
 " Looks like it, doesn't it ? all things considered ? " 
 
 He thought he might be speaking the truth ; and 
 he knew very well it was What she wanted him to 
 say. So being Van he said it. That was his 
 peculiar fashion of giving a candid opinion. He 
 found it easy and effective, and it was one of the 
 secrets of his popularity which he also knew very 
 well. To-night it gave him particular satisfaction ; 
 for he was fond of his mother and, on the whole, he 
 would rather she stayed at home.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST . 109 
 
 She had risen now and laid a light hand on his 
 hair. " What a comfort you are, Van," she said 
 softly. " I knew things would come straight if I 
 could talk them out with you." 
 
 And Van thought : " Lucky old Derek went off 
 in a huff. He would have been most infernally in 
 the way." 
 
 Later on, he played to her a little. He had a 
 sympathetic touch and picked up light music easily 
 by ear. And she pretended to read the Court 
 Circular column, because it wouldn't do to let him 
 guess the immensity of her relief. 
 
 Yet she had once honestly cared for her husband ; 
 and in her colourless fashion, she still cared for him 
 enough to wish quite perversely that he should 
 need her a little more than he appeared to do. No 
 doubt Van was right. He probably had Marion in 
 his mind ; he Would prefer Marion. And she had 
 made herself miserable for nothing. So, instinc- 
 tively, she drew fresh worries even from the well- 
 spring of her relief. 
 
 As a matter of fact she would have found life 
 distinctly dull without her tame menagerie of minor 
 frets and grievances. But she drew the line at 
 major ones ; and it was distinctly a major one that 
 they none of them really seemed to want her not 
 even Van. He had not said he would mind her 
 going or that he was glad of her decision. No one 
 seemed to suppose she needed that sort of thing ; 
 yet in secret she hungered for it, and never dreamed 
 that she was simply reaping as she had sown.
 
 no STRANGE ROADS 
 
 It was the same with her husband. She had let 
 him gradually drift away from her without raising 
 a finger to avert the calamity : and there were 
 moments as to-night when she felt with a sudden 
 pang how lonely she was behind the rampart of her 
 dignity and decent reticences and the " Morning 
 Post." It did not strike her that Evan might some- 
 times feel lonely too. He had his intellectual interests, 
 his ownmenagerie of worries, which he no longer shared 
 with her. True, it was her misfortune that she could 
 not mentally keep pace with him or her sons. But 
 she had to pay the price of disability, which is often 
 quite as heavy as the price of sin. 
 
 She had lost Derek on the day that he asked for 
 bread and received a stone. Ina, she could scarcely 
 be said to have found at all. ..Even in nursery days 
 her only daughter had been a hard little separate 
 entity ; a creature who put forth no tendrils : in 
 effect, a shallow miniature edition of her father. 
 So, where Lady Avonleigh might have succeeded, 
 small chance had been given her. And even with 
 her adored Van she had never established anything 
 like real confidence or intimacy. 
 
 In her very hidden heart she was mortally envious 
 of Lady Forsyth, to whom she gave no credit for the 
 fact she was obviously a friend, as well as a mother, 
 to her sons. Instead, she wondered, disconsolately, 
 what was wrong with her own boys that they should 
 be so different ? 
 
 It was not in her to perceive the difference between 
 mother love and mere maternal instinct that wears
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST in 
 
 thinner with each year. For she did not know 
 and now would never learn that all progressive 
 love, like progressive life, is by death ; that the 
 divine dictum " man must die to live," is no arbitrary 
 decree, but a fundamental law of all life and growth. 
 
 Only now and again she felt oppressed by a vague 
 consciousness of failure all round in her home rela- 
 tions ; and the woman who fails in these is in as 
 deplorable a case as a man who fails in his profession. 
 
 After Van had finished playing they talked fitfully 
 of trivial things. But his good-night kiss when she 
 rose on the stroke of ten was less perfunctory 
 than usual. 
 
 " Buck up, dear, and don't worry," he said kindly. 
 " Father would be the last person to let you run any 
 risks. If Aunt Marion goes with him, you'll both 
 be satisfied." 
 
 " And you ? " she ventured, a hand on his arm. 
 
 His smile was half tender, half amused. " Well 
 naturally the answer is in the affirmative ! " 
 
 And with that she had to rest content.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " Les drames de la vie ne sont pas dans les circonstances. 
 Us sont dans le coeur." BALZAC. 
 
 LORD AVONLEIGH'S return next day put an 
 end to any lurking hope that the whole thing 
 might fall through. He arrived early in the after- 
 noon : a wiry man of middle height, with thin lips 
 and clear keen eyes under Derek's eave-like brows. 
 The strongly modelled nose and chin jutted also to 
 correspond. It was the face of a man vigorous in 
 action, withdrawn in spirit. The eyes under their 
 cavernous eye-bones had a hawk-like gleam : and in 
 anger or argument his brain had a hawk-like swoop, 
 very disconcerting to the victim of the moment. 
 With a man of the world's outlook and knowledge 
 he combined the hidden idealism of the Englishman 
 and the mental fibre of the Scot : a fine if formid- 
 able trinity. And it would be hard to say whether 
 his uncompromising rectitude or his sardonic humour 
 made him the more difficult to live with. 
 
 ' Yes, I'm going. It's all fixed up," he announced, 
 answering the question that hovered in his wife's 
 eyes, when at last they were alone in the drawing- 
 room. ^, 
 
 112
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 113 
 
 There was a moment of silence while he stood upon 
 the hearth-rug, letting his glance wander from object 
 to object, giving his announcement time to soak in ; 
 Then, turning to Van, he recounted the gist of his 
 long talk with Lord Wyntoun, who had made it 
 quite clear to him that the Bombay appointment, in 
 the present state of affairs, would be no bed of roses. 
 In fact if the Government didn't take a firmer stand 
 shortly, they would have the fat in the fire. 
 
 Van listened patiently, with his adrhirable air of 
 polite interest : and Lady Avonleigh sat silenty 
 waiting for something more personal to emerge? 
 from all this irrelevance. That was what made' 
 Evan so distracting. He would talk by the ^ar$ 
 about things that nobody wanted to hear : yet ri 
 one questioned him about really important details, 
 one would be extinguished on the spot. She could 
 say nothing, of course, while Van was there ~; but 
 with the appearance of the tea-tray he tactfully 
 effaced himself, catching her eye as he went. 
 
 She thought, with a glow of pride, " How perfectly 
 he does these little things ! " And, after all, skill 
 in just those little things goes far to make the liv- 
 ableness of life. 
 
 Lord Avonleigh further delayed matters by asking 
 for a whisky and soda instead of tea. 
 
 Not till he had poured it out and settled himself 
 in his deep chair did she launch the tremendous 
 question : 
 
 " Evan how soon ? " 
 
 " Well, as soon as possible. Fareham's in a bad
 
 H4 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 way ; and I would like to be on the spot when he 
 sails. I sa,id three weeks. Personally, I could 
 manage it sooner, but I knew you'd want time to 
 turn round." 
 
 She stifled a faint gasp of dismay. He heard it 
 and gave her one of his quick looks. 
 
 " I don't want to hustle you, my dear. Isn't three 
 weeks long enough to collect the indispensable 
 clothes and medicines and patent preventives ? " 
 
 Van was wrong, hopelessly wrong. But how 
 could she slip gracefully off the fence if Evan was 
 going to talk like that ? Her heart was jerking 
 unevenly and her hands were cold. If he would 
 only see ! 
 
 But he was looking at the picture of Van over her 
 bureau, and he did not even seem to notice the gap of 
 silence between his question and her tentative reply. 
 
 " It isn't the shopping and the packing that upsets 
 one. It's the whole idea the wrench " 
 
 " Of course it's a wrench." This time he did not 
 look at her. " I never thought / should leave the 
 old place again for any length of time. And I don't 
 half like it for many reasons. But Wyntoun 
 rubbed it into me that I'm the man they want out 
 there now. It's a compliment one appreciates. 
 And the money wouldn't come amiss." 
 
 " But, Evan the climate " she began. 
 
 " And the mosquitoes and the white ants ! " 
 he took her up with his baffling half-smile. " It's 
 possible we may survive them all in Government 
 House. The complete change will do you no end of
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 115 
 
 good. Enlarge your mind all round. Bombay's a 
 vastly interesting place, Esther. Indian women 
 there .worth knowing, as well as our own people. 
 Marion envies you. She'll help you all she can. I 
 told her to come along down to-morrow and get 
 you going. Rather a good idea if she went out with 
 us for the cold weather. She could put you in the 
 way of things " 
 
 He broke off with a start, for his wife's tea-spoon 
 clattered violently against her cup, and her hand 
 shook so that the cup overturned, sending a cascade 
 of hot tea into her lap. Any kind of awkwardness 
 was so unlike her that Lord Avonleigh was taken 
 aback. 
 
 " My dear Esther ! " he exclaimed : and before 
 her shaking fingers could find a handkerchief he had 
 produced his own and was kneeling on the hearth- 
 rug dabbing her skirt. 
 
 ' Very clumsy of me," she murmured.- 
 
 " But you're never clumsy," he said. " And 
 you're shaking like a leaf." 
 
 His searching look drew the unwilling blood into 
 her cheeks ; and before she could speak the words, 
 so carefully planned in advance, she knew there was 
 no need for them. 
 
 " I see," he said slowly in a changed, hard voice. 
 " You don't intend to go. I was making things 
 awkward for you I apologize." 
 
 He had risen from his knees carefully because of 
 rheumatism ; and he stood there, looking down at her. 
 with what Derek called his " shut-up face."
 
 n6 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Sheer relief that the truth was out helped her to 
 regain her lost control. 
 
 " No, Evan," she protested. " You don't really 
 see. It's not a case of ' intending.' ' 
 
 " It never is when we follow our own de- 
 sires." 
 
 He saw her wince without compunction. He 
 could be unmerciful when hurt or angered ; and at 
 the moment he was both. 
 
 She drew herself up, stung by his tone. 
 
 " You are unfair and unkind. I suppose you 
 won't believe now 'that I've been worrying my- 
 self to death to know which way would be best for 
 you." (In the misery and confusion of the moment 
 she imagined she was speaking the' truth.) " It's 
 not as if I were a young woman in robust health. 
 You know perfectly well " 
 
 " I know perfectly well," he said, with his deadly 
 quietness, " that your many ailments real and 
 fanciful have never yet hindered you from doing 
 what you are keen about." 
 
 " You imply that I am that detestable thing a 
 malade imaginaire ? " 
 
 " I don't deal in implications. The truth is that 
 when a disagreeable duty comes your way, you 
 work yourself up till you really are ill or very near 
 it. Look you're shaking still. Have another cup 
 of tea and don't bother any more about Bombay. I 
 can take Marion. She'll jump at the offer. But I 
 naturally thought you might like to come if only 
 for part of the time."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 117 
 
 His reasonableness pricked her to sudden peni- 
 tence. 
 
 " Of course I would, Evan, in some ways ; 
 but " 
 
 He silenced her with a gesture, and pointed at 
 her disfigured skirt. 
 
 " That is your real answer. A woman never 
 knows when she has said enough. Now get on 
 with your tea." 
 
 Her hand had so pathetic a tremor that he quietly 
 took the teapot from her and filled the cup himself, 
 adding milk and sugar exactly to her taste. Van 
 could not have done it better. It was these apparent 
 contradictions in her husband that so often puzzled 
 her and sometimes shamed her as now. He would 
 stab her with his tongue under provocation, and a 
 few minutes later salve the wound he had made with 
 some quietly courteous action. 
 
 " There the worst's over. I'm not going to 
 drag you out by the hair of your head." He gravely 
 handed her a plate of sandwiches, then sat down as 
 before, and emptied his tumbler. " Will you allow 
 me one cigarette ? " 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Thanks. I'm tired." 
 
 He leaned back and stretched out his legs, regard- 
 ing her with his odd half-smile whimsical, inscrut- 
 able. " I've a good few problems to Worry over,, 
 too. Things started here and there on the estate, 
 and I shan't be able to see them through. Also there 
 are my household appointments to make out there.
 
 n8 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Naturally I should like Van for my Private Secre- 
 tary. He's had good training, and he'd be useful in 
 the social line. I thought you two would work well 
 together." 
 
 She put down her tea-cup rather suddenly. 
 
 " Are you going ... to take him ? " she asked 
 in a toneless voice, carefully controlled. 
 
 " I should like to, of course. It would be a com- 
 fort to have one member of my family with me." 
 
 He knew quite well that she was on thorns ; per- 
 haps regretting her own withdrawal. But all things 
 considered, he felt she deserved it. He even took a 
 wicked pleasure in balancing the pros and cons. 
 
 " That would mean shutting up Avonleigh ? " 
 Her question was addressed to the middle button of 
 his waistcoat. 
 
 " Yes. Or letting it. That's one of the draw- 
 backs." 
 
 " Rather a big one, isn't it ? " 
 
 " M'yes. But would Van care to live here in any 
 case ? " 
 
 " Would he care to spend five years out of Eng- 
 land ? " she countered, desperate, but controlled. 
 
 ' You mean you wouldn't care about it," he 
 corrected her with perfect suavity. 
 
 " I said ' Van/ Evan." 
 
 He discerned a faint challenge in her tone, and his 
 thin lips twitched under his moustache. 
 
 " It's six of Van and half a dozen of you as far as 
 India goes. The Empire means precious little to 
 either of you. It's my one real quarrel, with Van.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 119 
 
 Five years of Bombay would be a liberal education 
 for you both. But you needn't be afraid. (You 
 were mortally three minutes ago.) He'd vote 
 for London and Avonleigh if I put it to him. But 
 I'm not going to put it to him." 
 
 He saw relief flow through her like a warm cordial. 
 The fingers that grasped an arm of her chair slack- 
 ened, and she helped herself to another sandwich. 
 Watching her under his lids, he thought : " Poor 
 Esther ! She was hard hit. But she can stand up to 
 it when she chooses." 
 
 Aloud he said : " However, if he stays at home, 
 he must put his back into looking after Avonleigh. 
 I shall give him special powers. Make him fully 
 responsible for things. He's hardly had enough of 
 that so far. Malcolm's invaluable ; but still much 
 as I should enjoy having the boy with me, I think it's 
 advisable that one of us should remain on the spot." 
 
 ' Yes, I do think that's a very important consider- 
 ation," she agreed, with guarded alacrity ; and he 
 smiled at the toes of his out-stretched boots. 
 
 " Also a very convenient one. But I'm glad 
 we're agreed on one point at least ! " 
 
 Soon after that he left her ; and as the door closed 
 behind him she leaned back in her chair, exhausted 
 with the strain of it all, yet immeasurably relieved. 
 
 Twenty minutes later he was in the saddle the 
 finest arm-chair in the world ; his London attire 
 exchanged for rough tweeds, leggings and a faded 
 felt hat : a very old friend to which he clung obstin-
 
 120 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 ately in spite of fitful remonstrances from his wife. 
 
 He had decided, on impulse, to ride over to Ash- 
 bourne and see what progress they were making with 
 his new model almshouses. Would he ever see them 
 completed ? 
 
 The crisp, clean September air, the rhythmic 
 movement and the restful companionship of the 
 sensitive creature he rode, magically removed all 
 trace of weariness from his body and brain. The 
 jar of his wife's defection had made him unpleasantly 
 aware that the last two days had been more of a 
 strain than they had any business to be for a man 
 in the prime of life and health. He would have 
 given much to feel quite at ease about that last. It 
 was his confirmed opinion shared by many strong 
 men that doctors were mostly fools. But they 
 could be very disquieting fools on occasion ; as he 
 had discovered yesterday afternoon. It would 
 never do, though, for a man to let himself be ham- 
 strung by the cryptic stuff they were paid to talk. 
 The poor devils had to earn their livelihood ; and 
 no doubt their mysterious air of being in the confi- 
 dence of the Almighty impressed the women. Lord 
 Avonleigh's private conviction was that he had been 
 robbed of three guineas, in all good faith, by an 
 honest but deluded physician. Wiry and virile, he 
 had reached the meridian of life with nothing worse 
 than an accident or two, and a solitary illness to mar 
 his clean bill of health. Only during the last few 
 years rheumatism had laid stealthy hands upon 
 him ; and sensations of pain and heaviness, where
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 121 
 
 none should be, warned him intermittently that 
 vital parts of the little-regarded inner machinery 
 were out of gear. 
 
 At first this had made him nervous and uncom- 
 fortable, as healthy men are apt to become at the 
 first whisper of disease. But he had despised him- 
 self and had lived the thing down. One invalid in 
 the family was trouble enough ; and Esther had 
 established a monopoly in that line. Once or twice he 
 had spoken to her casually on the subject, and threat- 
 ened to trespass on her preserves. Farrar, the family 
 doctor, had spoken also far from casually for 
 the which liberty Lord Avonleigh had never forgiven 
 him. 
 
 Remembering these things, he found himself 
 wondering . . . had it even occurred to Esther that, 
 of the two, he had the more reason to shrink from 
 five years of Bombay, plus hard work and heavy 
 responsibility. In the light of her refusal to accom- 
 pany him, he saw her wifely concern of yesterday 
 morning, and her talk about avoiding risks, as no 
 more than a tactful indication that she, at least, 
 would be wise enough to avoid anything of the kind. 
 Possibly he wronged her. And very certainly he was 
 a fool to have expected anything else. But he had 
 returned home tired, acutely aware of the coming 
 wrench ; and being only human, he had hoped, in 
 the teeth of experience, for the support of her wifely 
 approval. He had hoped to enlist her interest by 
 talking things out more fully than was his wont. 
 But the very manner of her greeting had jarred ;
 
 122 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 and before he could make any real headway the 
 truth was out : all his hardness and bitterness up in 
 arms. 
 
 After twenty-eight years of life with her, he might 
 have known ! 
 
 Always, at difficult corners, when the real man in 
 him had reached out to the real woman in her, she 
 had most signally failed him : and she never seemed 
 to be aware of the fact. Therein lay the tragedy 
 for herself and for him. 
 
 It cannot be said that Lord Avonleigh's depen- 
 dence upon any human being was easily discernible. 
 There ran through his whole nature an aloof, imper- 
 sonal streak, which he had passed on, in a measure, 
 to his second son : yet under the surface, in both, 
 the natural need was there. Other women had 
 discerned it which did not exactly meet the case. 
 But Esther Avonleigh a mild, unaggressive egoist 
 had small gift for reading between the lines. For all 
 that, he did not doubt her affection or his own^ 
 Though love, as an active emotion, could scarcely, 
 now, be said to exist between them, it had once 
 been there. At seven-and-twenty how arrogantly 
 certain he had been of his own heart and his own 
 wisdom ! How hotly he had resented his mother's 
 opposition which had unconsciously precipitated the 
 very crisis she sought to prevent. Now, in his hardly 
 earned wisdom, he wondered whether a good few 
 mistaken marriages were not so made ? 
 
 But he was not addicted to futile burrowings into 
 the past. The present demanded his utmost atten-
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 123 
 
 tion, his utmost energy ; and the necessity for speed- 
 ing-up all round made him feel mentally younger ; 
 braced him to spurn unauthorized aches and 
 pains. 
 
 His dinner with Wyntoun had fairly extinguished 
 that deluded specialist. The two men were at once 
 old friends and old political adversaries ; and of late 
 years they had drifted apart. While Lord Wyntoun 
 had been drawn deeper into the political ferment. 
 Lord Avonleigh had retired from an atmosphere of 
 barren controversy and intrigue, thoroughly uncon- 
 genial to him as a patriot and a man. He could 
 not bring himself either to idealize " politics of the 
 pavement," or, for the sake of preferment, to profess 
 a faith that was not in him. 
 
 " I don't disbelieve in the people far from it," he 
 had written to Wyntoun, in justification of his atti- 
 tude. " I merely maintain that the whole people, 
 and nothing but the people, spells national collapse. 
 Crowd mentality and crowd morality what are 
 they, but mind and morals reduced to their lowest 
 common measure ? And democracy rampant is 
 crowd morality in excelsis ; the apotheosis of 
 officialdom and inefficiency. I regard it as a feVer 
 from which the real England, may yet recover in 
 due time." 
 
 Naturally Wyntoun disagreed with him, and liked 
 him none the less for that. 
 
 Meantime, while the fever raged, Lord Avonleigh 
 quietly stood aside and devoted himself, in his prac- 
 tical unsentimental fashion, to the interests of his
 
 124 STRANGE 'ROADS 
 
 own share of England's population on both estates. 
 He seldom used his seat in the upper House these 
 days, and still more seldom spoke, except on Imperial 
 affairs or to plead the unpopular cause of " the 
 Land " the whole land, forest, field and pasture 
 a subject he had made peculiarly his own. The 
 same impersonal streak that isolated him in his home 
 had kept him independent of party shackles and 
 party claims ; with the natural result that he was 
 respected in both camps ; popular in neither. He 
 believed in the British Empire ; he was admittedly 
 sound on social reform ; and his worst enemies could 
 not impugn his integrity, his sanity, or his breadth of 
 view. 
 
 Hence Lord Wyntoun's bolt from the blue. He 
 could have paid his friend no higher compliment, of 
 which that same friend was very well aware. 
 
 Nevertheless he could not pretend to relish the 
 prospect of five years' banishment from Avonleigh 
 and his wife and Van. When he had denied himself 
 the pleasure of Van's company or was it the pain 
 of Van's refusal ? he had counted on Esther. Well, 
 perhaps they could be induced to come out together 
 one winter, just to look him up. At least he could 
 rely on Marion, who would unquestionably be more 
 capable than Esther as helpmate and hostess at 
 Government House. He had a very real affection for 
 his only sister and a pleasant remembrance of their 
 tour through India shortly after his mother's death ; 
 a tour that had been more than a mere orgy of 
 scenery and ancient cities and big game. By keep-
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 125 
 
 ing his wits alert, he had perceived much and 
 inferred more. He had made several distinguished 
 acquaintances of both races and had kept in close 
 touch with the country ever since. 
 
 Even in those days, when distrust was heresy, he 
 had deeply distrusted German missionaries, German 
 traders, and exalted German travellers in search of 
 sport. He distrusted them still. He knew that 
 affairs out there were more critical than the India 
 Office cared to admit ; that he would have to curb 
 his incisive tongue and walk warily like a cat among 
 bits of broken glass. And the knowledge stimulated 
 him. He rose to a difficult occasion, like a thorough- 
 bred to a -five-barred gate ; and if he must leave 
 Avonleigh, he liked nothing better than administra- 
 tive work. He had enjoyed his fair share of it in 
 Bermuda and New South Wales ; and he was 
 fortunate under a Radical regime to get another 
 chance. He could pull through the five years with 
 reasonable care ; and when they were over, he would 
 relish more than ever the abiding charm of this his 
 own corner of England that was like a part of him- 
 self ; dearer to him almost than any living being 
 except the son for whom he held it in trust. . . . 
 
 He spent a satisfactory half-hour in going over 
 his model almshouses and having a talk with the 
 foreman, a clever opiniated fellow, who privately 
 commended " his lordship " for taking a direct 
 personal interest in such things. Then, a little 
 before sunset, he cantered homeward through the
 
 126 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 mellow stillness that brooded like an enchantment 
 on moor and wood and field. 
 
 Before him loomed the pine-clad curve of Burnt 
 Hill, fretting the gold like the teeth of a saw. On 
 either side of him was open country, and in the flood 
 of level light solitary trees seemed to stand spell- 
 bound, holding their breath. In shadowy coppices 
 they huddled together like conspirators awaiting the 
 given moment. Unshadowed fields opened their 
 hearts to the splendour and the silence ; for there 
 was no sound anywhere but the rhythm of Royal's 
 hoof-beats and the occasional flutter of an unseen 
 bird. The whole earth was saturated with peace. 
 Qualms and anxieties were mysteriously spirited 
 away. . . . 
 
 JSIearing the great gates, he spied another solitary 
 figure ahead of him on the road : a figure with 
 square-set shoulders, swinging along at a steady 
 pace. For a while he watched it abstractedly with 
 the wistful envy of middle age for the boundless 
 energy of youth. Then recognition flashed on him. 
 It was Derek. 
 
 Where on earth had he sprung from ? Had 
 Esther, in her perturbation, forgotten to mention his 
 return ? Or had he just dropped out of the blue, 
 in his casual fashion, without a word ? " Far more 
 likely," he reflected, gazing with an odd mixture of 
 tenderness and disapproval at his unconscious son. 
 
 And suddenly he had an inspiration Why not 
 Derek ? 
 
 He recognized it, almost at once, as a counsel of
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 127 
 
 despair. Derek was too young, too unsocial, too 
 little amenable. Still, he clung to the idea. He felt 
 a secret reluctance which would never have been 
 suspected by his family to face five years' banish- 
 ment uncompanioned by son, daughter, or wife. 
 And he slackened speed to debate the matter with 
 himself. 
 
 After all, Derek had brains and character, and a 
 wider range of interests than Van. He might very 
 well develop into a capable Private Secretary. 
 But what would he himself have to say to it ? 
 
 Lord Avonleigh admitted that he had not the ghost 
 of an idea. And the admission brought home to 
 him, with unpleasant force, how little trouble he had 
 taken to make the acquaintance of his own son. 
 Well here at any rate was a chance of getting to 
 close quarters with the boy. Whether anything 
 would come of it only Derek could decide. 
 
 Lord Avonleigh gave the reins a shake and trotted 
 briskly towards that unknown human quantity 
 his second son.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 '' But we axe cumbered with our egotisms ; 
 A thousand prisms, 
 
 Hung round our souls, refract the single ray 
 That else would show us instantly the way." 
 
 T. E. BROWN. 
 
 AT the sound of hoofs behind him, Derek swung 
 round, smiled in his sudden friendly fashion, 
 and stood waiting for his father to come up with him. 
 
 " Confound me ! " thought the Viscount, " I 
 never even noticed what an engaging smile the fellow 
 has." As a matter of fact he had noticed it casually 
 a score of times : but it had made no impression on 
 the true register of memory his heart. 
 
 " Hullo ! " he said, dismounting and slipping an 
 arm through Royal's bridle, " where 'have you 
 dropped from ? " 
 
 " Ashbourne," answered Derek. " I got so used 
 to walking out there. Thought I'd finish up with a 
 tramp." 
 
 " Does -Mother know you're back ? " 
 
 " I hope so. I wrote yesterday." 
 
 " That's all right. Had a good time ? " 
 
 " A ripping time. Suits me that sort of thing." 
 
 .128
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 129 
 
 Lord Avonleigh glanced approvingly at his sun- 
 burnt face. " You look fit enough," he said. " I'm 
 only just back from town. And Mother didn't 
 happen to mention about you at tea-time. We had 
 important matters to discuss." A pause. "Derek 
 Lord Wyntoun has offered me the Governorship of 
 Bombay." 
 
 Derek's pre-arranged start came off fairly well. 
 " Bombay ! " he echoed. " Are you going ? " 
 
 " Yes. In a few weeks." 
 
 This time Derek's surprise was unfeigned. " I 
 say ! That's sharp work. I can hardly believe it. 
 Mother too ? " 
 
 " No. Mother is not strong enough. She will be 
 better safer in England." 
 
 " Rather hard lines on both of you." 
 
 There was tentative sympathy in Derek's tone. 
 He wanted to say more ; but he had always a vague, 
 uncomfortable sense of repression in his father's 
 company. To-day the atmosphere seemed friendlier 
 than usual ; and, with his own confession in view, 
 he would have liked to make the most of it. But 
 they were tied and bound by the chains of their dis- 
 abilities. The bridge Lord Avonleigh had neglected 
 to build could not be improvised at will. Just 
 because the unexpected note of sympathy struck 
 home, he found himself unable to answer his son's 
 remark ; and they walked on in silence through the 
 great iron gates. 
 
 " Let me," Derek said and put out a hand for 
 Royal's rein. 
 
 E
 
 130 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Lord Avonleigh smiled. " Thanks, old boy. 
 But he prefers it this way. He'll go out with me, if 
 no one else does. I believe he'd fret if I left him. 
 Animals are more given that way than their 
 superiors." 
 
 Something in his tone urged Derek to venture a 
 personal question. " Father are you keen to go ? " 
 
 There was a perceptible silence. "It is a very 
 great opportunity and a great compliment," Lord 
 Avonleigh answered in his dry, detached voice that 
 made Derek fear he had been guilty of clumsy intru- 
 sion. " The situation out there is ticklish there- 
 fore interesting. India is being unwisely -hustled 
 along the fatal path of democracy : in her case, 
 peculiarly fatal. That spells trouble for us and 
 worse trouble for her. I haven't the arrogance to 
 suppose I can prevent her Immoderates from running 
 violently down a steep place : but at least one may 
 be able to apply the brake. If Wyntoun thinks I'm 
 qualified, it's worth having a try." 
 
 " Rather. I don't wonder you're keen." But he 
 did wonder that his father should have vouchsafed 
 him such an exhaustive answer to a personal ques-- 
 tion. 
 
 Lord Avonleigh walked on a few paces ; then : 
 " How would you like to come out with me and have 
 a hand in it, too ? " he asked with one of his direct 
 looks. " I could take you as my Private Secretary. 
 Interesting work. You'd soon get the hang of it." 
 
 To say that Derek was taken aback is to give a 
 shadowy idea of his sensations. He was more than
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 131 
 
 amazed. He was deeply moved. One clear thought 
 smote through his confusion : "If only it had been 
 yesterday ! " Refusal seemed so ungracious, that 
 he would have been tempted to accept and chance 
 it yesterday. 
 
 To-day with the Great Experiment looming 
 ahead his slow, tenacious brain could not suddenly 
 swing round to the opposite pole ; neither could he 
 forfeit in a flash those few extra years of indepen- 
 dence, and his whole underlying idea. 
 
 It seemed to him and to his father an age 
 before he found his tongue. 
 
 " Of course I'd love to go with you ; and to see 
 something of India," he began in a voice that tried 
 to be natural. " But I'm afraid I'd be precious 
 little use in any capacity. I should have thought 
 . . . Van. . . ." 
 
 " His qualifications go without saying." Lord 
 Avonleigh's tone had hardened. He felt refusal in 
 the air. " Unfortunately lor me, it is not advisable 
 that we should both be away from Avonleigh for so 
 long on end." 
 
 Derek thought : " That accounts for it. I'm 
 faule de mieux. I'd never satisfy him if I tried ever 
 so." 
 
 And his father thought : " He's just as bad as the 
 others. Only considers himself." Aloud he said : 
 " If I'm satisfied where's the objection ? You've 
 been havering long enough ; and I gather that my 
 proposal broadly speaking is not distasteful to 
 you."
 
 132 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Of course not. But it's the last thing I'd 
 have dreamed of. Besides " 
 
 His painful hesitation was so evident that Lord 
 Avonleigh struck in : " My dear boy, don't feel 
 bound to put yourself out purely as a favour to me." 
 
 It was not sarcastically meant ; but long habit 
 made Derek take it so. He reddened furiously. 
 
 " It's not likely I'd think of it that way," he said, 
 goaded to frankness by pain and smothered temper. 
 " Hasn't my brilliant talent for muddling things been 
 pretty well rubbed into me by all of you, ever 
 since I was old enough to muddle anything ? Is it 
 surprising I should hesitate ? " 
 
 " Altogether on my account ? " The edge had 
 gone from Lord Avonleigh' s tone. 
 
 " No not altogether," said truthful Derek, only 
 half mollified. " I've got a notion of my own. 
 You told me I'd better arrive at some conclusion 
 this vac." 
 
 " And you have done so ? I admit I didn't 
 expect it." 
 
 " There you are ! " muttered Derek and checked 
 himself. " But you won't approve. So in a 
 way, you're right." 
 
 Lord Avonleigh glanced at the boy under his eye- 
 lids. He had never felt more strongly drawn to his 
 younger son than at that moment. But he had 
 never been affectionate with his boys ; and Derek's 
 pride was obviously up in arms. 
 
 " Am I to be allowed to hear the conclusion I 
 shall not approve of ? "he asked more gently ; and
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 133 
 
 his gentleness sounded to Derek like mock humility. 
 
 "I'm afraid I can't make things very clear, but 
 it's like this. I've crammed in a fair amount of 
 book learning at Oxford. What I want now is to 
 get at facts life. Not . mere brain stuff ; but the 
 bedrock things . . . that you sort of absorb through 
 the pores of your skin." He hesitated and bit his 
 lip. " That sounds like moonshine. I'm rotten at 
 explaining. What I mean is that books are all very 
 well up to a point. But ... it seems to me you can 
 
 only get at men by knocking round the earth " 
 
 He broke off, painfully aware that his defence 
 sounded lame and impotent without the deeper, 
 incommunicable reasons hidden in his heart. 
 
 Lord Avonleigh's smile had the exasperating 
 sapience of middle age that seems to say " I've been 
 taken that way too. Mere intellectual measles and 
 whooping-cough." Wha't he actually said was : 
 ' That's all right in theory, Derek. In practice 
 it too often spells coming a cropper " 
 
 " Well you can learn a lot from coming a cropper, 
 if you've the grit to pick yourself up and go on 
 again." 
 
 The sapient smile deepened. "Rather a costly 
 form of education, seeing we are only given one life 
 to learn with. Do you happen to have been study- 
 ing ' The Apology for Idlers ? ' 
 
 That gentle flick killed any impulse to further 
 confidence. " You evidently don't understand, 
 Father," Derek said with a touch of hauteur. 
 " Idling isn't part of my programme at all."
 
 134 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 "If you would favour me with a few items of your 
 programme you might find me less thickheaded. 
 "What part of the earth do you propose to knock 
 round in and absorb things through the pores of your 
 skin ? " 
 
 " Australia Canada, and the rest. I want to 
 know a bit more about the Empire at first 
 hand." 
 
 " Quite a laudable ambition. What's the ulti- 
 mate objective ? Parliament and four hundred a 
 year ? " 
 
 " I hadn't thought of that. I'd like it well 
 enough, though, if I saw the remotest chance of 
 getting at the real thing. But they all seem too 
 busy, these days, throwing mud at each other for the 
 country to have much of a look in." 
 
 ' The country, my dear Derek, is like a sick giant 
 suffering from a plethora of doctors and an orgy of 
 experiment. It may yet come to life again and kick 
 them all to blazes." 
 
 " But you must experiment a bit if you want 
 progress " 
 
 Lord Avonleigh's quick brain pounced on a hidden 
 connexion. " Experiment is like salt," he said. 
 " It needs to be used sparingly, or it ruins the whole 
 dish. By the same token, I hope you don't con- 
 template an orgy of that kind on the strength of a 
 decent allowance ? " 
 
 Again he saw the boy redden through his sunburn. 
 " Of course not. You might give me credit. . . . It's 
 simply what I said. I want'to get at things first-
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 135 
 
 hand." He hesitated, then plunged " To get out- 
 side the artificial limits of my own caste " 
 
 " My good boy, you can't get outside those limits 
 anywhere, unless you propose to shed your skin 
 
 ' That's just what I won't admit," Derek began 
 with a touch of heat : then checked himself and 
 was silent. 
 
 His father was silent also ; curious, half amused 
 and wholly interested ; awaiting further enlighten- 
 ment. But the silence held, as they walked on up 
 the noble sweep of the drive ; and he perceived, 
 with a stab of disappointment, that the boy while 
 talking "moonshine" evidently had some dear 
 plan in his head which he could not or would not 
 reveal. Nor was he, himself, the man to press for 
 his son's confidence. Since he had not troubled to 
 win it, he could not now, at the eleventh hour, force 
 the shy and hidden thing. But at least he had a 
 right to certain guarantees. 
 
 " Limits are tricky things even when they seem 
 artificial," he remarked after due deliberation, " the 
 temptation to disregard them comes to most men of 
 character some time. But they have an awkward 
 knack of rounding on you in the end. Modern art 
 ignores them. Consider the disastrous result ! 
 Do you propose to disregard the artificial limit of 
 time ? " 
 
 " Of course not. I'm not quite such a fool as I 
 seem to sound." 
 
 " I haven't said so, Derek, and I certainly haven't 
 thought so. You sound rather mysterious and
 
 136 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 sketchy that's all. How long do you give your- 
 self ? " 
 
 " How long will you give me ? " Derek countered, 
 smiling frankly now and speaking with less con- 
 straint. " I'd like three years till I'm twenty-five. 
 Perhaps less. But not more. And if you suspect 
 it's a sort of glorified slack I'm after, well" a 
 portentous pause " you can stop my allowance." 
 
 " My dear chap don't be a fool ! " Lord Avon- 
 leigh said gruffly ; and Derek preferred the gruffness 
 to his silky sarcasms because it suggested deeper 
 feeling. He had seen in a flash that here was the 
 most he could offer in the way of credentials and had 
 the satisfaction of knowing that his stroke had taken 
 effect. He was also distinctly relieved. 
 
 " I meant it, though," he said quietly. " Thanks 
 very much all the same for giving me that extent of 
 rope " 
 
 " To hang yourself with ? " 
 
 Their eyes met in a half defiant friendliness. 
 
 " I hope it won't come to that ! I'll try not to 
 make an unholy mess of things. And whatever kind 
 of fool I may be I won't forget . . . where I 
 belong." 
 
 The last words came out hurriedly, almost casu- 
 ally, and his father who quite understood 
 answered him in the same vein. " That's to say 
 you will respect the limits if it comes to a pinch. 
 I thought as much ! When do you intend to 
 start ? " 
 
 " Not till you're out of England."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 137 
 
 The emphasis on the pronoun atoned for a good 
 deal. They were nearing the house by now and 
 Lord Avonleigh left it at that. 
 
 The magical peace of evening that had calmed 
 his troubled spirit was gone. But Derek, in his own 
 fashion, had salved the wound made by his frank 
 refusal, and in the process had thrust upon Lord 
 Avonleigh the home truth that he had culpably over- 
 looked his younger son. Being a just man, he recog- 
 nized that this afternoon's disappointment was the 
 logical outcome of his own aloofness ; and that the 
 mere fact of fatherhood gave him no right of entry 
 into the deeper places of his children's thoughts. 
 God Himself knocks at that door. 
 
 But while Derek's obstinate reticence pricked 
 his curiosity, he secretly approved the boy's indepen- 
 dent spirit and distaste for the sheep-track. 
 
 He was standing before his dressing-table while 
 these thoughts strayed through his brain. 
 
 " Damned carelessness on my part," he reflected, 
 adjusting, with perfect precision, the set of his tie. 
 " There's excuse for Esther. They haven't a thing 
 in common. There's none for me. He's turning 
 out more than ever like the dear old lady. She 
 always said there was good stuff in him." And 
 the dear old lady had a knack of being in 
 the right. It was one of her most aggravating 
 qualities. 
 
 At dinner Derek had less to say for himself than 
 usual ; while Esther, poor dear, was doing her
 
 138 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 ineffectual best to hide under a bushel of small talk 
 the glow of her secret relief. It was Van's facile 
 tongue that filled the gaps. 
 
 As " a mere night-light of the Foreign Office " he 
 could not pretend to more than a surface acquaint- 
 ance with Indian affairs ; but he had a knack of 
 using his half-knowledge with excellent effect. He 
 also possessed the gift of " drawing out " his reticent 
 father ; a genuine achievement that gave almost 
 equal satisfaction to them both, and possibly 
 explained Lord Avonleigh's apparent blindness to 
 the failings of his elder son. 
 
 To-night when India was disposed of, they " talked 
 pavement " as Derek put it to their mutual enter- 
 tainment ; gossip of dinner tables, the Lobby and 
 the Clubs. Every big brain has its foible ; and 
 Lord Avonleigh's satirical humour made him relish 
 any incident of the human comedy that threw a 
 flashlight on the frailties, delinquencies or follies of 
 his kind. And Van had a positive flair for stories 
 that would tickle his father's palate ; discreet 
 stories for the dinner-table that his lady mother 
 could enjoy without turning a hair ; indiscreet 
 stories, of a racy flavour, to enliven their half-hour 
 over wine and cigars. This minor link between them 
 had often stood him in good stead. Minor links 
 play a major part in oiling the wheels of life. 
 
 To-night, when the three men had enjoyed their 
 moderate fill, Lord Avonleigh took Van lightly by 
 the^arm. 
 
 " Come to the library," he said. " We must talk
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 139 
 
 business now. Tell Mother we'll turn up later for 
 bridge, Derek. You can amuse her meantime 
 with your Tyrolese escapades." 
 
 Derek grimaced. " I'm afraid there weren't any 
 worth jawing about." 
 
 " What not the ghost of an, indiscretion ? Not 
 one complaisant mddchen among them all ? " 
 
 Derek reddened and looked uncomfortable. He 
 was helpless before personal chaff. " Well, of 
 course we played the fool a bit " . . .he muttered ; 
 and Van came timely to his aid. 
 
 " Poor old Dirks ! A shame to pull his respectable 
 leg. He hates it like the devil. He took out an 
 infant in arms and they had a top-hole tea-party on 
 strictly irreproachable lines." 
 
 " Jack Burlton, eh ? " 
 
 ' Yes Jack the Ripper." And the two went off 
 together. 
 
 When Derek entered the drawing-room his mother 
 laid aside her paper and looked up with her polite 
 smile of welcome. He caught himself wishing that 
 there was less of the politeness and more of the 
 welcome. She was still " new " enough to make him 
 feel acutely the lack of any real response. 
 
 ' You look remarkably well," she said, when he 
 had delivered his message. " And there must be 
 plenty to tell me. You've been away such ages. 
 Three months, is it ? " 
 
 " Very nearly." 
 
 " You don't bestow much of your long vac. on 
 Avonleigh," she said quite pleasantly ; but it was
 
 140 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 not the sort of remark to stimulate conversation. 
 
 " No loss for Avonleigh ! " he retorted with a quick 
 look that recalled his father. " And it's one's only 
 chance for a good walking tour." 
 
 " Well and was it a great success ? " She picked 
 up a green silk tie she was knitting for Van and 
 resigned herself to details. 
 
 ' Yes. It was ripping," Derek remarked staring 
 at the fire. " Grand scenery. . The finest I've ever 
 struck. And we were in luck with our weather." 
 
 " A very important point," she murmured with 
 conviction. " It's the damp that makes that sort 
 of thing so risky. I can't quite see, myself, where 
 the pleasure comes in. I hope you took your 
 Burberry ? " 
 
 " We had an old one of Jack's between us," Derek 
 informed her gravely. " It came in quite handy 
 once on a blazing hot day." 
 
 Lady Avonleigh looked vaguely perplexed. Derek 
 had his father's annoying trick of saying nonsensical 
 things with an unmoved face, so that you never 
 knew whether you were expected to smile or not. 
 She supposed she had misheard him and went^on 
 with her catechism. 
 
 " Were you simply walking all the time ? " 
 
 " Most of the time when we weren't sleeping or 
 eating." 
 
 " It doesn't sound very amusing or very edify- 
 ing." 
 
 " Oh, but it washugely edifying. And no end 
 of a lark."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 141 
 
 He did not volunteer concrete proofs of either 
 statement ; and she went on patiently with her 
 knitting, though she was longing to finish the account 
 of a fashionable wedding that lay at her elbow. 
 
 Derek discouraged by her silence was craving 
 for a pipe. He had been smoking inordinately of 
 late. The longer the pause lasted, the harder he 
 found it to start afresh. Every remark that occurred 
 to him seemed more inane than the last. And to sit 
 there dumb, staring into the fire, made him feel a 
 perfect fool. There were many little things he would 
 like to tell her, if she would only give the slightest 
 sign of caring to hear them. Also he wanted to 
 express his sympathy that she could not go with his 
 father ; but felt too uncertain about her real wishes 
 in the matter to venture on such delicate ground. 
 It was significant of their whole relation that he did 
 not think of mentioning his father's offer or his own 
 decision to leave England. 
 
 Why did her mere presence hang a dead weight on 
 him so that he could not be his natural self ? Was 
 it his own incurable keenness to see her again that 
 made the actuality so flat by contrast ? 
 
 And yet she looked so charming, so dignified, 
 sitting there in her velvet gown, with the rose-shaded 
 light falling on her smooth hair and her long fingers 
 moving rhythmically to and fro. She was always 
 knitting ties for Van. The only one she ever made 
 for him he had worn devoutly till it became a faded 
 unsightly rag. And even then he had not thrown it 
 away. It reposed in his tie case still.
 
 142 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Absorbed in these thoughts, he forgot his futile 
 hunt for the right remark. A very small sound, the 
 ghost of a sigh, reminded him that the silence had 
 lasted an age about five minutes by the clock. 
 Then just as a happy idea struck him he saw her 
 glance wistfully at her discarded paper : and the 
 sight tripped him up altogether. He thought : 
 " Poor dear ! She's deadly bored. Longing to 
 read." . And to give her a chance he began turning 
 over the leaves of a book that lay on a small table 
 near him. 
 
 At that she laid down her work and regarded him 
 with mild exasperation. 
 
 " Really, Derek ! " she said. " Have you quite 
 lost your manners ? Here am I, waiting to hear 
 some more. And after a few stupid remarks about 
 the scenery and the weather, you start reading a 
 book. As you say you enjoyed yourself, you might 
 be a little more explicit for the benefit of others." 
 
 The injustice of it all though quite unwitting 
 goaded Derek into some show of self-defence. 
 " Well, of course I will be, if you really care to hear. 
 Most people would pay to be let off. I was afraid 
 if I began to spread myself, you'd be bored stiff and 
 be too polite to show it. And just now . . . the 
 way you looked at the paper . . . I felt I was simply 
 being a nuisance. So I took up this beastly, book 
 Honour bright, I don't know what it's about and 
 I don't care a damn ! " 
 
 " Derek ! In my drawing-room ! " 
 
 " Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. I do seem to have
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 143 
 
 dropped my manners somewhere on the Brenner 
 Pass ! But if you want to read, Mother, why play 
 at politeness ? " 
 
 " I don't want to read." Having arraigned him, 
 she mendaciously stuck to her guns. " It was only 
 Lady Mary Rose's wedding. And I'd like to hear 
 a little more about your doings before they come 
 in." 
 
 " All right," he said, and proceeded to do his 
 halting best. 
 
 For half an hour or so things went swimmingly. 
 Derek, feeling less constrained, warmed to his sub- 
 ject ; and if her comments flagged a little, he 
 scarcely noticed it. He was well launched on their 
 crowning tramp over the Brenner Pass when, by 
 unlucky chance, he detected her gracefully screening 
 a yawn. That tripped him up again and brought 
 the great tramp rather abruptly to an end. But he 
 managed it well enough to escape counter-detection. 
 Then he rose and went over to the fire. ' 
 
 "I'm sure you've had enough of me and my 
 doings," he said casually. " You'd much better go 
 back to your wedding presents ! " 
 
 She looked up at him, the ghost of a suspicion in 
 her eyes : and they were both thankful to hear 
 voices outside the door. 
 
 Derek lost no time in finding an excuse to escape 
 
 " Sorry if I bored you, Mother," he said, just touch 
 ing her ivory-smooth forehead with his lips. " But 
 you brought it on yourself ! " 
 
 " Stupid boy ! " she rebuked him sweetly, and
 
 144 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 patted his arm. " It was most interesting. I quite 
 enjoyed it." 
 
 Derek grimaced. It always worried him that, in 
 the sacred name of politeness, she would tell needless 
 lies. 
 
 Van had opened the card-table and Lord Avon- 
 leigh was shuffling. Derek stood by him a moment 
 looking on ; then touched his shoulder. " Good 
 night, Father," he said ; and Lord Avonleigh looked 
 up, a twinkle in his eye. " Going to bed ? I don't 
 think ! " 
 
 " No, I'm going to smoke and read in the study." 
 
 " Unsociable cub ! Why not stay and take a 
 hand ? Cut-throat bridge is poor fun." 
 
 Derek felt nonplussed. His abstention from 
 bridge was part of the accepted order of things. 
 It was a purely protective Disability, and no one 
 troubled their heads about it when Ina was at home. 
 At any other time he would have frankly excused 
 himself ; but to-night compunction stirred in him 
 and he temporized. 
 
 " What's the use, father ? You know I'm a 
 duffer at it. You'd all be wanting to cut my throat 
 before the rubber was out ! " 
 
 " That's quite possible ; but, whatever the provo- 
 cation, we promise to abstain ! Esther " he raised 
 his voice a. little " you promise to abstain ? " 
 
 Lady Avonleigh, who had not been attending, 
 looked a little blank. " My dear Evan, what are you 
 talking about ? You know I only take it medicin- 
 ally."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 145 
 
 Van was seized with a discreet fit of coughing, and 
 Derek bit his lip. Lord Avonleigh's muscles from 
 long practise were under better control. 
 
 " Van, behave yourself ! " he said sotto voce, 
 then turned to his wife. " I was suggesting, my dear, 
 that we should take Derek medicinally for our con- 
 venience and his good. He's too modest by half." 
 
 " Well, if he doesn't want to play he won't. 
 Why worry him ? " she said sweetly ; and Derek 
 heartily wished he could take her at her word. 
 
 " Ah ! that's the way you've spoilt him, Esther ! " 
 
 But she was impervious to irony. " I'm sure no 
 one could ever say I spoilt my children," she retorted 
 with serene complacence and perfect truth. " I 
 wish you'd stop talking nonsense. I thought we 
 were going to play bridge. Sit down, Derek, if you 
 want to stay; and do tr^ and remember what are 
 trumps." 
 
 They cut for partners. Derek put up a prayer 
 that Van might fall to his lot ; but his prayers were 
 seldom answered. The cards consigned him to his 
 mother and he changed places with Van. 
 
 " Kick me if I look like forgetting what's trumps," 
 he muttered with a wry smile. 
 
 But if he avoided that elementary sin, there were 
 pitfalls in plenty for the absent-minded ; and Derek 
 no card-player was incurably absent-minded 
 at bridge. To-night he was still further hampered 
 by pin-pricks of remorse at having withheld his true 
 reason for refusing India. Once he failed to notice 
 his mother's call in clubs. Once he misled her by
 
 146 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 playing from a weak suit, in a purely perverse spirit 
 of experiment just to see what would come of it. 
 
 Disaster came of it and Lady Avonleigh's not 
 unnatural apostrophe : " Really, Derek, you are 
 too stupid ! " 
 
 Finally he revoked and she almost flung down her 
 cards. Needless to say they were beaten ignomini- 
 ously. 
 
 Derek pushed back his chair. " I'm awfully 
 sorry, Mother," he said in a repressed voice, but it 
 was Lord Avonleigh who answered him. 
 
 " My fault for over persuading you." 
 
 " Well, I said I was useless a duffer." 
 
 " And you went out of your way to prove 
 it? " 
 
 Their eyes met and the sense of a double signifi- 
 cance flashed between them. 
 
 " No need for that, worse luck ! " Derek said 
 ruefully. " It's the way I'm made." 
 
 " There are limits, in fact ! " Lord Avonleigh 
 reminded him, a gleam in his grave eyes. " Well," 
 we won't victimize you or mother any more." 
 
 Derek rose with so audible a sigh of relief that 
 Van winked at him over Lady Avonleigh's graceful 
 bowed head. She was pensively shuffling ; bored 
 with the interlude ; not heeding their talk. 
 
 Derek did not kiss her again. As for his father 
 though he knew young men of his own age who 
 thought no shame of it he could not remember 
 having kissed him since his first home-coming from 
 Winchester. On that occasion his natural impulse of
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 147 
 
 affection had been checked by the remark that he 
 was getting too old for nursery ways. 
 
 " Blounts don't kiss," he had been gravely in- 
 formed ; and though a twinkle lurked in the 
 gravity it was literally true.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " Each in its little sphere of joy or woe, 
 Our hermit spirits dwell and range apart. . . ." KEBLE. 
 
 ON Saturday afternoon guests began to arrive ; 
 and they sat down twelve to dinner that 
 evening. It was little more than a family party. 
 The big shooting week-ends began with the phea- 
 sants in October. Meantime there were partridges. 
 There was golf and tennis, billiards and bridge, to 
 save twentieth-century guests and hosts from the 
 burden of making conversation. There was the 
 famous Avonleigh port and liqueur brandy ; the 
 scarcely less famous grapes and pears ; and last, not 
 least, there was that all-pervading sense of stability 
 and comfort, with no jarring note of ostentation to 
 spoil the harmony of the whole. 
 
 From this it may be gathered that, physically and 
 socially, a week-end at Avonleigh Hall left little to 
 be desired ; yet among the county neighbours were 
 certain perverse spirits Lady Forsyth, for instance, 
 and Lady Lenox who found the human atmosphere 
 of its stately draught-proof rooms a trifle chilly and 
 its gracious, punctilious hostess more than a trifle 
 148
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 149 
 
 dull. Hence the adjunct of the plain daughter 
 who so upset Van whenever Sir Eldred came to 
 stay with his friend. In addition to the daughter 
 he invariably brought a polite message from his wife 
 a sufficiently distinguished artist to take refuge 
 behind pressure of work or the resultant need for 
 rest. Lady Avonleigh's regret, on each occasion, 
 was equally polite and equally insincere. No shadow 
 of suspicion troubled her ; for she never dreamed 
 that man, woman, or child could find her hospitality 
 anything but acceptable. She had a mild liking for 
 Sir Eldred, who treated her with marked courtesy, 
 partly to atone for Quita's defection, partly because 
 she was the wife of his friend. 
 
 The two men had much in common. Both wife 
 and children, notwithstanding were creatures of 
 the " lone trail " ; both took a keen interest in 
 county affairs. They were still further linked by a 
 taste for local archaeology ; and Lenox, in his 
 patient, thorough fashion, was amassing material 
 for a book to be written in collaboration one of 
 these days. To him the news of the Bombay 
 appointment was a blow ; but he was putting a 
 cheerful face on it. And at dinner he tried, for his 
 friend's sake, to arouse in Lady Avonleigh some show 
 of interest in Indian affairs. 
 
 His daughter a plain but pleasing replica of 
 himself seemed in no way over-awed by her slightly 
 formidable host, who had a real affection for her, 
 perhaps because she was so patently her father's 
 daughter. " A fine manly girl ! " he would say with
 
 150 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 his twinkle at Van ; and it was not altogether 
 the mere perversity of a parent that made her seem 
 easier to come at than his own girl, whose bright 
 surface was scarcely more yielding than the surface 
 of a billiard ball. Presumably her K.C. had dis- 
 covered a soft spot somewhere : always supposing 
 her heart had any voice in that crowning social 
 function, her marriage. To judge from appearances 
 they were as unsentimental and practical a pair of 
 lovers as even the twentieth century can produce. 
 One could watch them, at ease, without the faintest 
 risk of trespassing on private ground. 
 
 They were sitting together, opposite Derek, who 
 had not yet seen the new member of the family, and, 
 (in secret) had felt vaguely sorry for him. Now he 
 perceived that his pity, besides being unbrotherly, 
 was superfluous to wit. Ferrars that was the 
 K.C's name looked as if he might well prove a 
 match for the girl who had graciously consented to 
 bear his name and share his income and shine in his 
 reflected brilliance. He was quite ten years her 
 senior and he had the flat lip, the mobile mouth and 
 penetrating eye of the successful Man of Law. He 
 had also, Derek noticed, a very square thumb. 
 " Ina," he sagaciously reflected, " won't get much 
 change out of those eyes and that thumb once 
 they're man and wife." But then Ina would get 
 the sort of change she really wanted money, dis- 
 tinction, the envy of her world. For her K.C. had 
 more than brains. He enjoyed intimacy with 
 political stars of the first magnitude. " And his
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 151 
 
 friends say he may rise to anything," she had con- 
 fided to Derek half an hour before dinner with a 
 metallic sparkle in her eyes. He, on his part, would 
 have the honour and privilege of marrying a Blount 
 of Avonleigh. A thundering good business proposi- 
 tion all round, Derek concluded, with a touch of 
 young cynicism. Well so long as they were 
 satisfied 
 
 And they certainly looked it. Derek, being 
 partnerless with young Schonberg on one side and 
 Marion Blount on the other was not distinguishing 
 himself conversationally. Karl was half English, 
 half German, and a pleasant fellow enough ; but 
 Derek, like Miss de Vigne, was " prejudiced " ; and 
 in spite of Karl's frequent visits to Avonleigh 
 they had not progressed much beyond formali- 
 ties. 
 
 At the moment, Karl was arguing across the table 
 with Van, and Marion Blount was absorbed in her 
 French Count ; so Derek had leisure to observe the 
 new element and to wonder at the apparent readiness 
 with which even independent men and women 
 slipped their necks under the fatal yoke. Marriage, 
 dispassionately viewed, seemed to him the most, 
 insidious and inflexible of all the shackles that con- 
 strain the human soul. " And what shall a man give 
 in exchange for his soul ? " 
 
 The large, competent worldly face of George 
 Ferrars, looming above a silver basket piled with 
 grapes, made him feel suddenly abashed. It was as 
 if Ina's lover had said to him, with his flat legal
 
 152 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 intonation : " You precious young fool ! How 
 much do you know about it all ? " Not very much, 
 Derek admitted. But still look at men like Sir 
 Eldred Lenox and his father 
 
 " Well, Derek, when are you going to wake up and 
 talk to me ? " Aunt Marion's voice, friendly but 
 incisive, broke the thread of his thoughts. " Are 
 you in love too ? Or hypnotized by George ? He 
 has a certain hypnotic quality. And you, my dear 
 boy, have no dinner-table manners whatever." 
 
 Derek, at the onset, had frowned and blinked as if 
 a sudden light had been flashed in his eyes. He was 
 a bad subject for direct attack ; apt to roll 'himself 
 up like a hedgehog and present a surface of prickles 
 to his rash assailant. But the Honourable Marion 
 Blount was nothing if not direct. Her decisive 
 features proclaimed as much ; and her hazel eyes 
 deep set like her brother's had something of their 
 hawk-like gleam. 
 
 " I'm awfully sorry, Aunt Marion," Derek apolo- 
 gized gruffly. He looked and sounded so far from 
 contrite that she laughed and inflicted an " ant's 
 nip " on the back of his hand. 
 
 " All the same, I'm really angry with you," she 
 went on, under cover of the general buzz of talk. 
 " Your father tells me he actually offered to take 
 you with him, and you refused \ " 
 
 Derek winced under his prickles. He thought : 
 " How like a woman ; bringing it up in this crowd ! " 
 And he said rather stiffly : "It was hard luck on 
 both of us. But it wouldn't have worked. I can't
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 153 
 
 explain. And I can't help it if you are angry. 
 You don't understand. But I believe anyway 
 father does." 
 
 ' Your father understands this much," his aunt 
 retorted unabashed, " that you can all be counted 
 to go your own ways without troubling your heads 
 about him or any one else in creation even his own 
 wife " 
 
 " Mother ? " Derek took her up sharply. " You're 
 not fair on her ever. You don't make allowances. 
 Father says it would be a risk." 
 
 " She says so, my dear boy. And he shields her, 
 like the gentleman he is." Her tone was less incisive 
 now. Its quietness carried conviction which 
 made Derek angrier still. 
 
 "If he shields her, how dare you 1 " he 
 
 checked himself. " How can you know ? " 
 
 " Because he is my brother, and for me there is 
 no one like him in the world." Her voice grew 
 quieter still so that he could hardly hear her through 
 the clatter and chatter, the lively volley of chaff 
 kept up by Jack and Ina, Karl and Van. " He 
 doesn't need to tell me things. I know him inside 
 and out as none of you do or ever will." 
 
 Thus goaded, Derek ventured a bold question. 
 " Is that our fault entirely ? Does he give us 
 much of a chance ? " 
 
 " No. He's a difficult creature ; a bundle of 
 contradictions. But underneath, he's splendid. 
 He says hard and cutting things, I admit. But 
 when it comes to action, he's far too patient with
 
 154 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 you all. As for risk ! He talks about her. No 
 
 one thinks of the risk for him." 
 
 " For him ? " Derek's heart stood still. There 
 were no prickles to contend with now. " What's 
 wrong ? I didn't know " 
 
 " Of course not. You aren't supposed to. I'm 
 not supposed to. But I do. And your mother 
 does, as far as she ever Jets herself know anything 
 that is likely to make her uncomfortable." 
 
 " Oh don't ! " 
 
 She caught the pain in his low tone and flashed a 
 smile at him. " You're a loyal son ! Anyway, I 
 can see if she can't or won't that he's keen to have 
 one of you with him. And it tells me more than he 
 imagines." 
 
 That was too much for Derek. Remorse over- 
 whelmed him. 
 
 " Aunt Marion, I'd never have refused if I'd 
 guessed. And I'm willing to go now, if it's if 
 there's " 
 
 He broke off, checked by an embarrassing sense 
 of publicity though no one heeded them : and she 
 turned on him with a sudden softening. 
 
 " I'm glad to know that, Derek. But I doubt 
 the wisdom of seeming to go back on your decision. 
 It might look like mere wobbling. Or he might 
 suspect. He's got his other eye on us now. And I 
 don't want to spoil things. I'm so enchanted to be 
 going. I'll see after him. Never fear. / want him 
 to take Van. But he's set on leaving him in charge. 
 At least so he says. I believe he knows Van would
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 155 
 
 refuse : and he won't face that. Really you are 
 
 the most detached family ! Each twiddling on 
 
 your own pivot self-centred " 
 
 " Am / self-centred ? " Derek struck in. 
 
 " Not quite so bad as the rest. But still look 
 at you, over this business. You've got some precious 
 maggot in your head. And you carry it off and hide 
 it like a dog that's found a bone." 
 
 Derek laughed and helped himself to a glorified 
 trifle that was respectfully nudging his elbow. 
 
 " Not for the same sort of reason," he said. 
 " None of them would care twopence about my bone. 
 And if we are . . not seeming to care, who made us 
 that way ? Aren't you a Blount yourself ? " 
 
 " Very much so. And ' Blounts don't kiss ' ! I 
 know all about that. We're hard outside and soft 
 underneath. And your mother's the other way 
 round." 
 
 " Mother's not hard." 
 
 " Isn't she ? Bless the boy ! Well, if you prefer 
 it, she's smilingly immobile where her own interests 
 are concerned." 
 
 Derek said nothing. The talk was dying down. 
 Personalities were no longer safe ; and Miss Blount, 
 after a brief attention to her trifle, remarked in a 
 more conversational tone : "I spent a week at 
 Inveraig when I was up North. Mr. Macnair of 
 course and that sweet Sheila person. There's an 
 amalgamated family if you like. And mostly 
 unrelated." 
 
 Derek twinkled. " Perhaps that's why."
 
 156 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " It's not. You know that perfectly well. It's 
 because Lady Forsyth is the pivot. That woman 
 has always held her family in the hollow of her hand. 
 So of course they were all snatched away from her, 
 except one. The irony of things ! " 
 
 At this point Ina challenged her across the table. 
 
 " I say, Aunt Marion, George and I are scheming 
 for an Indian honeymoon. So we can take you and 
 father in our stride. Ripping notion, isn't it ? " 
 
 " Oh, ripping ! " Miss Blount agreed with empha- 
 sis. She detested that all conquering adjective 
 which had swept every other off the board. 
 
 But Ina was deaf to the mild hint of reproof. 
 " George's idea," she went gaily on. " India's quite 
 the smart thing to do now-a-days ; and, as a honey- 
 moon, it's rather a novelty. He thinks he can 
 manage three months. A jolly long moon ! But 
 travelling and seeing lots of people, I 'spec we'll pull 
 through without boring each other to tears." 
 
 George who was discussing with Comte d'Estelle 
 the relation between German sensibilities and 
 German self-assertion acknowledged that compli- 
 ment with a grave inclination of his head. 
 
 " Bother that old Count ! " she whispered. But 
 Ferrars did not seem to hear. He was keenly inter- 
 ested in racial idiosyncrasies ; and Ina, with a small 
 shrug turned her batteries full upon Jack Burlton, 
 whom Derek intended to annex for serious conversa- 
 tion on the first opportunity.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts, 
 And fatted lives, that of their sweetness tire, 
 In a world of flying loves and fading lusts, 
 It is something to be sure of a desire." CHESTERTON. 
 
 " Age may have one side, but assuredly youth has the 
 other." R. L. S. 
 
 THE official evening, divided between billiards 
 and bridge, offered small chance for intimate 
 talk. Derek would have liked to carry Jack off for a 
 smoke more satisfying than the polite cigarette ; 
 but he had the grace to defer his own pleasure till 
 the official business was over. 
 
 Very soon the four young men drifted into the 
 billiard room, where Van and Karl proceeded, with 
 careless ease, to " walk over " Derek and Jack ; but 
 before that process was complete they were joined by 
 the two girls. 
 
 " Hope we're not spoiling your sacred game ! " 
 Ina remarked cheerfully, quite aware that her hope 
 was vain. " But our respective fathers have retired 
 for an archaeological gossip and we seized the chance 
 to escape. Elderly bridge is so damn dull." She 
 
 157
 
 158 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 winked at Derek, who was known to disapprove. 
 " Derek's frightfully shocked. He's blushing ! But 
 I'm not past praying for, old boy I can still manage 
 to bridle my tongue in polite society." 
 
 Derek treated this sally with brotherly disregard. 
 It was Jack who responded, flourishing his cue like 
 an assegai. " Thanks for the hint, Miss Blount. 
 Now we can all be as jolly impolite as we please ! " 
 
 Billiards gave place to pool ; and pool degenerated 
 to a lively rag in which balls and cues played a 
 prominent part. 
 
 Punctually at 10.15 came Jervis with " drinks," 
 and Ferrars in search of the beloved ; and very soon 
 after, Derek escaped, closely followed by Jack. 
 
 " I'll come in and raid you, old fellow, when I've 
 got rid of the world's fetters," he said as they halted 
 outside Jack's room. 
 
 Five minutes later he reappeared in a luxuriously 
 soft "camel's hair dressing-gown with brown points, 
 settled himself on Jack's bed and explored a capa- 
 cious pocket for pipe and pouch. Jack, in striped 
 silk trousers and vest, was at the washing stand. 
 
 " I got a scrawl from Gay yesterday," he informed 
 Derek from the depths of a vast sponge. " Posted 
 at Southampton. It was the most beastly rotten 
 luck missing her by the skin of my teeth." 
 
 "Well, you blithering idiot, if you'd only told 
 
 me ! " The unflattering epithet was the measure 
 
 of Derek's sympathy ; and Jack turned on him a 
 moist, glowing face of reproach. 
 
 " I like that, when I was simply thinking of you
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 159 
 
 and your old Miinchen. Also as it happens, I 
 couldn't tell what I didn't know. Who's the blither- 
 ing idiot now ? " 
 
 Derek apologized to a violently agitated towel, 
 " Rough on both of you. But she thought you 
 could get across before she sailed." 
 
 " Rather ! If I have to swim the Channel. 
 Chuck along my coat, old man. Isn't she simply 
 topping ? " 
 
 Derek smiled. " She's charming. The way she 
 hailed me out of the window made a deep impression 
 on our suburban fellow passengers. Was her father 
 French-Canadian ? She spoke of cousins." 
 
 " Not close cousins. Her father was pure French, 
 But he had connexions out there, who took him into 
 their business. Gay was born at Montreal : and she 
 has a married aunt there now, fearfully keen on her. 
 They came home a few years ago and they've been 
 bothering her to go out ever since. But she wouldn't 
 leave Mother.. Now Mother's gone, they've got 
 her, worse luck ! " 
 
 " For long ? " . 
 
 " Hope not. But it's more than a mere visit,. 
 If they show any signs of freezing on to her they'll 
 have me to reckon with." He sighed and regarded 
 Derek with an injured air. " The times I've 
 planned to introduce you two ! And then you go 
 and introduce yourselves behind my back ! It's 
 it's not cricket ! " 
 
 That was his severest form of denunciation, and 
 Derek felt convicted. of sin.
 
 160 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Very careless of us ! " he remarked, gravely 
 considering Jack's splendid appearance in his silk 
 sleeping suit, with the light shining full upon his 
 sleek brown hair, quaintly emphasizing the tilt of his 
 genial nose and the dimple in his chin to which even 
 his best friends alluded at their peril. And few 
 cared about taking the risk. For there was more 
 than six feet of him with thews and muscles to 
 correspond. He was not yet twenty-one ; and at 
 the moment he reminded Derek of a large good 
 humoured St. Bernard puppy. 
 
 " Poor old Jacko it was a shame ! " he added 
 soothingly. 
 
 " Yes, it was it was a bally shame." Jack 
 tried hard to look tragic, but his whole make up was 
 against him. " Everything's beastly alj round. 
 Her confounded people might have waited till the 
 Army had swallowed me. Home'll be simply rotten 
 without her. Thank God for Oxford, anyway and 
 your fourth year. No more havering about that, I 
 hope ? " 
 
 " No more havering and no more Oxford, worse 
 luck ! " 
 
 Jack flung down the ivory brushes with which he 
 was quite superfluously polishing his hair. " Well 
 you are ! Why the dickens ? " 
 
 " I'm afraid that would take a good deal of 
 explaining. It's just an idea. Rather a drastic 
 idea. It's going to take me to the ends of the earth 
 and knock a few years out of my life as an average 
 English gentleman."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 161 
 
 Jack groaned. " What's come to you, Dirks, in 
 the last forty-eight hours ? " 
 
 " My notion's come to me," Derek answered with 
 his sudden smile. " And I warn you it's an idee 
 fixe. So you needn't exhaust yourself by hurling 
 epithets at me." 
 
 " Thanks very much ! But what is your con- 
 founded notion ? May a mere outsider be permitted 
 to know ? " 
 
 Derek drew himself up. " After that, I'm blest 
 if I don't give you three guesses and tell you which is 
 the right one to-morrow morning." 
 
 " And I'm damned if you do ! " 
 
 Jack spoke quite coolly ; but, almost in the same 
 breath, he hurled himself on Derek, who went clean 
 over. For several minutes they rolled and scrim- 
 maged like a pair of puppies, gurgling and choking 
 with laughter, yet fighting for all they were worth. 
 Though Derek had the greater skill, he was badly 
 hampered by his dressing-gown and the fact that he 
 was under dog. 
 
 In the end he found hims'elf ignominiously pinned 
 to the bed by a pair of strong hands, while Jack 
 knelt above him demanding information. 
 
 " Deliver the goods, you secretive villain or I'll 
 choke the life out of you ! " was the mild manner of 
 his request. 
 
 " Right you are. Pax ! " Derek panted ; and 
 seizing the two hands wrenched himself free. " Nice 
 sort of way to treat your lawful host ! You get into 
 bed like a good little boy. Light up and give me a 
 chance."
 
 162 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 He did not hurry over the pipe preliminaries. 
 He saw the whole thing quite clearly from Jack's 
 point of view ; and it was not in him either to exalt 
 his precious scheme or enthuse over it. So he sat 
 there, his arms folded on his hunched-up knees, and 
 made the best he could of a difficult business. 
 
 Jack listened in growing wonderment, his eyes 
 fixed on Derek's face. 
 
 " Comment is superfluous," he remarked impres- 
 sively, when the tale was told. " And what has 
 ' the noble lord ' to say to all that ? " 
 
 " The noble lord hasn't heard all that. It's not 
 the sort of thing one would go gassing about. And 
 don't you gas about it either or I'll skin you alive." 
 
 Jack's eyes had an odd, elated look. " Am I the 
 one and only being you've honoured in this 
 fashion ? " 
 
 " Yes so far. Of course I shall tell Mark." 
 
 " Damn ! " 
 
 " Jacko, please don't make a giddy ass of yourself. 
 Mark's the only person who'll come within miles of 
 understanding. I'm not sure he isn't half respon- 
 sible " 
 
 " One damn the more ! " Jack retorted unabashed. 
 He was jealous of Mark, not without reason. " But 
 what did you tell your guv'nor ? " 
 
 " Oh, I made things as clear as I could ; and he 
 was jolly decent about it. Didn't press for details. 
 Thank heaven, as a family, we respect each other's 
 reserves. There was only one horrid jar. He 
 wanted me to go out with him as Private Secretary" 1
 
 UNTIL *THE HARVEST 163 
 
 or some such desperate character. Well I felt I 
 couldn't. And I had to tell him so. And I simply 
 hated it." 
 
 Jack's jaw dropped half an inch. " You chucked 
 a chance like that ? Your own father too ! Derek, 
 you are a sanguinary fool ! " 
 
 Derek regarded him pensively, without rancour. 
 " I thought that would be your lucid summing-up of 
 the situation." 
 
 They were silent a few moments : Derek remem- 
 bering, with a pang, Aunt Marion's talk at dinner ; 
 Jack interested, sceptical, yet aware of lurking 
 admiration. Derek certainly had the courage of his 
 crazy convictions. 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! " he groaned, skilfully tossing his 
 cigarette end into the grate. " Why on earth do 
 things go so contrary ? I'd give my eyes for that 
 sort of job. India, sport the whole blooming 
 show. And you, that can have the lot going 
 out steerage. Rubbing shoulders with a herd of 
 swearing, spitting bargees. Filthy food. Filthy 
 talk. My hat ! " He paused realising details. 
 " It begins to dawn on me that you're rather a 
 splendid sort of fool " 
 
 " Oh, dry up," Derek said sharply ; and Jack, 
 aware that he had sinned, meekly accepted the 
 rebuke. 
 
 " Well, when do you start on this personally con- 
 ducted tour ? " 
 
 " At the end of next month." 
 
 " Bo-Aoo / " The boy's foolish grimace cloaked a
 
 164 
 
 very real sinking of the heart. " And I'm to be left 
 lamenting ! Trinity, with no Dirks. Home, with 
 no Gay. And my poor dear old guv' nor sitting 
 like a ton of coals on my chest Gay says she men- 
 tioned it to you." 
 
 " Yes, she did ; she seemed anxious." 
 " Not without cause, worse luck ! I'm anxious 
 too." 
 
 Derek looked reproachful. ' That's the first I've 
 
 heard of it and the talks we had out there ! " 
 
 " Well I didn't want to be a spoil-sport, when 
 
 you couldn't escape my charming society! But 
 
 I'm jolly glad Gay did speak to you." 
 
 " It was no more than a hint. What's the 
 damage ? " 
 
 "' Wish I knew ! It's the cursed vagueness of the 
 whole affair makes it so worrying. But there's no 
 blinking the fact the dear old Dad's not the man he 
 was three or four years ago financially or otherwise. 
 The proud notion that I was to adorn a crack cavalry 
 regiment seems to have melted away. Last vac the 
 blessed old muddler started burbling about the 
 Gunners ! Me that have taken Law prelim : and 
 can just distinguish a circle from a triangle ! I 
 modestly suggested the Indian Army, half in joke : 
 but he seems to have cottoned to the idea. I don't 
 believe Hal will get Oxford: nor Jeff, Harrow. 
 And every vac we're favoured with increasing doses 
 of old Schonberg, Mrs. Schonberg and all the little 
 Schonbergs, till we're on the verge of open mutiny. 
 Even when I come here I'm up against another one !"
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 165 
 
 " Rotten luck ! " Derek's tone was gravely 
 sympathetic. " But Karl's a decent sort. More 
 English than German. His mother was half Irish. 
 Van thinks no end of him. He has a perverse kink 
 towards anything German. Probably caught it 
 from the Foreign Office. It's in*the air there. But 
 what the deuce do you imagine old Schonberg has 
 to do with the bad turn things are taking ? " 
 
 Jack sighed portentously. " If I could answer 
 that in good rousing English, I might get the guv'- 
 nor to sit up and take notice. I only feel it in my 
 bones and so does Gay that the old devil is a 
 blood-sucker. He's got his fingers in no end of 
 commercial pies." 
 
 Derek nodded. " I know he's connected with the 
 big metal Combine. I heard quite a lot about 
 it from an Australian Rhodes scholar last term." 
 
 " Yes, that's his biggest pie. And Dad says he's a 
 power on the Stock Exchange. And he has some 
 sort of footing in that blooming old Deutsche Bank, 
 which he talks of as if it was God Almighty. And I 
 believe he runs an hotel on the East Coast and Lord 
 knows what else. He must be simply made of 
 money ; though he doesn't live like it at Rand- 
 chester. You say what can he have to do with 
 our rotten luck ? Well, out there I got a sort of 
 notion " he leaned suddenly forward, his good 
 tempered face tense and earnest. " I got it off the 
 foreman of that Italian gang on the line. You 
 remember, we had a long jawbation " 
 
 " About the Germans in Italy yes."
 
 166 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " He was rabid against them. I didn't tell you 
 half he said, because it gave me horrid tweaks. I 
 wanted to talk it out with Gay. And now she's 
 gone, I can't keep it bottled up any more. That 
 fellow declares the Germans are rotting Italy's trade 
 for the Italians :* secretly getting all the strings 
 into their own hands. I couldn't follow half the 
 stuff he* talked about ' key industries ' and things ; 
 but I gathered that their beastly banks have a lot to 
 do with it. Advance money and that sort of game. 
 More sporting than our highly respectable concerns. 
 He told me a long yarn about his brother's glass- 
 making business in Florence : how it was slowly 
 undermined and ruined ; and then swallowed up by 
 a big German business that brought the whole thing 
 to life again in no time. Glass, it seems, is what 
 they call a ' key ' industry so's metal ! " 
 
 There was a significant pause then Jack said 
 slowly : " Doesn't the parallel strike you ? " 
 
 Derek scowled thoughtfully at the bowl of his 
 pipe. " Great Scott ! Isn't that rather tall ? " he 
 said at last. 
 
 " Think so ? Well listen what happened, when 
 I got home, to calm my foolish fears. I found the 
 guv'nor in a queer mood. Cheerier than usual, but 
 kind of jumpy underneath. And the very first even- 
 ing he started talking of his own affairs, which isn't 
 his habit by any means. I gathered that for some 
 time things have been on the down grade ; just 
 slipping and slipping. Nothing startling. No big 
 losses. If there had been, he might have pulled
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 167 
 
 himself together. But he's a slow mover, and his 
 faith. in Burltons is about all he's got in the way of 
 religion. I felt frightfully sorry for him, poor old 
 chap, and just a shade sorry for myself. For he 
 hinted at cutting down my allowance and little 
 practical jokes of that sort. Then, when he'd thor- 
 oughly worked up my feelings, he pitched in his 
 final bombshell." 
 
 Again the boy had a dramatic pause. " Yes. 
 You've hit it," he replied to the enlightenment in 
 Derek's face. " Schonberg to the rescue. Now 
 doesn't the parallel fairly hit you between the 
 eyes ? " 
 
 " Looks fishy," Derek agreed. " And what form 
 is the rescue to take ? " 
 
 " Oh, he'll prop up the firm financially by the 
 grace of his old Deutsche Bank. Boom it among his 
 influential friends in the Cit}'. They've a supersti- 
 tious veneration for him there, 'cos everything he 
 touches turns to gold. He'll enlarge the business. 
 Probably flood it with German shareholders. And 
 it's to be ' Burlton and Schonberg Ltd.' The 
 fellow's got us fairly on our knees." 
 
 " It's simply beastly," Derek said with emphasis. 
 " But if we will let our business world and the City 
 
 get over-run with foreigners ! And your father 
 
 doesn't object ? " 
 
 " I wish to God he did ! The sheer relief of it 
 blinds him to everything else ; also his faith* in. 
 Schonberg. I told him straight that he was selling 
 himself to the devil ; that, in less than no time, the
 
 168 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 whole concern would be German from top to bottom. 
 As it is, the works are flooded out with German 
 engineers and accountants and clerks. Cheaper and 
 more docile the guv'nor says. So all the while he's 
 been slipping down hill, he's been absorbing more 
 Germans into our good old British business. Prob- 
 ably one of their dodges for preparing the ground. 
 I said he could halve my allowance, and I'd chuck 
 the Army and go into any old hole where I could 
 make a modest living. I vouched for it the kids 
 would put up with things in the same spirit ; and I 
 frankly informed him he was as blind as an owl in 
 daylight where Schonberg and Co. were concerned. 
 But d'you suppose it was a mite of use ? " 
 
 Derek didn't suppose so. But even in this tragic 
 emergency his first thought was : " What on earth 
 would happen if I let out like that to Father ? " He 
 was never-endingly amazed at Jack's "free and easy 
 relation with ' old Burlton ' : epithets flying one 
 moment ; and an arm flung round his shoulders the 
 next. Aunt Marion was right about Avonleigh. 
 They were five detached units each twirling on his 
 or her own centre 
 
 Aloud, he said : " I expect you got back a Roland 
 for your Oliver a ' young fool ' for your ' old owl ! ' 
 
 Jack assented gloomily. " That's the curse of it. 
 ' Old owls ' have such an unfair pull over ' young 
 fools,' even if by some amazing chance the young 
 fool happens to be in the right. And I'm dead 
 certain I am right ; but there's no making him see it. 
 Because he once knew one kind of Germany, he
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 169 
 
 can't, or won't believe there's another kind that 
 we're mostly getting over here. We undergrads 
 know a thing or two about the German professors 
 and Modern German education don't we ? But 
 where's the blessed use of knowing anything when 
 you only get called a fool for your pains ? " 
 
 Bitterness was so foreign to Jack's nature 
 that this last made a deeper impression on Derek 
 than all that had gone before. But he had small 
 skill in expressing sympathy. 
 
 " It's a disease we're safe to grow out of " he 
 remarked consolingly. 
 
 " Yes when it's too late to be any good. And 
 then we'll be on the way to becoming old owls our- 
 selves ! " 
 
 Before that awful prospect they were both silent 
 Then Jack heaved another portentous sigh. 
 
 " There ! I'm through with my jeremiad. 
 Thanks awfully, Dirks, for putting up with me. 
 It's been no end of a relief getting some of it off my 
 chest. You understand, if no one else does." 
 
 " Oh yes, I understand right enough. But I 
 can't do a thing to help you. Wish I could." He 
 pocketed his pipe, rose and stretched himself. 
 " We'll have a rousing old gallop to-morrow morn- 
 ing. That'll cheer you up." 
 
 " Rather ! Nothing like it on earth. I shall go 
 for Indian cavalry if home cavalry can't be did. 
 Bio wed if I touch Schonberg's money. I'll take 
 what Dad can give me not a penny more. Open 
 another window, old chap. The room's reeking
 
 170 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 with your pipe, and I don't want to be in your lady 
 mother's black books." 
 
 " No fear ! I'm a chronic offender. If old Con 
 does scent a whiff in here, she won't give us away." 
 
 As he went past the bed, Jack flung out a hand, 
 and Derek's closed upon it vigorously, without a 
 word.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " I am at ease now: worldly, in this world, 
 I take and like its way of life ; I think 
 My brothers, who administer the means, 
 Live better for my comfort that's good too." 
 
 BROWNING. 
 
 THE heir of Avonleigh was troubled in spirit : 
 not because his father would soon be leaving 
 England, but because the proud load of responsi- 
 bility for Avonleigh, and the smaller estate of 
 Trevanyon on the Cornish border, would then rest 
 on his own shoulders. And Van had so little taste 
 for responsibility that he would make a long circuit 
 to evade it. Even while he listened to Lord Avon- 
 leigh' s announcement, that Friday evening, he had 
 been instinctively casting aboutln his mind for ways 
 and means to that end : and on Saturday night an 
 inspiration arrived. 
 
 It consisted of a single word Karl. 
 
 While Jack, on one side of the wall, was cursing 
 the father, Van on the other was thanking Provi- 
 dence for the son. From time to time he caught the 
 murmur of voices and wondered idly what particular 
 form of rot those youngsters were jawing about. 
 
 171
 
 i;2 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Could he have overheard them, he would probably 
 have been moved to good-humoured scepticism ; or, 
 like Burlton, would have fortified himself against 
 suspicion by dismissing Jack as a fool. And 
 in both cases the instinct sprang from the same root. 
 
 To outward appearance there seemed little enough 
 in common between the young Oxford intellectual 
 and the middle-aged business man : yet, in both, the 
 slippered ease of mental and spiritual security pre- 
 vailed over the love of truth. By different routes, 
 they had reached the same terminus ; and of both it 
 may safely be said that they would sooner hug a 
 comfortable illusion than suffer the discomposure of a 
 mental spring cleaning. So each, in his own charac- 
 teristic fashion, unwittingly assisted the march of 
 Fate. 
 
 Van, it must be owned, had no earthly reason to 
 distrust young Schonberg, who was half English, as 
 Derek had said. The two had gone up to Balliol the 
 same year : Van from Eton ; Karl, as a science 
 scholar from Harrow. A chance incident had 
 brought them into close contact. A mutual taste for 
 music and sheer temperamental antithesis had done 
 the rest. 
 
 Karl was assiduous in the pursuit of knowledge. 
 Van had never been assiduous in the pursuit of any- 
 thing except a pretty woman. Yet he was poten- 
 tially the cleverer of the two. He possessed, in 
 fact, a fair share of his father's fine mentality, blan- 
 keted by the intellectual apathy of his mother. And 
 he was apt to get more credit for his buried talents
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 173 
 
 than those who made the most of lesser gifts. From 
 early days his parents had expected great things of 
 him ; partly because he was Van, partly because 
 his serene air of detachment seemed to imply that 
 he " could an' if he would." But at Eton he had 
 achieved little beyond a wide popularity, two prize 
 essays and a certain distinction in the cricket-field. 
 At Oxford well at Oxford, there were the boats 
 and breakfast parties and dinners at the Bullingdon 
 and Union debates, and billiards, and sentimental 
 summer evenings in a backwater, with the pretty girl 
 of the moment ; and every conceivable inducement 
 to cultivate his most expensive tastes. Oxford, in 
 fact, was so full of a number of things, that schools 
 and lectures had been rather in the way. Happily 
 lectures could be cut ; and that seemed to be their 
 raison d'etre in the set to which he had gravitated by 
 the law of human magnetism. 
 
 It was Karl who had first shaken the comfortable 
 conviction that cutting lectures, rowing, debating, 
 and fitful reading in " vac " was not the high road 
 to honours ; . and Van coveted honours for the 
 credit of the family. Karl did not cut lectures to 
 any extent ; and, as they grew more intimate, Van 
 would discover that on convivial nights while he 
 had been dining and dancing and drinking more 
 champagne than he could carry Karl had been 
 sitting up almost as late with a pipe and strong coffee 
 and a pile of books on physical science. 
 
 " I've told my father I shall take a First and I 
 intend to do so," was his justification of this unortho-
 
 174 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 dox behaviour. " So you see I must work. I 
 haven't got brains like yours." 
 
 No sarcasm was intended. Karl had not the gift 
 of sarcasm and he had a prodigious admiration for 
 " the Honourable Evan," as he persisted in calling 
 him till Van threatened to break off the connexion. 
 He simply spoke the truth. He had not Van's 
 natural aptitude. But his brain possessed the 
 supreme Teuton quality of absorbing and classifying 
 every scrap of knowledge that could be turned to 
 account and mechanically shedding the rest. By 
 this simple process he could house a vast miscellany 
 of facts without undue effort ; and by this process 
 he hoped to gain the coveted ' First.' 
 
 Van had objected to Karl's unfailing industry, 
 partly because it was inconvenient ; chiefly because 
 it seemed a tacit reflection on himself. So he had 
 taken a perverse pleasure in luring his friend from the 
 path of virtue : no such hard matter once he dis- 
 covered the weak links in his armour music and 
 women. Karl was amorous and sentimental ; and 
 at banquets or " blinds," when he reached the stage 
 of " having drink taken," he was the best company 
 in the world. 
 
 But in the middle of their second year his Teutonic 
 brain reasserted itself ; and there had been some- 
 thing like a scene. It was Karl's declaration of 
 independence ; and it had the surprising effect of 
 firing Van with a tardy desire to convince his friend 
 that a Blount could shine with the best of them, if he 
 chose to exert himself. But, like the hare in the
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 175 
 
 fable, he had slept a little too long. He succeeded 
 in winning the Newdigate ; but in the schools he had 
 to be content with a Second, while Karl secured his 
 First. 
 
 His disappointment had been keen and galling ; 
 but he had consoled himself with the reflection that 
 at last the troublesome, necessary process of educa- 
 tion had come to an end for good. The idea that 
 it could, or should, be a lifelong process had never 
 visited his brain. That was the fundamental differ- 
 ence between himself and Derek. In Van's eyes 
 Eton and Balliol were simply caste marks of the 
 first order ; hence their intrinsic value. 
 
 As for Karl, though he loved the grey city of 
 spires, he tended to see it as a sort*of intellectual 
 farm-yard where brains were scientifically crammed 
 for degrees that were practical means to an end. 
 After Oxford he had gone to the great German school 
 of Forestry at Asschaffenburg, where he filled a fresh 
 set of mental pigeon-holes ; and from forestry his 
 untiring brain had passed on to. the problems of 
 scientific agriculture. Under the tutelage of a first- 
 class land agent, he had done such good work that 
 already he himself aspired to an agency ; which sane 
 and modest ambition Van had been suddenly inspired 
 to fulfil. 
 
 The more he looked at his inspiration the better 
 pleased he felt with himself and it. To dethrone 
 Malcolm was, unluckily, impossible ; but Van felt 
 convinced he could never work amicably with that 
 crusty Scot. Loyalty on the one side, and tact on
 
 176 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 the other, had so far prevented open friction between 
 them ; but the undercurrent of antagonism was 
 there. Van wondered if his father had discovered it. 
 Probably not. His faith in Malcolm was implicit ; 
 and any step towards limiting the agent's sphere of 
 influence would have to be cautiously taken. But 
 the idea of Karl as his lieutenant was so alluring 
 that no minor considerations could be allowed to 
 thwart it. 
 
 Moreover, his flattering offer might serve to oil the 
 wheels of things. For there were certain unsettled 
 scores between these two that intermittently 
 worried Van's not too exacting conscience : and 
 Karl had been known to make disconcerting remarks. 
 An appointment with a good salary, out of his 
 father's pocket, could scarcely be twisted, even by 
 Van, into the payment of his own private debt ; but 
 it would ease his mind to do Karl a service that 
 would incidentally be a boon to himself. Though 
 there was already a " job " in view, Van did not see 
 Karl refusing Avonleigh. He would spring it on 
 him to-morrow. And there was a certain fifty 
 pounds, dating from a good while back. It might be 
 as well to pay that off ; an earnest of more to follow 
 when the convenient moment arrived. 
 
 Sunday was always a quiet day at Avonleigh. Its 
 sacred character was officially recognized though 
 individuals were free to disregard it. Derek and 
 Jack were already in the saddle, while the rest of the 
 party were still standing about round the log fire in
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 177 
 
 the hall the friendliest gathering place in the whole 
 house with its vast armchairs, oak settees and 
 Persian nigs ; its portraits of bygone Blounts and 
 its unique display of mediaeval armour. 
 
 Outside, it was a morning to charm away the 
 blackest shadow of care that ever sat behind a horse- 
 man : a quakerish morning of light cloud, and fugi- 
 tive wistful gleams of sunshine. Comte d'Estelle 
 challenged Honor Lenox to a five mile walk along 
 the lake and over Burnt Hill : and when the four 
 elders drove off to Ashbourne Church, Van and Karl 
 drifted to the billiard room. Both were inveterate 
 players ; and the billiard table was responsible for a 
 good many of those awkward corners that had left 
 Van so deeply indebted to his friend. Thanks 
 mainly to Karl's backing, he had won through his 
 four years at Oxford with no more than a hill- 
 ock of debt visible to the naked eye. For. he 
 set great store by his home halo ; and did his best 
 to keep it bright. 
 
 They played one closely contested game before 
 Van sprang his inspiration on the unsuspecting 
 Karl. Then as he clicked the ivory markers back 
 into position, he asked conversationally : " Have 
 you done any more about that job you mentioned 
 last week ? " 
 
 " No. It's in Norfolk. A biggish place. Good 
 money. But I'm not dead keen." 
 
 He spoke absently, in jerks. He was moving 
 round the table, making cannons of the silkiest 
 softness at impossible angles, while he talked.
 
 178 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 And Van, having lit a cigarette, stood watching him, 
 fascinated by his uncanny accuracy of hand and eye. 
 
 Externally, there was little of the Teuton about 
 Karl, except for his rather prominent light blue 
 eyes and a certain thickness about the full view of his 
 nostrils and lips. In profile, his nose was straight 
 and comely. His moustache studiously refrained 
 from any upward curve and his thatch of straw- 
 coloured hair was brushed backwards, in correct 
 fashion, from a remarkably capable forehead. His 
 dress and manners b'ore the Public school and 
 University stamp a stamp it had become the 
 fashion to deride before it proved itself, on 
 battlefields and in training camps, the hall-mark of 
 the race. 
 
 " When you say ' a biggish place/ " Van remarked, 
 after his silence, " d'you mean anywhere near the 
 size of this ? " 
 
 " Gracious, no ! A man doesn't expect to start 
 at the top of the tree." 
 
 " Sometimes he can start a good way up, if he's 
 lucky enough to have exceptional capacity and 
 friends in the right quarter." 
 
 At that Karl left off making cannons and looked 
 hard at Van, who leaned against the window frame 
 caressing his moustache. 
 
 " My dear fellow, what are you getting at ? " 
 
 Van looked back at him with his most engaging 
 smile. " What I'd like to be getting at is the chance 
 of harnessing your exceptional capacity to the woods 
 and fields of Avonleigh which you said yourself last
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 179 
 
 week would repay more scientific handling." 
 
 Karl's grunt of astonishment was emphasized by 
 
 the thud of his cue on the carpet. " Well of all the 
 
 bomb-shells ! " 
 
 " A pleasant one, I hope ? " 
 " You mean me to take it seriously ? " 
 " Why not ? I wasn't perpetrating a ponderous 
 joke." 
 
 " But, my dear chap in the first place there 
 isn't a vacancy ; in the second, I'm not exactly 
 
 persona grata with your father " 
 
 " My father leaves- for India next month. He'll 
 be gone five years," Van announced with his faint 
 drawl ; and seating himself on the cushioned sill he 
 proceeded to unfold the situation. 
 
 Karl listened half perched on the rim of the 
 billiard table, thoughtfully swinging one foot. 
 
 " So you see," Van concluded with a Jove-like 
 nod, " I shall be pretty well master here for a good 
 spell. 'Course I can't shift Malcolm altogether. 
 But I'm out for up-to-date improvements ; and I'll 
 need an intelligent expert like yourself to back me 
 up. In fact, a sort of locum tenens. For you don't 
 catch me vegetating at Avonleigh. And as you've a 
 natural taste for the country, the whole thing dove- 
 tails rather neatly what ? " 
 
 Karl sucked in his lips and released them with a 
 
 smack ; an ugly trick that always annoyed Van. 
 
 " It's a tempting proposition. Naturally, I'd 
 
 like to work for you ; and being here so much/ I've 
 
 observed things a bit. But I still consider myself a
 
 i8o STRANGE ROADS 
 
 learner. Surely you need some one more experi- 
 enced ? " 
 
 "Oh, of course if you're such a modest violet I 
 must look elsewhere." Van's tone was noticeably 
 cooler. Karl's caution and lack of enthusiasm hurt 
 his vanity. 
 
 ' You seem in a mighty hurry to chuck me ! l ' 
 that young man remarked with perfect good humour. 
 
 " Chuck you ? Why, you won't even look at my 
 offer." 
 
 " Don't be a bally ass, Van. I'm staring at it with 
 all my eyes. Blinds one a bit." 
 
 He slipped off the table, and seated himself in the 
 window. 
 
 Van proffered his cigarette case. " Russians," he 
 said. 
 
 Karl helped himself. " Have you spoken to Lord 
 Avonleigh ? " he asked. 
 
 " No. I only thought of it last night." 
 
 "" D'you suppose he would approve ? " 
 
 " I really don't know. He might get worrying 
 for fear it should make friction. But he's giving me 
 a pretty free hand ; and I've every right to choose 
 my man so long as I respect his sacred Malcolm. I 
 want some one on the spot who stands for me. I 
 doubt if I'll give up the F.O. job. It's interesting. 
 Keeps you ' in the know.' A week end with the 
 pheasants, an occasional tour of inspection, and a 
 roaring house-party for Christmas that's about the 
 ticket. I can work my mother once I get her to 
 myself. I shall set her up in Avonleigh House and
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 181 
 
 she'll soon be wondering how she ever stood living 
 out of town. It'll suit Ina's book, too, till she 
 marries her K.C." 
 
 Karl's sympathetic smile was tinged with amuse- 
 ment. " You evidently fntend to have the time of 
 your life," said he. 
 
 " Hope so : if you play up and Malcolm doesn't 
 make himself a nuisance. I'll find decent quarters 
 for you ; and there'll always be a bed in my ' digs.' 
 Officially I shall live with my mother. But I'll hang 
 on to the Albany suite ; and when I'm bored stiff 
 with playing the dutiful son, I'll haul you up on a 
 telephone wire and we'll buzz round unofficially ! " 
 Van's left eyelid twitched. " Begin to see daylight 
 now, K ? Are you still stone blind what ? " 
 
 " I'm still feeling a bit dazzled," Karl admitted 
 honestly. " You must make allowances ! I'm 
 wanted, so far as I can gather, to make the woods 
 and home farms more all-round profitable working 
 concerns ? " 
 
 " Precisely. My father keeps more acres under 
 corn than most big landlords do these days. He 
 sticks to it on principle, though he admits it doesn't 
 pay as it ought to do ; and of course he was badly 
 let down in the eighties and nineties like the rest of 
 the farming wojrld. You talked immensely learned 
 last week about ways and means of getting a bigger 
 yield from the same acreage. And I bet you've 
 picked up a tip or two, these last months, ambling 
 round agricultural Germany. We've no end to learn 
 from your country in that as well as other things.'*
 
 182 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Not my country, thanks very much," Karl 
 corrected him in an odd contained voice, and Van 
 smilingly accepted the rebuke. 
 
 " Good old Karl ! A shame to rag you ! But 
 nationally, a man takes after his father." 
 
 " Well personally I take after my mother. It's 
 her I have to thank for the priceless boon of a liberal 
 English education. And I've spent enough of my 
 vacs in Germany to know just how priceless it is." 
 
 " Hear, hear ! " Van remarked softly. ' These 
 days one's led to suppose it's the other way round ; 
 that our youngsters are wasting their substance on 
 riotous athletics and husks of dead languages when 
 they ought to be mugging up Chinese and special- 
 izing technically for all they're worth." 
 
 " That's the swing of the pendulum, and no doubt 
 it'll swing too'far. I've had the luck to see something 
 of both sides and I can only say ' Commend me to 
 the liberally educated muddler.' Nine-tenths of the 
 technically trained prodigies are working for him, 
 and under him, because they're not fit for anything 
 else. Of course there are shining exceptions every- 
 where. But, take it all round, Germany is grinding 
 out a race of highly-trained clerks and mechanics 
 who are most ot 'em engaged in filling the pockets of 
 commercial Jews. England, with all her bungling, 
 is still turning out men and leaders of men." 
 
 Van lifted his eyebrows. " You seem to have 
 had an extra special eye-opener over there this 
 summer. D'you hold forth in that vein to the 
 mighty Schonberg ? He's no mere clerk or mechanic."
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 183 
 
 " No. He's one of the shining exceptions. We 
 get a good many of them over here. And when 
 they do shine, I admit they blaze around to some 
 purpose." 
 
 " You also admitted the other day to return to 
 our cornfields that they manage to squeeze twice 
 as much out of a hundred acres of poor soil, in a 
 harsh climate, as our fellows do with soil and climate 
 in their favour." 
 
 " That's so." 
 
 " Well, what's the recipe ? Bet you've got it all 
 up your sleeve, you walking encyclopaedia ! " 
 
 Karl's conversation for the next fifteen minutes 
 bristled with technicalities enough to justify the 
 epithet and bewilder the brain of his liberally edu- 
 cated friend. He supported his facts with figures : 
 and Van's lazy amusement was tinged with genuine 
 respect. Though the two had been intimate for 
 years, he still constantly found himself astonished 
 at the varied amount of practical knowledge Karl 
 kept up his sleeve, ready for service as required. 
 
 When the disquisition was ended he remarked 
 genially : " Couldn't follow half of it. But if 
 you'll only play up and work a few of those miracles, 
 here, I'd get no end of kudos for discovering such a 
 treasure ! " 
 
 Karl smiled at that characteristic inducement, 
 ' You can't work miracles with the land," he said. 
 " It's a matter of steady plodding in the right direc- 
 tion ; and over here the human element's against 
 it. The British farmer's a distrustful beggar not
 
 184 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 without good reason. It's not that he's merely 
 ignorant, his whole level of intelligence wants lifting. 
 He also badly wants the security of State aid and 
 protection, which he isn't likely to get while Free 
 Traders rule the waves ! " 
 
 " But, my dear fellow, we can't burden the 
 country with tariffs simply on his account." 
 
 Karl shrugged. It was an old bone of contention. 
 " Then you" must accept," he said, " the farmer's lack 
 of enterprise." 
 
 " Very well I accept it ! All the same, with a 
 fellow like you in charge, a good deal might be 
 achieved. Scientific treatment of the soil. Aren't 
 there fertilizers arid things " 
 
 " Oh yes, there are fertilizers and things ! Won- 
 ders are being done with fixed nitrogen in Germany 
 and South Norway. But the casual folk here won't 
 trouble their heads about it, so long as grain ships 
 come pouring in " 
 
 " And they will continue to come pouring in, for 
 ever and ever, amen," Van chimed in piously. 
 " But the point is what about my proposal ? " 
 
 Karl looked thoughtful again. Then he said 
 frankly : " You must admit that so far the whole 
 thing is a trifle sketchy. Naturally I should like to 
 feel sure that your father's agreeable ; and that Mr. 
 Malcolm even if he isn't agreeable would not be 
 obstructive. As it is, my position's quite undefined." 
 
 " I see," Van said with a deliberate drawl. 
 " Truth is, you'd sooner boss a smaller place than 
 play second fiddle here. And the fact that I'm keen
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 185 
 
 on the plan doesn't affect your business point of 
 view." 
 
 At that Karl fairly lost his temper. 
 
 " If you're death on talking such putrid rot, God 
 himself can't prevent you," he retorted, and walked 
 away to the mantelpiece. Then he swung round and 
 looked hard at his friend who still sat there smoking, 
 apparently unperturbed. " You know you didn't 
 mean that, Van. And you know I'm a cautious 
 mover. Like to look all round before I jump. And 
 if I put my back into a thing I want to feel I can 
 hang on long enough to reap results. But you say 
 yourself it's all in the air as yet : so I vote we drop it, 
 till your affairs are more settled and get on with 
 our game. Meantime, I won't accept anything else. 
 That satisfy you ? " 
 
 " Oh yes. I'm agreeable," Van answered coolly. 
 " I shan't worry you again. If you want the job 
 you can say so. Now come on. I owe you a 
 licking ; and I shall have particular pleasure in 
 administering it! " 
 
 The achievement took time and all Van's skill ; 
 for they were well matched. When it was over, he 
 laid an envelope on the table. 
 
 ' Yours," he remarked genially. " A good deal 
 over due. Thanks very much and all that." 
 
 " Sure you can spare it conveniently ? I'm in no 
 hurry." 
 
 ' That's a mercy, 'coz it's all I can spare conveni- 
 ently just at the moment." 
 
 Karl pocketed the envelope. " Don't worry
 
 186 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 about that, old chap," he said. "I'm always glad 
 to be of use." 
 
 " With reservations ! " Van reminded him feel- 
 ingly : and they went on into the hall where they 
 found the elders just back from church
 
 CHAPTER YII 
 
 " One sleeps, indeed, and wakes at intervals . . . 
 And my provisions for life's waking part ; 
 Accordingly, I use heart, head and hand ; 
 All day I build, scheme, study and make friends." 
 
 BROWNING. 
 
 ON Monday they had a great day with the 
 partridges and on Tuesday Karl departed ,. 
 without any further allusion to their talk, leaving 
 Van still mystified and a trifle on edge. 
 
 He spent most of the week lecturing at a big 
 Agricultural College, turning his tour through South 
 Germany to practical account ; and on Saturday he 
 travelled North. 
 
 He had small love for the great gloomy manufac- 
 turing town in which Adolf Schonberg and John 
 Burlton were leading lights of the civic and commer- 
 cial world. But he was fond of his father, though 
 there was little intimacy and less understanding 
 between them. Very early and very decidedly he. 
 had announced his unwillingness to enter any one 
 of the elder Schonberg' s prosperous lines of business. 
 To his surprise and relief his father had refrained 
 from pressing the point ; and had transferred the 
 
 187
 
 i88 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 honour to his purely Teutonic stepbrother, Heinrich, 
 aged fifteen, now being educated in Germany to 
 that end. Karl's own modest ambition had, at first, 
 been treated as a whim unworthy of serious opposi- 
 tion. Then, quite suddenly, Schonberg had changed 
 his tune : and if the boy wondered a little, he had 
 asked no questions. The fact sufficed. 
 
 His own English upbringing a 'concession to his 
 mother had inevitably tended to separate father 
 and son. Devotion to the memory of one dead 
 woman was by this time the only strong link between 
 them. For Karl knew very well that his father's 
 second marriage implied no change of heart toward 
 her, who had been the sole romance of his life. It 
 was the duty of all good Germans to propagate the 
 race ; and Schonberg needed a woman in the house. 
 That was his common-sense view of the matter ; 
 and his occasional remarks on the subject were 
 frank to a point that jarred on Karl's finer suscepti- 
 bilities, even while he appreciated his father's some- 
 what peculiar notion of loyalty to the dead. 
 
 Because of that loyalty, Karl had been reluctant 
 to suspect the nature of Schonberg' s manifold busi- 
 ness activities. But as he grew in years and in 
 knowledge he began to be afraid lest his father 
 might be numbered among those who were secretly 
 intriguing against the great country, which had 
 sold them its birthright for a mess of pottage, and 
 had largely contributed to their success. He hated 
 himself for harbouring the idea ; but it persisted 
 nevertheless.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 189 
 
 Outwardly his father seemed as amicable to 
 England as himself ; even when he laughed at her 
 failings and extolled the greatness of Germany, from 
 whom these good, slow confiding Britishers had an 
 infinite deal to learn. Schonberg and his kind by 
 implication were there to instruct them for the 
 good of their souls and their pockets. It was 
 Germany's God-directed mission to permeate the 
 world, that earth might yield her increase to the 
 utmost ; and man might rise to the full height of 
 his powers. Such was his free translation of Pan- 
 German ideals ; and if Karl took it all with a few 
 grains of salt, he kept that fact to himself. 
 
 It was this vague distrust that impelled him to- 
 steer clear of business connexion with his father, 
 and it partly accounted for his doubtful attitude 
 towards Van's astonishing offer. Not that he 
 seriously supposed Schonberg had the will or the 
 power to harm Lord Avonleigh : but he was Teuton 
 enough to know that his inordinate appetite for 
 information could not be dismissed as a mere hobby. 
 There was direction behind it, though he could not see 
 whither it tended. 
 
 It was true, also, that he had felt himself accepted 
 at Avonleigh simply as Van's friend ; and, if it 
 came to giving his services, he demanded more 
 individual recognition. He knew his charming 
 friend well ejiough to foresee that if Malcolm proved 
 obstructive, Van would keep discreetly aloof and 
 leave him to bear the brunt of things. It was a 
 pity, too, that Van was so casual about money
 
 190 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Karl wondered if Lord Avonleigh realized it and 
 whether it would complicate their business relation ? 
 But chiefly he had been hampered by that vague, 
 unreasoning distrust of his father. 
 
 On his northern journey he had leisure to consider 
 these things, to rate himself for a disloyal son, and 
 finally to decide that, if his father showed any 
 marked eagerness for him to accept the less respon- 
 sible post, he would risk Van's passing annoyance 
 and refuse outright. 
 
 The Schonbergs and Burltons inhabited large, 
 unbeautiful residential houses on the outskirts of 
 Randchester ; houses with immaculate front windows 
 and gardens, decorously screened by a wall of ever- 
 greens from prying eyes and the dust of the high 
 road. Somewhere beyond the evergreens you would 
 find the inevitable group of lilac, laburnum and 
 crimson may the three graces of town gardens ; 
 with a cypress thrown in for dignity or a weeping 
 ash for shade. Schonberg's residence was christened 
 " Freischutz." Burlton had found the startling 
 legend " Cotopaxi " printed on his large white gate 
 and had banished it in favour of Warton Grange. 
 The houses were less than a mile apart. Driving 
 from the station, one came first to Warton Grange ; 
 and Karl, from his open taxi, spied Mr. Burlton on 
 the gravel path. Norfolk suit and tweed cap 
 proclaimed him on the verge of his week-end flitting 
 for golf. Karl waved his stick, shouted to the driver 
 and sprang out. 
 
 " Take my traps on, will you ? " he said, adding
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 191 
 
 sixpence to his fare, " and say I'll be coming along 
 shortly." 
 
 He had a real affection for " old Burlton " ; and, 
 on the whole, found his three younger boys and 
 widowed sister more congenial than the step rela- 
 tions at " Freischutz." But it puzzled and dis- 
 appointed him that he could make so little headway 
 with Jack. He knew, from remarks at home, that 
 partnership was in the air ; but of underlying causes 
 he had not the remotest idea. 
 
 John Burlton came forward to meet him with a 
 friendly smile on his commonplace, capable face. 
 He was a thickset man in the early fifties ; externally 
 alert and mobile, internally slow-moving and limited, 
 with as kind a heart and as much genuine honesty 
 as is compatible with success in the " savage wars 
 of peace." Like many Englishmen of his class and 
 age he was more concerned to keep his figure from 
 spreading than his mind from rusting : hence the 
 disparity between his muscles and his brain. He 
 belonged to the type of man common enough in 
 these islands who will make a hard and fast 
 statement, listen placidly to a string of shattering 
 arguments, and, at the end, repeat his original 
 remark as if no dissenting word had been uttered. 
 Outside his human affections, the pith of life was 
 summed up for him in two words Burltons and 
 golf. Five days of the week he devoted to the first ; 
 two to the second. And those two days were sacro- 
 sanct. Only the trump of doom would interrupt 
 his weekly pursuit of the elusive ball and the sacred
 
 192 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 rite of keeping himself "fit." Had the frivolous 
 ventured to inquire " fit for what ? " no doubt but 
 he would have answered gravely : " For more 
 golf." 
 
 " Just flitting, as you see ! " he greeted Karl in 
 his cheery week-end voice. The week-end voice was 
 Jack's invention ; but it certainly had an unmistak- 
 able ring seldom heard within the four walls of his 
 office. " The car'll be here in a minute. You home 
 for long ? " 
 
 " Only till Monday. That's why I nipped out. 
 Have the youngsters anything on to-morrow ? " 
 
 " An all-day match. The town against Wingfield. ' ' 
 
 " Good. I'll come along and applaud." 
 
 A parlourmaid appeared at the front door. " The 
 telephone, please, sir. Mr. Schonberg." 
 
 With a muttered expletive, Burlton hurried into 
 the study ; and Karl, waiting in the hall, was divided 
 between sympathy and amusement as he listened 
 to the rapid one-sided colloquy jerked out by 
 Burlton in tones far removed from those of his 
 greeting. 
 
 " Monday first thing Monday what ? But, my 
 dear fellow, it's impossible. I tell you I'm just 
 starting. Yes yes. Two friends meeting me at 
 Warton. What ? Oh, / don't think so." A longish 
 pause. " There's the car coming round oh, if it's 
 as urgent as all that. But, confound it all, man, I 
 shall miss my train ! " 
 
 The click of the receiver on its hook was followed 
 by the reappearance of Burlton, his week-end aspect
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 193 
 
 clean gone ; vexation in his voice, a worried look 
 about his eyes. 
 
 " Never knew such a fellow as your father for 
 doing things on the nail," he said with a short 
 laugh. " He wants me round there. Some business 
 he's convinced won't wait. There's no putting him 
 off, and I'm blest if I shan't lose my train. Put 
 in the traps on the chance, Robson." This to 
 the mystified chauffeur, who had just announced the 
 car. 
 
 Then he thrust his head into the drawing-room. 
 " Good-bye, Alice. Business at Schonberg's; so you 
 may see me back, unless I drive the whole way. 
 Damned if I won't drive all the way," he added with 
 decision when the door was shut. " Shall I give 
 you a lift, Karl ? " 
 
 As they rolled smoothly along the metalled high- 
 way, Burlton repeated, in a more genial tone : 
 " Never knew such a fellow as your father. I don't 
 believe he has two ideas in his head outside business. 
 Of course it's half the secret of his success. But 
 in my opinion it's good for a man to shake himself 
 free once a week. It's a queer thing about foreigners, 
 however long they live here, they never seem to get 
 the hang of the week-end institution the finest in 
 -the world." 
 
 As a matter of fact his own loyalty to the said 
 institution gave him a pleasant sense of superiority 
 to the indefatigable German whose devotion to 
 business seemed likely to be the means of his own 
 salvation.
 
 194 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 ' You still reckon my father a foreigner ? " Karl 
 asked. " After twenty-seven years in England ! " 
 
 " Well he seems to remain one, doesn't he ? 
 Though to me, Germans never feel quite so foreign 
 as any of the other lot. Frankly, Karl, in some ways 
 he's one of the most amazing men I've ever met. 
 But I can't have him playing old Harry with my week 
 ends ! " 
 
 Freischutz was a few degrees uglier than Warton 
 Grange : but the affinity of type was evident, as 
 the car swerved through the gateway and followed 
 the curve of the lawn, where a silver fir stood stiffly 
 in place of the weeping ash. The house itself was 
 still further disfigured by Mrs. Schonberg's deplorable 
 taste in curtains. 
 
 The sound of the car brought Schonberg himself 
 to the door a bulky ill-dressed figure of a man, 
 firm, fleshy and powerful ; the hands notably so with 
 a large thumb which he used to enforce his arguments 
 or his will. And the face matched those forcible 
 hands : prominent eyes under a vigorous forehead, 
 a thick, assertive nose, sensuous mouth and good 
 strong teeth stained with tobacco. His colourless 
 hair and moustache were well brushed upward, and 
 the slight droop of his lids gave him a misleading air 
 of inattention which he found very useful on occasion. 
 But his son if not his friend was quite aware that 
 very little escaped the attention of those sleepy- 
 looking eyes or of the brain behind them that noted 
 and registered every serviceable item with mechani- 
 cal precision.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 195 
 
 When the car drew up he was standing on the 
 topmost of three shallow steps that led to the front 
 door. He smiled genially and waved his hand. 
 
 " Karl also ! That is goot, golf-sticks also ! " 
 He jerked a derisive thumb towards the bag of clubs. 
 " You still belief you will go ? " 
 
 " Of course I'm going if I have to drive there," 
 Burlton answered doggedly. " Come on. Let's 
 get through with the business as soon as possible." 
 
 Schonberg lifted his shoulders. "To make way 
 for the greater business hein ! It will be your 
 ruin yet, my friend, this graze for walking walking 
 walking after one foolish leetle white ball. Firmly 
 I belief you would prefer losing a big deal to a round 
 of golf ! Lucky for Burltons there was no golf in 
 England when your great firm was glimbing the 
 gommercial ladder." 
 
 But Burlton was in no mood to appreciate a sally 
 at his own expense. " I have yet to learn that the 
 interests of the firm have ever been neglected for 
 my hobby," he replied with a touch of stiffness. 
 " I earn my leisure and I work the better for it." 
 
 ' Well well, we will not guarrel over my little 
 choke. Gome, you shall hear if I had reason to upset 
 your plans." He laid a heavy affectionate hand 
 on Karl's shoulder. " Glad to see you, my boy. 
 We shall talk later. Business first, pleasure after 
 even if it is a week end hein ? " 
 
 Burlton had passed on into the hall and the two 
 exchanged a smile of amused understanding before 
 Schonberg followed his unwilling guest. For all his
 
 196 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Inflexibility, the man had a trong -human streak in 
 him and strong passions, both kept in a separate 
 compartment from that unwavering, inhuman 
 machine his business brain. 
 
 Nearly an hour passed before Karl heard the 
 study door open, and saw from the windows of his 
 own smoky sanctum Burlton's car roll away 
 through the gathering dusk. Then he strolled in to 
 see his father whom he found as always in his big 
 swivel chair, a cork pen in his hand, a drooping 
 German pipe between his teeth. 
 
 On his expansive desk not a paper was out of 
 place. Every pigeon hole was neatly packed ; and 
 the shelves that rose above them held books of 
 reference and scientific journals dealing with an 
 amazing variety of subjects. In the window on a 
 heavy polished table stood a castor-oil plant in a 
 rotund pink bowl that clashed violently with its 
 magenta mat. There were faded red velvet curtains, 
 and privacy was secured by a Japanese bamboo 
 blind. Over the mantelpiece, against a background 
 of dingy wall-paper, hung a water-colour study of 
 Karl's mother the one relatively beautiful thing 
 in the room". It was a tender, intelligent, rather 
 wistful face a ratified edition of her son's with 
 eyes that seemed to follow you when you moved. 
 Directly under the picture stood a]; vase of early 
 chrysanthemums. Winter or summer that vase held 
 its tribute of flowers from the man who had married 
 again eighteen months after her death. 
 
 A folding leather screen held the four younger
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 197 
 
 Schonbergs Heinrich, Gretel, Johann and* Fritz ; 
 but the good Anna, who had contributed these 
 human legacies to the Fatherland, was nowhere in 
 evidence. Karl often wondered whether the omis- 
 sion hurt her feelings, or whether she even noticed 
 it ? If she did, she gave no sign. 
 
 The whole room, though shabby and unlovely, 
 had a certain air of homely comfort ; but it was 
 stuffy to the point of suffocation and it reeked of 
 strong tobacco. 
 
 Schonberg greeted his son with a guttural " Ach- 
 ha," removed his spectacles and indicated a deep 
 leather chair near the fire. In that chair, facing the 
 window, sat all his visitors. He himself, when he 
 turned his swivel seat to confront them, had his 
 back to the light. It is a common trick of diplo- 
 matists, and it had often served him well. 
 
 " Sure I'm not interrupting ? " Karl asked as he 
 sat down ; and Schonberg smiled a wide smile that 
 revealed all his teeth. 
 
 " Sush a kind of interruption I could more often 
 put up with ! But we cannot offer you here the 
 attractions of Afonleigh Hall." 
 
 " That's an unfair hit ! " Karl retorted, and shied 
 away from the subject. " Is Burlton really going to 
 drive out to Warton this evening ? " 
 
 Schonberg shrugged. " I imachine not. Poor 
 defil ! He must sleep Friday night in his own bett. 
 He shall miss one round after his leetle white- ball ; 
 so he has no thanks for me, though to-day I haf 
 done him a goot turn, worth to miss three week
 
 198 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 ends for. Ach, these English ! In all the years I 
 haf known them, never haf I come to understand 
 their madness of a ball 
 
 " It's a very healthy sort of madness." 
 
 Schonberg regarded him thoughtfully ; then he 
 looked up at the face of his dead wife. " You are 
 nearly so bad ! Not quite. Because of her wish, 
 I haf made you almost one of them. But Gott 
 sei dank ! You haf more sense " 
 
 "I'm not so sure ! I didn't find any lack of brains 
 at Oxford " 
 
 " Cht-cht ! " Oxford was dismissed with a ges- 
 ture. " Brains are of one kind. Sense is of another. 
 I am still so often astonished as to-night how they 
 are fools ! " Suddenly he raised his heavy lids, 
 revealing the pale iris full circle and changing in a 
 flash the whole aspect of his face. " Ach zo, the 
 goot Gott knows his business. Wise and foolish 
 created he them so the wise should profit by the 
 arranchement ! " 
 
 " D'you mean take advantage ? " Karl asked 
 quietly, and something in his tone checked the older 
 man's unusual burst of frankness. His face resumed 
 its look of sleepy geniality. 
 
 " More often lose than take, my boy," he answered 
 lightly. " But you are here to tell me news of your 
 lectures and your fine friends. You had a goot time 
 hein ? " 
 
 " Ripping time. I always do. I'm going there 
 later for the pheasants." He paused ; then added 
 casually, " They've just had a bomb-shell sprung
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 199 
 
 on" them. Lord Avonleigh's going to India next 
 month, as Governor of Bombay " 
 
 Again that sudden, odd lift of the lids. " Ach-ha. 
 They send him to India ? No fool he. A strong 
 man. But what will come to Afonleigh ? Your dear 
 friend is too mush man-about-town to lif there. 
 They will shut it up ? Perhaps let ? " 
 
 " I haven't an idea. Van has his work at the 
 Foreign Office. But he's keen about the place, too. 
 He actually suggested putting me in charge of the 
 woods and home farms to make them more profitable 
 working concerns." 
 
 " You ? " Schonberg drew in his lips precisely 
 as Karl had done when Van broached the idea. 
 Then he sat silent puffing at his pipe and regarding 
 his son with sleepy, inscrutable eyes. " And you 
 accepted hein ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! " Karl answered lightly. " iCdidn't 
 amount to an official offer. Just a suggestion because 
 he knows I've studied things pretty thoroughly." 
 
 ' You can thank your Cherman blood for that. 
 It is the talisman. Because of it we become always 
 more indispensable to lazier peoples. How are you 
 inclined yourself ? You haf not yet refused Sir 
 Thomas Wade ? " 
 
 " No. I'm thinking things over. Of course I'd 
 like Avonleigh. But I want to know just what my 
 
 position would be " 
 
 ' To tague all trouble off his shoulders ancf win 
 credit for him in his father's eyes ! " Schonberg 
 answered with a guttural chuckle. " That is the
 
 200 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 fashion of these young lordlings. I know them * 
 But Afonleigh is a fine estate. It is likely you 
 would haf a pretty free hand. And afterwards who 
 can tell ? " 
 
 Karl shook his head. " I don't flatter myself I'm 
 likely to step into Mr. Malcolm's shoes ! I gather 
 he's not easy to work with. And of course in 
 Norfolk I should practically run the show." 
 
 ' That is the tempting bait ! Nashural enough ! " 
 And Schonberg fell into a thoughtful silence staring 
 at the fire. 
 
 Karl, surreptitiously scanning his face, was pricked 
 with sharp curiosity. If one could but lift the 
 curtain and read the writing on the brain ! Nothing 
 his father had said showed the slightest bias one way 
 or the other : yet for no definable reason Karl 
 felt more uncertain of him than ever. He had 
 looked for a sign, and the very fact that he had 
 found none reawakened suspicion. He knew his 
 father for a man of definite opinions often aggres- 
 sively so. Yet he had refrained even from proffering 
 a word of advice. 
 
 ' Why on earth ? " mused bewildered Karl ; 
 
 and his bewilderment was tinged with annoyance. 
 He had imbibed at school and college a love of 
 straight dealing ; and in his father's presence he was 
 constantly worried by the sense of hidden under- 
 currents that effectively killed all frank natural 
 intercourse. So he sat silent waiting for Schonberg's 
 next remark. 
 
 " Hanged if I'll give him a lead," he thought with
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 201 
 
 a touch of boyish obstinacy. " Even if I have to 
 stick it out for half an hour ! " 
 
 Happily he was not so severely taxed. He got 
 off with seven minutes by the black marble clock. 
 Then Schonberg removed his pipe and shifted his 
 eyes to his son's face. They had no softness in 
 them except when they rested on Karl his Freda's 
 legacy. 
 
 " Well, well, you shall think it over," he said. 
 ' You are a man now. It is your affair. I would 
 bet ten pounds the scales are tilted towards Afonleigh 
 and your friend Fan ! " 
 
 " I wouldn't be surprised ! " Karl answered with 
 a non-committal smile and heaved himself out of 
 the deep chair a little of the study atmosphere 
 went a long way. 
 
 " Nor I ! Only remember if it is Viscount Afon- 
 leigh or Sir Thomas Wade you haf first-class qualifica- 
 tions and your serfices are worth goot money. Now 
 I haf letters to finish. Sush a pile ! No slack time for 
 me if it is weeg-end ! Perhaps goot luck for 
 Burlton / do not run after balls or make a dust all ofer 
 the country egsercising my car ! " 
 
 " Is the partnership coming off, then ? " 
 
 ' That is for Burlton to say. I haf made myself 
 useful. It is the duty of all goot Chermans" abroad 
 If indispensable zo much the better " 
 
 ' You're still a good German abroad yet you 
 choose to live here as a naturalized subject ! " 
 
 Schonberg adjusted his spectacles and vouchsafed 
 his son a benign smile. "It is precisely abroad
 
 202 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 that goot Chermans haf the most important werg 
 to do for the benefit of both gountries, my son ! " 
 And with that cryptic remark Karl had to rest 
 content, though the word did not accurately describe 
 his state of mind. 
 
 Ten days later came a letter from Van. 
 
 " MY DEAR OLD CHAP, 
 
 " I have braved the elements on your behalf and 
 write to let you know that the coast is clear. I 
 said I wouldn't make the next move. But man is the 
 victim of his virtues, -and my natural magnanimity 
 has carried the day. So if you are agreeable, roll 
 along our way on Friday. Birds are plentiful, and 
 you can see for yourself if my father is agreeable 
 enough to satisfy your modesty and proper pride 
 and all that. As regards my own feelings, you know 
 as much as you deserve to know. So tumble along 
 and don't be a scarlet fool and you won't regret 
 it! 
 
 " Yours within reasonable limits. 
 
 " V. B." 
 
 Karl, having made up his mind, re-read that 
 characteristic effusion with a pensive smile. ' That 
 about settles it," he said. 
 
 Later on, when he and his father were alone, he 
 decided to announce matters without preamble. 
 " See if I can't make him jump ! " was his filial 
 thought. But cleverer men than Karl had tried the 
 same experiment without success.
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 203 
 
 He guilefully chose a moment when his father 
 seemed lost in reflection to remark abruptly : "I've 
 accepted Avonleigh. You were right about the 
 scales ! " 
 
 Schonberg, who was fingering two walnut shells, 
 did not even look up from his plate. " Zo ! " he 
 gurgled in subterranean depths ; and regarded his 
 son with an enigmatical smile. 
 
 " Goot business for your friend Fan ! But you 
 neffer really had two minds about it." 
 
 The last was so unexpected that it turned the 
 tables on Karl. 
 
 " I don't believe I ever had," he admitted ; and 
 directly challenged his father's gaze. It was like 
 looking at two bluish discs of ground glass, half veiled 
 by the drooping lids. Karl felt suddenly annoyed. 
 He believed half of it was put on for effect. Behind 
 those inscrutable eyes his father was as soft-hearted 
 and sentimental as himself. 
 
 " I'm going down there on Friday," he said, to 
 break the queer feeling of tension that grew with 
 the silence. 
 
 " To take over charge ? " 
 
 " No to shoot pheasants ! And I suppose there 
 will be an interview with my formidable host ! " 
 
 He grimaced at the prospect and Schonberg wagged 
 his sagacious head with elephantine playfulness. 
 " No need to fear him. He is doing goot business. 
 You can bet, he knows it." ^Rising, he strolled 
 over to the hearth-rug ; and Karl, turning in his 
 chair to face the fire, found his father looking down
 
 204 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 at him with eyes that were no longer like discs of 
 ground glass. " You are a damn goot boy, Karl," 
 he said in a voice of real feeling. It was a discovery 
 he made periodically, in a tone of virginal conviction ; 
 and Karl was prepared for the descent of a heavy 
 hand on his shoulder. " If I gave up my own wishes 
 because of your mother you have neffer caused me 
 to regret it. Only stick on at Afonleigh and you 
 will replace Mr. Malcolm yet. I shall come down to 
 visit you when I am able. And if Mr. Blount shall 
 wish to let, it is possible I can help 
 
 Karl looked up quickly. " You seem keen on his 
 letting. Have you got a bloated tenant up your 
 sleeve ? " 
 
 " In the world of finance it is not hard to find 
 bloated tenants for sush a place as that," he 
 answered, removing his hand and speaking in his 
 normal voice. 
 
 " I don't fancy Lord Avonleigh would care about 
 it." 
 
 " Nor I. But his son is otherwise. We shall 
 see ! " And quite suddenly Karl wished he had 
 risked offending Van and kept clear of the whole 
 thing . . . 
 
 On Friday he returned to Avonleigh and was 
 warmly greeted by Van. The critical interview 
 proved the simplest and pleasantest affair imaginable. 
 Karl had never before enjoyed half an hour's talk 
 alone with Van's father ; and it moved him to 
 honest admiration of Lord Avonleigh as an intellect
 
 UNTIL THE HARVEST 
 
 205 
 
 and a man. Altogether, it made him feel happier, 
 more assured. These sensations he frankly confided 
 to Van, who did not respond by telling him that it 
 had required all his tact and power of persuasive 
 skill to overcome his father's antagonism to the great 
 idea. 
 
 Towards the end of October Lord Avonleigh and 
 Derek left England with no premonition that they 
 had actually seen the last of their prosperous, 
 peaceful, dangerously casual country, as they had 
 known and loved her all the years of their life. And 
 Lord Avonleigh, stately and comfortably conveyed 
 on a vast P. & O. Liner, had no inkling that his son 
 was lodged in the hold of a tramp steamer with 
 three hundred men of all grades and types jammed 
 together like herrings in a barrel. 
 
 In this drastic fashion Derek had taken the 
 plunge ; and in this fashion he set out resolute 
 rather than hopeful upon the six weeks' voyage 
 to the other end of the world. 
 
 END OF BOOK II
 
 BOOK III 
 Into the Deep 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " Here is the land, shaggy with wood, 
 With its old valley, mound and flood, 
 They called me ' theirs,' who so controlled me. 
 How am I theirs, if they cannot hold me ? 
 But I hold them." EMERSON. 
 
 " OHE'LL topple the wrong way, man. She won't 
 
 O fall true." 
 
 " She will damn you ! " 
 
 " She won't, the way you've notched her." 
 
 " She's notched true and she'll fall true. You 
 keep your blank mouth shut and mind your own 
 business." 
 
 " It's the whole camp's business if a tree that size 
 topples the wrong way." 
 
 The two men stood beside the trunk of a mighty 
 Douglas fir that lifted its head a clear hundred and 
 twenty feet into the blue a peer even among its 
 compeers that thronged the belt of forest behind 
 them. Before them the main clearing of Number 
 
 207
 
 208 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 One Camp was splashed with noonday sun and 
 shadow resonant with the clank of chain cables, 
 the shriek of donkey engines and the noise of 
 labouring men. Lumber jacks swarmed like ants 
 over the bodies of fallen giants that only yesterday 
 had stood as proudly erect as the living fir now 
 marked for death. It was the accuracy of that 
 notch that would enable the sawyers to " throw " 
 their tree in any given direction : and it was Derek 
 Blunt, in coarse shirt and copper-riveted dungarees, 
 who stood there arguing the point. His lean brown 
 face was no longer the face of a boy. The bone 
 formations, that reveal a man's bedrock character, 
 stood out more strongly. His skin was tanned 
 "by eighteen months of exposure to sun and wind on 
 the plains of Australia and in the lumber camps of 
 British Columbia. His unbuttoned shirt revealed 
 the lighter tint of his chest and throat, and his 
 weather-beaten felt hat was tilted backwards at a 
 rakish angle. Caulked boots and a seven-foot saw 
 completed the equipment of his trade. In that 
 rough gear he looked every inch a woodsman and 
 unquestionably a finer figure of a man than in any 
 tailored suit of civilization. Health and confidence 
 radiated from him ; the unassuming confidence of a 
 man who, by sheer energy and zeal, has attained 
 to a certain mastery of his craft. 
 
 It was precisely that note of confidence which 
 had annoyed Hal Symes, the " under-cutter," who 
 stood scowling down at him from a steel-shod spring 
 board fixed into the bark of the tree. He was a
 
 INTO THE DEEP 209 
 
 loosely made man, with bleached fair hair, pale eyes, 
 and a mathematician's brow that seemed oddly 
 unrelated to the rest of his face. The trail of the 
 waster, the easy-going sensualist, was over it all, 
 from the heavy lids to the slack mouth and chin. 
 Yet there were unmistakable marks of breeding 
 about his ungloved hands, and in the English cadence 
 of his voice. Years ago, in another life, Harold 
 Symmonds had been a well-known figure in the little 
 world of Cambridge. Mathematical dons had 
 expected great things of him. But race meetings 
 had lured him and women had made much of him. 
 The force latent in his forehead and the weakness, 
 latent elsewhere had contended for his soul. And the 
 weaker elements had prevailed. In the middle of 
 his third year he had been sent down and Cam- 
 bridge heard of him no more. 
 
 By this time he was becoming a deplorably well- 
 known figure in the mixed and casual logging world 
 of British Columbia. His well developed muscles 
 ensured him a fair sufficiency of dollars. The 
 dollars ensured him a sufficiency of drinks and 
 women ; and presumably it sufficed. 
 
 Something of all this Derek had gathered from him 
 at odd times, when whisky unloosed his tongue, or 
 jealousy prompted an attitude of " I'm-as-good-as- 
 you-are, anyway ! " toward the younger man, whose 
 descent into the lumber world had no apparent 
 connexion with whisky, horses, or women. And 
 Derek had other accounts against him in the eyes of 
 this fellow Briton who had gone under. He had no
 
 210 , STRANGE ROADS 
 
 taste for gambling, drank moderately, was respected 
 by the boys, and patently favoured fry " Maggots," 
 the camp boss. There was also Mrs. " Maggots " 
 and pretty Lois Aymes down at Beulah Ranch 
 
 Dislike, bred of jealousy, lurked behind the scowl 
 with which Symes leaned over and once more 
 tested his notch, placing his double axe in it and 
 looking along the handle. 
 
 Derek who did not fail to notice that his hand 
 was perceptibly shaky felt a faint tweak of anxiety 
 when the " fallers " came swinging up with their 
 long two handled blade. 
 
 Picked men, these, earning anything from eight 
 to ten dollars a day. One was a big blonde Swede ; 
 the other a typical Canadian, straight-run, clean-cut, 
 his honesty tempered with shrewdness if a business 
 deal were in the wind. 
 
 " My ! But she's a beauty ! " he remarked, eyeing 
 his victim with critical appreciation ; and proceeded 
 to cut a wedge for his spring board four feet above 
 the ground. The Swede followed suit ; and mounted 
 on these planks, the men set to in earnest, working 
 toward the notch ; their slim boards springing in 
 unison with the rhythmic motion of their arms. 
 
 Swiftly, remorselessly that strip of steel ate its 
 way into the heart of the tree, while Derek stood 
 watching ; hoping he was mistaken about the notch ; 
 dreading the moment when the saw began to take 
 murderous effect. Months of habit had failed to 
 harden him. 
 
 Standing well away from the majestic creature
 
 INTO THE DEEP 211 
 
 so immense, so utterly defenceless against two pairs 
 of skilled hands he looked steadily upward. A 
 small breeze tossed the higher branches, and on 
 one of them a chipmunk a fairy squirrel sat 
 upright nibbling a cone. When the singing note of 
 the saw changed its tone, the men paused ; and the 
 Canadian squirted oil along the blade. Then to it 
 again, till the moment came to " wedge her " lest 
 the weight of the trunk damage the delicate, 
 remorseless, instrument of death. For now the end 
 was near. Gradually the tasselled head leaned 
 towards its proudly erect companions. From the 
 depths a hundred feet below came the first suspicion 
 of a crack and a warning shout from the sawyers : 
 " She's moving ! Timber ! " 
 
 The chipmunk, still nibbling, paid no heed. 
 
 Another crack : a report like a small cannon. 
 Then the anguished sound of a mighty rending ; the 
 creaking and groaning of boughs wrenched from 
 living trees, as their stricken fellow crashed through 
 them, with ever increasing speed. . . . 
 
 And suddenly the whole clearing was alive with 
 shouts and cries the clamour of startled men. 
 
 Derek had not been mistaken. She was falling the 
 wrong way 
 
 Lumber jacks and Chinamen scurried out of the 
 danger zone ; the sawyers sprang backwards, 
 swearing lustily ; and the shriek of escaping steam 
 from the engines was mingled with the scream of 
 shattered branches, as the fir came smashing to earth 
 with a thud that seemed to shake the very hills.
 
 212 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Nothing more considerable than a shack lay in 
 the direct line of its fall ; and that shack was 
 flattened like a house of cards. But there were 
 branches also. One damaged a donkey engine ; 
 another stunned a Chinaman ; a third caught the 
 Canadian sawyer and broke his left arm. 
 
 " Where's the blank-blank skunk that notched 
 her ? " he demanded fiercely of no one in particular. 
 But Symes was not to be seen. 
 
 " Made tracks while his shoes was good ! " 
 remarked the sawyer's brother, who was rendering 
 first aid. " Gee-whiz ! If I'd a caught him ! " 
 
 Meantime the camp had recovered itself ; and the 
 men were at work on their trophy limbers lopping 
 off the branches, " buckers " sawing the trunk, 
 with " snipers " on their heels to round off jagged 
 ends. 
 
 Derek was among the " buckers," plying his saw 
 that no longer engaged in gymnastics on its own 
 account, as in the early days of their acquaintance. 
 It was hot work and hard work, and it satisfied 
 certain primitive instincts that are scotched, but 
 rarely killed by the insidious process of civilization. 
 
 At last that which had once been a majestic 
 Douglas fir lay stripped in the sunlight ; reduced 
 to mere logs ready for the powerful machinery of 
 hooks and steel cable to work their will. 
 
 At a signal from the hook tender, the " donkey " 
 whistled and the cable it controlled moved on, 
 dragging the main log, with insolent ease, through 
 a wilderness of fern and scrub, ploughing deep
 
 INTO THE DEEP 213 
 
 furrows and uprooting young trees, landing its 
 prisoner at last bruised and battered on the 
 loaded trolly. An answering whistle from below 
 heralded the appearance of a small railway engine ; 
 and the long black line of freight slid down the 
 grade bound for a lower reach of the mountain 
 river that would float the logs to their final destina- 
 tion the saw-mills of Abe Callander in Red Cedar 
 Valley. 
 
 As the last truck vanished, the gong from the 
 cook-house caused a general stampede of healthy, 
 hungry men ; a mixed rough and tumble of human 
 fragments strapping Canadians and Swedes, wiry 
 Americans and Italians, English, Irish and Scotch. 
 There were men of education, men of character, 
 and men devoid of both. But the bulk were of true 
 lumber jack breed simple and kindly as children 
 when sober, mere animals when they were drunk. 
 
 The cook-house, where they congregated, had a 
 friendly homelike air, with its laden bench-flanked 
 tables and glowing stove at the far end ; its piles 
 of chopped wood breast high along the walls ; shelves 
 stacked with bright-coloured canned stuffs and slabs. 
 of bacon hanging from, the roof. 
 
 Derek seated himself between a hard-bitten 
 Cockney and the " winged " Canadian, whose temper 
 was still simmering over the way he had been served 
 by that " blank-blank son of a dog." 
 
 ' The gopher darsn't show his face in here," the 
 injured giant remarked with drawling emphasis. 
 " Fear he'd get a fit of indigestion through swallowin'
 
 214 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 half his teeth. If the boss don't fire him good an' 
 quick this time, I'll say the word meself an' quit. 
 He'd oughter bin fired months ago. But he's got 
 the soft side of the missus : an' ' Maggots ' ain't boss 
 in his own shack. Lend a fork, Deny, while I chop 
 this stuff." 
 
 Derek lent a fork and briefly expressed his sym- 
 pathy : then he fell to upon his own share with a 
 will. He had learnt, by now, to bolt his dinner 
 with the best of them and to waste no time in talk 
 by the way. 
 
 When the stoking process was over, he filled a 
 pipe and strolled off through a belt of forest to a 
 lesser clearing, where the wide valley and towering 
 peaks beyond came suddenly into view. Here 
 two log cabins, partly scooped out of the hillside, 
 represented Bill Margett's office and private shack, 
 where his wife and seven-year-old son spent some 
 two months every summer entirely for his benefit. 
 
 As a matter of fact, he held that a woman was 
 quite out of place in a logging camp ; but Mrs. 
 Margett's wifely devotion was not to be denied. 
 Indeed, the good fellow had never yet found it in his 
 heart to deny her anything. 
 
 So when the sudden breath of summer waked the 
 sleeping forest, she would leave the little wooden 
 house in Red Cedar Valley and migrate to Number 
 One Camp. She was a townswoman by birth and 
 temperament and she hailed from the Old Country. 
 Traces of its so-called " snobbishness " still clung 
 to her ; for which reason she favoured Symes, the
 
 INTO THE DEEP 215 
 
 degraded gentleman, rather than simpler men who 
 were his superiors in everything but birth. She 
 had also shown signs of favouring Derek, which 
 annoyed him considerably, and, on occasion, pro- 
 voked the shameless Symes to open jealousy. 
 Matters were further complicated by the fact that 
 Derek respected Margett and was adored by his 
 small son ; while he heartily disliked the woman, 
 whose chief pleasure in life seemed unconnected 
 with either. But Mrs. Margett was masterful and 
 insensitive, and knew very well how to play on the 
 passions of men. It was her chief talent and she 
 was not the woman to let it rust unused. She found 
 the difficult Derek more interesting game than his 
 forerunner ; and he, in consequence, found it no 
 easy matter to keep clear of her without open 
 discourtesy. So, by a perverse stroke of irony, he 
 was impelled, out of consideration for the husband, 
 to suffer the embarrassing attentions of the wife : 
 and because, at times, he was not altogether imper- 
 vious, he hated her the more. 
 
 To-day she had bidden him come and receive a 
 list of commissions he was to carry out at Nealston ; 
 as he had a few days' leave of absence, to do business 
 for " Maggots " in that flourishing lake-side town. 
 There were not many of the " boys " who could be 
 trusted there on an errand of importance. The lure 
 of the bar saloon had a way of undermining the 
 mightiest resolves. But Margett had very soon 
 discovered that Derek could be relied upon : so 
 these little trips fell to him more often than not :
 
 2i6 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 another mark of favour that pricked the jealous 
 spirit of Symes. 
 
 Derek had no shadow of doubt where that gentle- 
 man had sought shelter from the wrath of the camp : 
 and there he found him, thoroughly at ease, smoking 
 and sipping lime cordial, in " Maggots " raw-hide 
 armchair ; Mrs. Margett, also sipping and smoking, 
 at his elbow. 
 
 As she rose to greet Derek, he hated himself for 
 noticing that the two chairs were suspiciously close 
 together. She was a woman of good carriage and 
 seductive curves, who would presently be stout ; 
 a dark beauty, of the type favoured in second-rate 
 melodrama ; and, against the rough background of 
 her husband's log cabin, she struck a jarring note of 
 discord that she seemed at no pains to mitigate 
 rather the reverse. Her red blouse effectively 
 illumined her ; and the hide arm-chairs were stacked 
 with red cushions that arrived with her and vanished 
 when she left the camp. 
 
 " At last ! " she said with a clinging pressure of 
 Derek's hand. " I thought, like as not, you'd 
 forgotten everything but your fling in town and your 
 Sunday on Beulah Ranch ! " 
 
 " No fear I'd forget," Derek answered in his 
 most matter-of-fact voice, ignoring the playful 
 thrust. " Have you got the list ready ? " 
 
 " Well thereabouts. What's the almighty hurry ? 
 Sit right down and have a smoke." 
 
 Derek glanced at Symes, who was aimlessly turning 
 the pages of a magazine.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 217 
 
 ' Thanks. I think I won't," he said politely. 
 " It'll take all my time to get down to Macrae's 
 before sunset " 
 
 " And you'd sooner miss an hour here than an 
 
 hour there that's the bedrock truth ? " She 
 
 challenged him with a look so boldly significant that 
 it drew the blood to his face ; and at sight of it she 
 laughed softly. " Poor old boy ! Is it as bad as 
 all that ? Queer the way you men go down like 
 ninepins before a soft clinging chit of a girl with 
 hair that colour. But the lucky devil who gets her 
 will find it a danger signal " 
 
 " Honour bright, I don't know what you're driving 
 at," Derek broke in desperately. " It's a longish 
 trip. The Macraes have been mighty good to me, 
 and I don't want to put them out by turning up late. 
 As to Miss Aymes and the colour of her hair, it's no 
 concern of mine." 
 
 At this point Byrnes, who had recovered his 
 composure, was suddenly moved to reassert himself. 
 
 " Miss Aymes ! " he mimicked with a throaty 
 chuckle. " Ain't we the pink of propriety ! You've 
 not happened to notice, I suppose, that she mostly 
 goes by the name of Lois among her pals ? " 
 
 Derek, without looking round, put out a hand 
 for his instructions. 
 
 " If you'll give me that list I'll be going on now," 
 he said, heedless of her hint that it was incomplete. 
 He knew she had lied and he would not play up to 
 her ; and she, with true feminine perversity, liked 
 him the better for it.
 
 2i8 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 With an odd smile she took the slip of paper from 
 her davenport the only piece of genuine furniture 
 in the room. " There's just a thing or two wants 
 explaining, if your patience can stick it out five 
 minutes longer ! " she said. Then, half seating 
 herself on a corner of the table, she leaned so close 
 to him that her arm pressed against his shoulder, 
 and proceeded to harass him with a string of details 
 flashing a glance at him, between whiles, from under 
 her lids. Detesting her, yet uncomfortably aware 
 of her, he was thankful when the ordeal ended : so, 
 in his own fashion, was Symes. 
 
 Derek, free at last, pocketed the precious list; 
 glanced at him ; hesitated a moment ; then the in- 
 stinct of the gentleman prevailed. " Anything I can 
 do for you ? " he asked, " in a small way ? " 
 
 Symes stared hard at him and said slowly : 
 " We-ell, you can give my love to ' the girls ' 
 up Vere Street. And give Miss Lois an extra kiss 
 or two on my account if she hasn't quite forgotten 
 yours truly. She takes to kisses, that girl, like a 
 duck to water." 
 
 It did not occur to Derek that the man was paying 
 Mrs. Margett back in kind : and his straight look 
 had a gleam in it that recalled his father. 
 
 ' You can do your own commissions in that line 
 no man better," he said with quiet scorn. " S'long 
 Mrs. Margett. Tell the boss I'll be back on 
 time." 
 
 And so he made good his escape without a repeti- 
 tion of her intimate hand clasp the sole satisfaction
 
 INTO THE DEEP 219 
 
 he gleaned from that unpleasant quarter of an 
 hour. 
 
 On the threshold young Bill charged into him 
 an excitable slip of a boy with his father's clear 
 Canadian eyes. 
 
 " Say, Derry, do stop a minute. What you running 
 away for ? " 
 
 " Business, old chap. I'm off down to the Lake." 
 
 ' Take me with you do take me." 
 
 " Not this time. Some day perhaps, if your dad 
 would trust me to bring you safe back again." 
 
 " Course he would, you ask him." 
 
 They were free of the shack now, crossing the 
 open ; Bill trotting beside Derek, clutching his hand. 
 Children were never shy with him nor he with them. 
 He rarely caressed them or played the fool with 
 them : but there were hidden currents of under- 
 standing that made their companionship an effortless 
 joy. Some quality in them, which it never occurred 
 to him to analyse, stirred the unplumbed depths 
 of his manhood : and it was partly because Lois 
 Aymes seemed to him, still, more child than woman, 
 that the desire had flamed in him to flatten the face 
 of Hal Symes for linking her, by indirect implication, 
 with the girls up Vere Street. 
 
 Bill's company, after a quarter of an hour with 
 those two, was like a draught of spring water after 
 a glass of cheap liqueur. 
 
 When they reached the belt of trees through which 
 he had come, Derek stopped and bade the boy run 
 back again. He was forbidden to wander far alone.
 
 220 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Say ! You will ask my dad ? Wish-you-may- 
 die if you don't ! " 
 
 " Wish I may die if I don't ! " Derek assured 
 him gravely. " And I'll bring you a surprise parcel 
 on Tuesday. But don't you lie awake guessing ! " 
 
 The boy gave his hand a convulsive squeeze. 
 " My ! Derry, I do love you. I'll be never so good 
 till Tuesday." By way of guarantee he scampered 
 across the clearing full speed, turned and fluttered 
 a hand, then vanished round the corner of the hut. 
 
 Derek, eager to be off, went straight to the " bunk- 
 house," a long wooden building with " beds " for 
 forty men. These were made on the ground, and 
 covered with straw and slender logs divided each 
 from each. Derek, by good fortune, had secured a 
 bunk near one of the cotton-covered windows. At 
 the head end lay a canvas bag, his only item of 
 luggage. It contained spare underclothing, a few 
 books and home photographs, two pairs of flannels, 
 and the beloved, identical Norfolk coat in which he 
 had tramped through the Tyrol two summers ago. 
 
 Swiftly he exchanged his logging kit for his own 
 garments ; but he stuck to the faded felt hat with 
 the up-turned brim. He was fond of it and possessed 
 no other. Then he went off to saddle his cayuse, a 
 graceful sorrel, with irregular white patches on his 
 flanks and over one eye. He was a nervous, excit- 
 able creature, liable to buck in elated moods, and 
 what he didn't know about trails wasn't worth 
 knowing. Derek had christened him " Kitts " in 
 memory of his own old friend at home. He loved
 
 INTO THE DEEP 221 
 
 him dearly, and a close intimacy had been estab- 
 lished between them. Even in his wickedest moods 
 Derek could gentle him back to good behaviour ; 
 and to-day he was in high fettle. Saddling and 
 mounting him was a lively proceeding ; but it was 
 achieved at last. With a final flirt of his heels he 
 resigned himself to the inevitable, crossed the open 
 in a series of bounds, and settled down to an easy 
 canter as they passed out of the strong sunlight 
 into the shadowy green silences of the forest.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 " To lose myself 
 
 Among the common creatures of the world ; 
 To draw some gain from having been a man ; 
 Neither to hope, nof fear, to live, at length ! " BROWNING. 
 
 DEREK had a long ride ahead of him through 
 endless aisles of virgin forest, carpeted with 
 moss and blueberry to the point at which he would 
 desert Kitts for the little mountain railway that 
 linked the mining camp at Windyridge, with the 
 service of steamers on the Lake ; but for him the 
 journey itself was one of the chief virtues of his 
 holiday. The immensity of these mountain forests, 
 their " shadowed leagues of slumbering sound," laid 
 a spell upon him and a few hours of unbroken solitude 
 refreshed his spirit like manna from Heaven. He 
 was not yet inured to the common trials of working 
 and eating and sleeping in a herd : and in Abe 
 Callander's outfit there was the usual sprinkling of 
 rough characters. But, taken all round, the " boys " 
 were thorough good fellows within their limits. If 
 whisky was their bane, they were yet singularly 
 free from the meaner vices of town-bred men. And 
 
 222
 
 JTO THE DEEP 223 
 
 among the better sort Derek had made a few staunch 
 friends : strong, large-hearted, simple fellows, 
 who would share their last quarter with him at a 
 pinch. But it was friendship without intimacy ; 
 and the real hidden Derek still remained incurably 
 alone. 
 
 For the most part, he lived too vigorously to be 
 aware of it, except when the mood was on him ; 
 and to-day it was on him acutely, intensified by 
 the little scene in the shack. He had been looking 
 forward quite simply and naturally to his Sunday 
 at Beulah Ranch the children, the blunt kindliness 
 of Mrs. Macrae, Lois Aymes, and her pretty caressing 
 ways. And those two, with their tainted minds, had 
 be-smeared everything. 
 
 But very soon the brooding silence of the forest 
 closed over him like folded wings ; and he surren- 
 dered himself to the spell. 
 
 It was the brief, perfect moment of early summer 
 when the snow-slides and the slush are over and the 
 tyranny of black fly and mosquitoes is not yet. 
 New life was quickening under the dankest sods, 
 stirring in every leaf and blade. The very pines 
 and cedars seemed to be secretly awake and aware. 
 Small unseen things rustled in the undergrowth. 
 Chipmunks flitted through the branches overhead. 
 Their ceaseless happy chirruping the only spring 
 song of the forest flickered, like a light, over 
 unplumbed depths. But never a note of bird music, 
 though one rode on, world without end. And to 
 Derek's English mind, a wood without song-birds
 
 224 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 seemed an anomaly as strange and sad as a night 
 without stars. 
 
 At this hour, in all the woods of Avonleigh, in every 
 coppice and shrubbery, the birds of home were 
 singing their hearts out for joy that they were made. 
 And Derek's heart hungered to hear them ; to see 
 the gleam of young leaves on his beloved beeches, 
 the blaze of daffodils against the grey old house ; to 
 sniff the faint clean scent of wallflowers and new- 
 mown grass. On the whole he succeeded in keeping 
 the doors of his thoughts closed against such ^mem- 
 ories. But to-day the unsleeping thing had caught 
 him unawares ; and there surged through him such 
 a wave of homelonging as he had not experienced 
 since his first weeks in camp. 
 
 Though the splendours and sublimities of Canada 
 dazzled his eyes and exalted his spirit, they were 
 as dust in the balance beside that far-off insignificant 
 island that was Home. Here was no sense of 
 intimacy, no mist-blurred horizons. Here the 
 heavens seemed higher, the depths deeper, the very 
 mountains, in their magnificence, a shade too 
 dominant, too sharply defined. 
 
 And the face of the land was mirrored in the soul 
 of its people. Even while he delighted in their 
 simplicity, shrewdness and untiring vigour, he found 
 their characters, like their scenery, lacking in atmo- 
 sphere ; all foreground ; few half tones. Bone of 
 England's bone and flesh of her flesh, they were yet 
 so distinctly un-English that looking into their minds 
 gave him sometimes an odd sense of seeing his own
 
 INTO THE DEEP 225 
 
 reversed, like hand-writing in a mirror. Their very 
 love of country was a case in point. Derek, like 
 most Englishmen, loved England for what she was. 
 His Canadian friends, he found, loved Canada for 
 what they themselves were making of her every day 
 of their lives. On his side, the attitude of a son to 
 a mother ; on theirs, rather that of a mother watch- 
 ing and shaping the growth of her son. And again, 
 he had discovered that his deep love of Nature, in 
 all her manifestations, must be concealed like a vice 
 if he wished to retain the respect of these human 
 dynamos, who saw nothing to- marvel at in the ghostly 
 sheen of moonlight on leagues of snow-covered pines 
 or the most arresting conjunction of mountain, forest 
 and lake. They seemed about as much aware of it 
 all as a Londoner is aware of his chimney-pots and 
 shop windows. Their eyes beheld the visible 
 garment of God, but their minds were intent on the 
 absorbing business of remodelling it to fit the needs 
 of man. To " fuss round " after scenery was the 
 mark of the tripper, the tenderfoot, the weak-kneed 
 sentimentalist. The true son of Canada demanded 
 naked realities, with an insistence that tempted 
 Derek, at times, to fling down the challenge : " What, 
 after all, are the realities ? The everlasting hills or 
 your mushroom mining camp, that to-day is and 
 to-morrow is scorched into ashes by the breath of a 
 forest fire ? " 
 
 But so far he had bridled his tongue ; and his 
 comrades respected him accordingly. 
 
 To-day, with sights and sounds of England tugging
 
 226 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 at his heart, he felt suddenly, acutely out of tune 
 with it all ; suddenly, acutely homesick for the 
 leisured, casual spirit of England, for her low hills 
 and blue distances ; for Van's chaff and a talk with 
 his father and a sight of his mother's face ; for clean 
 linen and a good dinner and all the minor comforts 
 of home that he had valued so little when they were a 
 matter of course 
 
 The real trouble, when these moods assailed him, 
 was the knowledge that he had only to say the word, 
 wire to his father, and in a few weeks he could be 
 with him, seeing a new country, talking to cultivated 
 men and women, enjoying the lawful pleasures that 
 were his by right of birth. The way was open. No 
 hindrance, save his own obstinate resolve to go 
 through with it : a resolve that was likely to hold, 
 even against odds. 
 
 And on the whole he had kept his own counsel. 
 To his people he had vouchsafed little beyond 
 reassuring generalities. Mark and Jack had been 
 favoured with fuller information ; but, even* so, the 
 half was not told them. About the greater part of 
 that nightmare voyage in the hold they had heard 
 nothing, nor ever would. 
 
 - In all his sheltered days, he had not dreamed what 
 misery, and worse, a man of gentle birth and clean 
 instincts could endure simply from close, incessant 
 physical contact with a very mixed crowd of his own 
 kind : and the crowd packed into the hold of that 
 tramp steamer had been largely recruited from the 
 scum of great cities. There were scores, also, of
 
 INTO THE DEEP 227 
 
 half-educated malcontents, with the virus of class 
 hatred in their veins ; and to these his mere gentle- 
 manhood had been his worst offence. His refinement 
 of speech, his natural reserves, his willingness to help 
 and serve the hall-mark of the aristocrat had all 
 been so many targets for their unreasoning animosity 
 and scorn. It was the kind of thing he would have 
 refused to believe from another man's lips ; the kind 
 of knowledge one did absorb, painfully enough, 
 through the pores of one's skin. And three weeks 
 of it had brought him near the end of his tether. 
 
 He remembered, with shame, a becalmed evening 
 in the Indian Ocean ; a three-quarter moon beginning 
 to take colour ; a flaming afterglow in the west that 
 turned the waters to wine ; and, in the stern, among 
 coils of rope, a lonely, disillusioned Derek, so bitterly 
 at odds with everything that, when the time came 
 to leave the vastness and the silence and the clean 
 breath of the sea for the foul atmosphere of the hold, 
 he had felt like slipping overboard, and taking his 
 chance of a rescue before his strength gave out. 
 
 It was a mere desperate impulse, gone in a flash ; 
 but it pulled him up with a round turn ; and it had 
 marked a point from which matters began to improve. 
 
 There are good men in every crowd ; and several 
 of these he had discovered, when he settled into his 
 stride ; men whose range of reading surprised him ; 
 who could think and express their thoughts more 
 forcibly than the average product of polite education. 
 From these he had learned much about his own 
 country and his own class, that enabled him to
 
 228 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 look at both from a fresh angle of vision ; and with 
 one of them he had struck up a rough and ready 
 friendship that considerably enlivened the first 
 dreary spell of job-hunting ashore. 
 
 Dan Maguire was as Irish as his name ; a born 
 adventurer of unquenchable spirit, who at one 
 moment would confound Derek for the fool he was 
 to have been born an Englishman, and the next 
 with true Emerald logic belaud him for the very 
 qualities he derived from that pre-natal error. But 
 for Maguire, those first days in Adelaide chiefly 
 spent in discovering the fraudulence of agents and 
 their own entire superfluity would have been a 
 hopelessly grey and sordid memory. As it was, 
 they had contrived to strike flashes of humour out 
 of the very stones Fate offered them for bread. 
 Jobs, the most hopeful-sounding, had a .trick of 
 evaporating or changing their complexion at close 
 quarters. But Maguire, with " Sursum Caudas ! " 
 for his war cry, was unquenchable 
 
 " Let's be removing our patronage from this 
 Queen of Cities," said he, when Adelaide had meta- 
 phorically spurned them for the space of a week, 
 " and give the bally farmers a chance." 
 
 The move up-country brought a change in their 
 run of luck. It was high summer ; the farmers 
 welcomed extra help ; and for the next three months 
 Derek had his first taste of real manual labour ; 
 carting, loading and doing odd jobs about the farm. 
 
 When brain and body became acclimatized, he 
 found it pleasant enough, after the miseries of the
 
 INTO THE DEEP 229 
 
 voyage. Though his breeding went for nothing in 
 this, the most democratic of all British Dominions, 
 the qualities arising from it went for a good deal. 
 A British '" tenderfoot," who seemed to recognize 
 that he had everything to learn, was a sufficiently 
 rare bird to impress even an Australian farmer : and 
 Derek, while he worked, had kept his eyes and ears 
 open. For, about this time, a thought had come to 
 him that gave a new significance to his round of 
 drudgery. If he could glean a little practical 
 knowledge of up-to-date farming, his father might 
 be induced to put him in charge of Trevanyon ; and 
 he would like nothing better on earth. Independence, 
 personal responsibility and freedom from routine 
 were, for him, the ideal elements in work and life : 
 and the mere chance of achieving them was worth a 
 passing sacrifice of all three. So tired but resolute 
 he had bowed his back to weeks of monotonous and 
 uncongenial toil 
 
 Not so Maguire a rolling stone by taste and 
 temperament r 
 
 Early in the. New Year, he grew restless, and pro- 
 ceeded to unsettle Derek with alluring second-hand 
 tales of bush-life and the goldfields out West. Derek, 
 though sceptical, was eager enough for fresh experi- 
 ences, for the dangers and uncertainties that test 
 a man's resources and his wits. In vain did the 
 farmer confound the Irishman for a liar and the 
 Englishman for a fool. A rise in wages had no 
 magnetic attraction for men in the hopeful twenties 
 bitten with the lure of the unknown
 
 230 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 So they set their faces westward ; and in a raw 
 little mining town, on the coast, they encountered a 
 friendly sandal-wood cutter, whose gilded yarns lured 
 them into joining him for a spell. Their needs were 
 not formidable an axe, a sleeping blanket, and a 
 gun ; stores and belongings piled on a hand- 
 cart, which they must draw between them. With 
 these they set out to work their way through the 
 bush to a certain gold claim, where according to 
 their new friend, Foxy Lee a man could pick up a 
 fortune as " easy as winkin'." 
 
 Meantime there was the bush ; a vast tableland 
 of red granite and stunted blue-leaved mulgas ; 
 each one so like its fellow that if a man lost his 
 bearings he was helpless ; in local phrase " bushed." 
 
 Through this eerie, inviolate region that had 
 neither the bloom of youth nor the maturity of age 
 they tramped unhurriedly, cutting sandal- wood by 
 day, bivouacking at night under stars that flashed 
 like cut steel. It was a solitary trade. Each man 
 went off alone, with his axe and gun, to scour a 
 certain area, cutting all he could find and dragging 
 it to a central pile for collecting later on. 
 
 Except near water-holes, there was little sign of 
 life. The natives were practically extinct. Birds 
 were few and strange, with no music in them to 
 enli ven the ghostly silence. It was like a land under 
 a spell timeless, soundless, changeless. The very 
 bushes, in their isolated stillness, seemed listening 
 for some whisper of release from the wide, indifferent 
 sky.
 
 [TO THE DEEP 231 
 
 The strong, subtle charm of the place struck some 
 secret chord in Derek's soul. Never before had he 
 so inly felt the intrinsic majesty of stillness ; yet 
 always, behind the majesty and the charm, he was 
 aware of a nameless fear : the fear that lurks in all 
 desert lands ; that shatters the comfortable faith of 
 the Churches and either drives men mad or opens 
 their eyes and behold they see 
 
 There were bad days when he went about his work 
 haunted by a horrid undersense of Something waiting 
 to spring out of ambush and annihilate him. In the 
 evenings, when they talked and smoked and cooked 
 their simple meal, it would vanish outright, only to 
 reappear next morning. He had said no word to the 
 others ; and in time he discovered, with exquisite 
 relief, that it had evaporated like an evil miasma. 
 But the eerie charm remained. The spiritual 
 struggle had been very real, and with mastery came 
 a curious sense of exaltation ; a sense of having, 
 indeed, overridden all boundaries and escaped out 
 of the world into some luminous Beyond, where time 
 and space and human limitations were not 
 
 With Maguire it was very much otherwise. He 
 clamoured for the mining camp, for the noise and 
 movement, and conviviality of herded men : and 
 at long last there came a change over the unchanging 
 scene. The monotone of red granite was broken by 
 dykes of schist and ironstone. Trees and grass 
 reappeared. Clouds rolled up out of the south and 
 rain fell. They were back in the normal world
 
 232 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 again : and before v.ery long they descried, afar off, a 
 vision of tents and blazing wood fires Bronker's 
 Claim at last ! 
 
 That night they supped and slept in camp. There 
 was singing and laughter and lurid profanity that 
 brought Derek to earth with a crash. And so an 
 end of the strangest spiritual adventure that had 
 befallen him during his brief Odyssey in search of 
 truth. 
 
 In the unearthly stillness of the desert he had 
 caught a glimpse of God's reality ; in the clamour of 
 life and work on Bronker's Claim he had more than 
 a glimpse of man's reality, with never a film of 
 varnish to gloss its uglier aspects. Two shafts, with 
 parallel galleries yielding five ounces to the ton, were 
 in full swing : and Derek, consigned to the main 
 shaft, spent most of his time shovelling broken rock 
 into buckets, his ears and brain maddened by the 
 eternal click of pick or hammer on stone. In the 
 evenings there were noisy, cheerful gatherings round 
 the camp fires ; tales of miraculous " finds ";; racy, 
 coarse interminable talk of money and women and 
 the drink ; talk from which a man could extract 
 much quaint and varied knowledge of human nature 
 in the rough. 
 
 But the work itself was back-breaking and mono- 
 tonous. It lacked the one redeeming feature of farm 
 drudgery, the sense of ministering to life : and it did 
 not take more than a week or two for Maguire to 
 be seized with a conviction that the wealth of Croesus 
 awaited them had they but the " spunk " to fling
 
 INTO THE DEEP 233 
 
 away their " ruddy shovels " and go prospecting on 
 their own. Derek confessed that he was heartily 
 sick of his shovel : and Foxy Lee after jeering at 
 liicin opined that he had best keep an eye on their 
 movements, just to see what colour of fools they made 
 of themselves. 
 
 So they left camp with their friend the hand-cart 
 and wandered over the country, tapping likely 
 rocks, " dollying " samples, and, when evening 
 came, hunting rabbits in the bush. 
 
 Personally Derek was convinced nothing would 
 come of it : but the adventure of the thing amused 
 him, and Maguire's air-castles, and the businesslike 
 intensity of Foxy Lee, who had only come out to spy 
 on their folly. 
 
 And behold, in less than two weeks, the incredible 
 had come to pass 
 
 They had struck a vein of ore in one of the lesser 
 dykes, and had heard, with unbelieving ears, Foxy's 
 solemn declaration that he was a Dutchman if that 
 vein didn't yield thirty ounces to the ton. 
 
 That was the prelude, merely. In less than no 
 time their news was abroad ; a fresh camp sprang 
 up ; shafts were sunk ; gangs of rough, hardened 
 workmen poured in from all over the district, and 
 they found themselves famous. Later on, they 
 might find themselves rich. It began to look like 
 a big thing ; and the prevailing excitement swept 
 even Derek off his feet. He, too, ventured to build 
 air-castles ; to dream of justifying himself and his 
 crazy adventure and giving practical proof of that
 
 234 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 devotion to Avonleigh that lay, like a hidden jewel, 
 in his heart ; unexpressible, unexpressed. 
 
 But the dream dissolved in mist. The air-castles 
 fell to earth in very dusty ruins. Too soon their 
 vein of ore showed signs of petering out. Excite- 
 ment had reached high-water mark ; and the 
 downward swing of the pendulum had an ill-effect 
 on the rougher element in camp. It swung them, 
 inevitably, towards whisky towards " grab all you 
 can and make tracks." Derek had never heard so 
 much foul language even among men who were no 
 carpet-talkers at their best, and it sickened him. 
 But sheer disgust of the whole thing failed to take 
 the edge off his own keen disappointment ; and his 
 mind reacted on his body, that now showed signs of 
 resenting the drastic change of life and ~!imate and 
 food. He, who had seldom known a headache, 
 suffered from a constant oppressive ache across his 
 brows. A paralysing lassitude hung upon his limbs 
 and befogged his brain. He moved like a sleep- 
 walker through a nightmare of cursing, brawling 
 men. 
 
 From this unnatural apathy he was roused by 
 the discovery that he had been robbed one night of 
 nearly half his little store of notes and gold. That 
 fired his temper and spurred him to action. 
 
 " I'm off out of this hell-hole, Maguire," he said 
 next morning after announcing his loss. " I've had 
 enough of it to last me a lifetime. Come if you like. 
 If not, I'll go alone." 
 
 " An' where will ye be going, in the divil's name ? "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 235 
 
 asked the amazed Maguire, who had so far taken the 
 lead. 
 
 " Anywhere away from these drunken thieves. 
 The coast for choice. Will you come ? " 
 
 And Maguire after consideration decided that 
 he would. A fat roll of notes was burning a hole in 
 his pocket ; and Jamestown laid itself out for the 
 benefit of men in that enviable condition. 
 
 So to Jamestown they returned, striking across 
 country to the nearest railway. 
 
 It was a small prosperous place, harmless-looking 
 enough, with its shops, hotels and drinking saloons 
 along the shore and its dwelling-houses scattered 
 among the sand-dunes behind. Yet here, in a few 
 weeks, a man could experience enough to shatter 
 any lingering faith in human nature that he might 
 happen to possess. 
 
 A dead weight still seemed to hang on Derek's 
 limbs and brain. For the moment he had no clear 
 aim or plan ; only a passionate longing to go straight 
 back to the clean, decent life of his own kind : and 
 the sight of the sea, that should have refreshed him, 
 only made matters worse. Maguire, it must be 
 admitted, found him anything but a lively companion 
 and Maguire was ' ' out for a spree . ' ' His own head 
 being made of cast iron, he and his friends did their 
 wel -meaning best to enliven Derek with generous 
 doses of the foul stuff sold as whisky in the saloons 
 of the town. It was their simple, infallible prescrip- 
 tion for driving dull care away 
 
 Derek looked back on those first two days at
 
 236 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Jamestown as on a nightmare many degrees worse 
 than the last week in camp ; for the cogent reason 
 that he himself had, in a measure, shared the general 
 degradation. For forty-eight hours he was like a 
 ship without a rudder ; his brain blurred with the 
 fumes of drink and bewildered with the noisy hilarity 
 of bar saloons ; his detached self, somewhere up in 
 the clouds, looking on cynically at what men call 
 " life." 
 
 There had been brief clear moments of exaltation 
 and excitement. One of these had culminated in'a 
 
 ia 
 
 free fight. There had also been women. . . . 
 
 Sickened by the talk of tipsy men, Derek had 
 turned to these with something like relief, and had 
 discovered too late the depths of his mistake 
 
 On the third morning he awoke with a mind 
 painfully clear and pockets painfully empty. " Dull 
 care " had taken flight with a good many other 
 things. The cure was complete and lasting. 
 
 Derek hated, though he could not easily banish, 
 the memory of those few days. He lacked Van's 
 art of convenient forgetfulness ; and the first blot 
 on his scutcheon was no light matter to this sturdy 
 self-contained young Englishman, with never a trace 
 of the Pharisee in his composition. He and his 
 particular set at Trinity had worked and played too 
 hard to have time or taste for emulating the " nuts " 
 in respect of wine, women and cigars. Most of them 
 had lived strenuously and frugally with intervals 
 for unlimited refreshment and had kept straight
 
 INTO THE DEEP 237 
 
 as a matter of course. To Mark and Derek, in 
 particular, the traffic that makes night hideous in 
 the streets of great cities seemed a challenge to the 
 apostles of progress, the dreamers of dreams. For 
 themselves, they could only resolve to try and live 
 in line with their young, clean convictions. It is 
 the most that the unorganized individual can do 
 and it is much. 
 
 Now, Maguire and Jamestown had tripped him 
 up ; and Derek was at once too honest and too 
 proud to gloss over the unwelcome fact. In the 
 skeleton diary of his wanderings, that he kept for 
 reference, the three dates were bracketed together 
 above the following entry : " Made a proper beast 
 of myself, with M's friendly assistance. The first 
 time. Never again if I know it. I've had my 
 lesson. Was feeling all to pieces when I arrived. 
 But no good whining or making excuses. Fear I 
 didn't improve matters by slanging poor old M. when 
 it was over. He's been reared differently. He 
 meant no harm. Good company and a good chap, 
 but I'm not sorry to be quit of him. I'd give all 
 my savings and a sight more to make a bee line for 
 home or Bombay. I've made such a rotten poor 
 start. All the more reason I should stick it out, of 
 course and I will. Better luck perhaps Canada 
 way . . ." 
 
 In that dim hope for he had small faith in his 
 own luck he left Jamestown and parted from 
 Maguire, who had struck up a violent friendship 
 with the bar-tender and lost his heart, temporarily,
 
 238 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 to one of " the girls." Derek did not soon forget 
 him ; but he never heard of him again. 
 
 By coasting steamer and rail he made his way 
 back to Adelaide, and there squandered all that was 
 left from the wreck on a second-class ticket to Van- 
 couver. That wonderful voyage across the Pacific 
 should, at least, be made in cleanliness and compara- 
 tive comfort. His familiar Norfolk coat and flannels 
 helped him soon to feel more like himself again ; and 
 even to review, with a queer, detached interest, the 
 doings of one Derek Blunt on the Continent of 
 Australia. 
 
 Before him lay Canada, land of boundless possi- 
 bilities ; a name to conjure with. His own possi- 
 bilities, of course, were strictly limited. Canada, 
 like Australia, would have no use for all the 
 varied knowledge he had imbibed at Oxford. Her 
 first question would not be " Who are you ? " or 
 " Who was your grandfather ? " but " What can 
 you do ? " By his practical answer to that a man 
 must stand or fall out here in the West. Here the 
 side issues of his former life " Rugger," riding and 
 shooting were assets of real value, because they 
 put grit into a man ; and he cherished in his letter- 
 case a certificate from the friendly Australian farmer 
 an asset of greater value than all. He had a vague 
 idea of trying to get work on a prairie homestead, 
 so as to learn a little more about practical farming. 
 He had also a vague idea that prairie homesteads 
 did not grow wild along the coast of British Columbia : 
 an idea confirmed by a fellow-passenger who hailed
 
 INTO THE DEEP 239 
 
 from Vancouver, and by his own first sight of that 
 imposing coast line : sharply jagged mountain- 
 ous fiords and inlets, mantled everywhere with 
 mighty forests that swept darkly down to the tideway 
 and were streaked at intervals with narrow lanes, like 
 partings in a thick head of hair. 
 
 ' That's whar hand-loggers have bin at work," 
 his new friend told him. " Logging's the soundest 
 proposition around here, take my word. No shakes 
 though, foolin' with agents. Yew come along with 
 me to a slap-up logging hotel whar I'm known, 
 and I guess I'll soon put you in the way of a start." 
 
 Derek was to learn that this friendly spirit, this 
 readiness to give any stray or stranded human a 
 helping hand, is the spirit of Canada at her best : 
 and for that alone he must have loved her because of 
 the same streak in himself. 
 
 It was in that " slap-up " logging hotel that he had 
 met Abe Callander, and so eventually had cast anchor 
 in Number One Camp. For once in a way " The 
 Luck" had smiled on him, and, taking one thing with 
 another, she seemed disposed to smile on him still 
 
 The long ride, the silent companionship of Kitts 
 and the forest, had almost charmed away his mood 
 of depression : and when at last the full glory of 
 lake and mountain burst upon his view, it slunk off 
 altogether for very shame. On such a day and in 
 such surroundings, he must be a churl, or the saddest 
 man alive, who could feel at odds with creation. 
 Derek, being neither, shook himself mentally, and de- 
 fied Mrs. Maggots or Symes to spoil his brief holiday.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " We can never attain complete success in this quest, 
 but we can always be advancing to clearer knowledge." 
 
 The True Sceptic. 
 
 THE railway siding that was Derek's objective 
 consisted of a narrow platform and a shack 
 in charge of one " Scotty," a well-known local 
 character, whose chief duty, in his own phrase, was 
 " to see that they planks an' they ties 1 " dinna rin 
 aff thegither the nicht." Incidentally, he imbibed 
 enough whisky most nights to ensure unbroken 
 slumber, though the heavens fell. Derek thoroughly 
 enjoyed a yarn with the old sinner while waiting ; 
 and on these occasions Kitts was always left in his 
 charge. 
 
 In the courteous little train that halted " by 
 
 request " at the siding, passengers were few, and 
 
 chiefly connected with Windyridge Mine. But 
 
 in the steamer it was otherwise ; and the crowd was 
 
 quite promiscuous ; for Canadian steamers are no 
 
 respecters of persons. Officially there was one class, 
 
 by courtesy called " first." Humanly there were 
 
 many classes ; and these crystallized automatically 
 
 1 Sleepers. 
 
 240
 
 INTO THE DEEP 241 
 
 into sharply divided groups. Man may rhapsodize 
 about equality, world without end. Nature, in her 
 wisdom, will have none of it : and " though you drive 
 Nature out with a pitchfork, she always comes 
 running back." 
 
 The miners from Windyridge, four large handsome 
 Swedes, joined a party of their own kind from the 
 Slocan. In that group the bottle and snatches of 
 song circulated freely. In the commercial group 
 clean shaven and prosperous talk took the place of 
 drink ; talk of deals and commissions and " sure 
 things " ; and through it all ran the deliberate, 
 drawling cadence of a very American voice, insisting 
 on the vital importance of closer trade relations 
 between " Canada and the You-nited States." 
 Canada and the States, he declared with emphatic 
 iteration, were natural born twins ; gee-ography 
 gave Amurrica the pull all the time, and she wasn't 
 such a blamed fool as to quarrel with the sitewa- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 A lesser group, farther astern, was obviously 
 British. It kept very much to itself, and its talk 
 was of fruit-farming interlarded with home politics. 
 Derek knew two. of the men by sight ; retired Army 
 officers, who wore their rough clothes " with a differ- 
 ence." They were listening with slightly bored 
 amusement to a young Englishman evidently new 
 to the West and disgruntled by Canada's blunt 
 demand that the man who aspires to earn her dollars 
 shall put his back into the process. As that part of 
 the programme did not appear to suit him, he was
 
 242 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 indulging in the cheap retort of the ineffectual : 
 " No damned use for this beastly country, or these 
 upstart Colonials who have the cheek to treat one 
 as an equal. No place for a gentleman . . ." and 
 so forth. 
 
 He did not seem to care who overheard these 
 praiseworthy remarks ; and they maddened Derek, 
 who knew something, of the extent to which his 
 beloved country was being discredited by this kind of 
 talk. 
 
 He avoided the group, partly because of his 
 annoyance, partly because he preferred smoking and 
 listening and enjoying the evening glory of lake and 
 mountain, to which his fellow passengers paid no 
 heed. For most of them as he very well knew 
 this majestic region, which they farmed and mined 
 and prospected, was simply so much potential 
 lumber and " canned stuff," " white coal " and raw 
 mineral wealth. 
 
 But if they cared nothing for the eternal hills, 
 neither did the hills care one jot for their pigmy 
 activities and pre-occupations. On either side of 
 that narrow, winding lake they towered aloof, 
 savage, resplendent ; heights piled on heights to the 
 ultimate snow line : a very ocean of mountains ; 
 so fierce, so remote, so utterly untamed by man. 
 Here the blue sheen of a glacier, there a fang-like 
 peak, splashed and streaked with snow. Round the 
 next bend a rocky bluff darkly crowned with forest ; 
 and lower down, on more shelving slopes, the fairy 
 mantle of trees in new leaf. Lower still, in coves
 
 INTO THE DEEP 243 
 
 and lake-side ranches, the transient snow of orchards, 
 the first prim, ordered patches of tilled land in this 
 unfettered region of earth. And down, fathoms 
 down, in the blue-green waters, a crystal-clear 
 inverted vision of more crags, more bluffs, more 
 splashes of new leaf and blossom. 
 
 Through that inverted vision the busy little 
 steamer nosed its way ; stopping here to deliver, 
 there to pick up, letters, parcels or freight ; while the 
 miners boozed and the American argued, and the 
 snows began to take colour and the shadows deepened 
 from purple to black ; and Derek fell into casual 
 talk with a tough grizzled lumberman, full of yarns 
 and grievances about " graft " and " political pull " 
 that closed great tracts of country against bona 
 fide loggers for the profit of the mere speculator 
 
 Derek decided for the fiftieth time that a Lake 
 steamer was an ideal form of locomotion. He was 
 in no hurry to reach the landing stage for Beulah 
 Ranch ; yet it would be very pleasant to see them 
 all again ; to enjoy, even for one night, the seemly 
 securities, the good familiar sense of Home. His 
 connexion with Macrae's dated from early autumn. 
 There had been a slack time in the camps ; and, 
 instead of " blowing in " his wages at Vancouver, 
 he had spent two months on Macrae's small pros- 
 perous ranch, fruit-picking and making himself 
 generally useful about the homestead. Symes, 
 rather to his surprise, had followed suit for a month ; 
 and this was the manner of their mutual introduction 
 to Lois Aymes.
 
 244 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 She was a refined, fragile-looking creature, with 
 red-gold hair and engaging ways ; the nearest thing 
 to a lady that Derek had encountered since leaving 
 home. Her position at Macrae's was a cross between 
 lady help and nursery governess to two children 
 aged five and seven. Derek often wondered how 
 much she taught them. She seemed little more than 
 a child herself ; so ill-suited to the rough and tumble 
 of Canadian life. Her chief interests appeared to be 
 reading novels and passing the time with one 
 or another of the men on the ranch. This was 
 natural enough and probably harmless enough ; 
 though for the girl's sake, Derek would have liked 
 to feel more certain of that last. Symes had not 
 stayed long enough to be of any account. It was 
 Jos Agar, one of the foremen, who had chiefly roused 
 Derek's distrust. He was a big powerful fellow, 
 rough-mannered with his mates, but soft-spoken 
 w r hen he chose : the type of man who can be trusted 
 to get the maximum out of a woman with a minimum 
 of effort. That he fascinated Lois had long been 
 apparent to every one, himself included ; and there 
 was intermittent chaff about the affair ; but no one 
 seemed to give it a serious thought. Derek as a 
 mere onlooker saw elements of tragedy in it, 
 whether Agar married the girl or not ; and this 
 invested her with a touch of pathos in his eyes. 
 It seemed to him that she realized he was different ; 
 and her confiding ways gave him much the same 
 pleasant thrill as when Bill Margett or 'Salie Macrae 
 slipped a clinging hand into his own. So, to her shy
 
 INTO THE DEEP 245 
 
 advances, he had responded in his reserved, unhurried 
 fashion ; and before he returned to camp an easy 
 friendliness had sprung up between them. 
 
 Since then he had paid brief visits to the Ranch 
 whenever opportunity permitted ; and occasionally 
 she wrote to him ; untidy, impulsive notes, giving 
 him news of them all. In these notes Agar was 
 rarely mentioned ; and the last one, received a few 
 days ago, ended with the childish appeal : " Do 
 come along this way soon and liven us up. All the 
 fruit trees are out and it's like fairy land. I hate 
 giving lessons this weather. And the children hate 
 them worse than I do. 'Salie sends a kiss. Suppose 
 I can only send regards ! Very sincerely, Lois 
 Aymes." 
 
 That note set him wondering had Agar sheered 
 off and was she feeling bored in consequence ? Well 
 he would soon know now. It eased his sense of 
 separation to feel he had a real link with the homely- 
 human interest of it all 
 
 The sky was flushed with the aftermath of sunset 
 and the waters had taken on a purple sheen when 
 the steamer ran alongside Beulah Landing to set 
 him ashore. Macrae's homestead was little more 
 than a mile inland : and very soon Derek was in 
 the Ranch itself. His road ran along a strip of high 
 ground sloping away, on either hand, to long lines 
 of pear, plum, and cherry trees in full bloom. It 
 was like fairyland, as Lois had said. No wonder
 
 246 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 she hated giving lessons. She ought still to be 
 learning them 
 
 A little farther on, he halted and stood looking 
 down at it all. ... 
 
 Suddenly he became aware of a shadow moving 
 between the trees ; and as it emerged into a clearer 
 space, he discovered it to be a man and woman so 
 closely linked that they made one outline. Their 
 backs were towards him ; and, with a distinctly un- 
 pleasant shock he recognized them Agar and Lois 
 Aymes. The man's arm was round her and her un- 
 covered head rested against him. In the open, Derek 
 could distinguish details ; the gleam of her hair, 
 the tilt of her slim body towards him. And while 
 he watched, they came to a standstill, as if in ear- 
 nest talk. Then, impulsively, Lois turned to Agar, 
 her head flung backward, her face lifted to his 
 
 And Derek, with a tingling, uncomfortable revul- 
 sion of feeling, turned sharply away. 
 
 'What did it all amount to ? He challenged Agar 
 mentally as he strode on through the gathering dusk. 
 If things were above board it meant- 1 - marriage : 
 but the chances were even that it meant nothing 
 of the kind. Symes' detestable remark came back 
 to him now and the sneer in his tone that seemed 
 to ask, " Which of us was right ? " Well, if it were 
 so, who had encouraged her taste for kisses ? And 
 Mrs. Macrae ought to keep stricter watch over a girl 
 like that in a world of rough, careless men : though in 
 truth the good soul had more than enough to occupy 
 her from morning till night.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 247 
 
 As he stepped on to the rose-covered veranda, 
 she welcomed him with her large smile and possessive 
 grip : a brisk, capable woman in the middle thirties ; 
 candid, yet good natured, and of curiously unfeminine 
 outline. All her bones seemed a size too large. Her 
 shoulders were square. Her hips had no alluring 
 curves. Her face was the shape of a friendly brick, 
 and much the same colour, set with a pair of very 
 blue eyes. Her cheap print " shirt-waist " was 
 finished with a man's collar and tie ; and her ill-cut 
 tweed skirt bore the hall-mark " home-made." 
 Withal, she^nanaged to produce a general impression 
 of comeliness that possibly emanated from within. 
 "I'm made square and I act square," she would 
 tell you with her smiling candour. And it was true. 
 With the help of one inestimable Chinaman, she did 
 all her own house-work, washing and baking ; yet 
 generally found leisure to be at ease with her sewing 
 from five o'clock onward. Derek had taken a liking 
 to her from the first, and she frankly returned the 
 compliment. He often longed to send a snapshot 
 of her to Van as an interesting specimen of a fine, 
 manly woman. He had fitful spells of longing for 
 Van, whose sense of humour covered more sins than 
 even charity's capacious cloak. 
 
 " It's real good to see you again," said the manly 
 woman with patient sincerity. " I've kept a nice 
 bit of supper hot. And d'you suppose that young 
 scapegrace, Al, would go to bed till you'd come ? 
 Not he ! They're off somewhere just now. They all 
 skedaddled after supper. Guess Lois has her eye
 
 248 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 on them. The spring's gone to her head some. But 
 she's not been looking quite so dandy lately. Her 
 cough worries her." 
 
 Still talking, she vanished into the kitchen, and 
 reappeared with a bowl of soup and a half- demolished 
 meat pie. These she supplemented with home-made 
 bread, cheese, waffles, maple syrup and a bottle of 
 light beer. 
 
 Then she sat down by him, a rough -stocking over 
 one hand, a dagger-like needle in the other. The 
 supper-table was set across one end of the living- 
 room. At the other end, a few comfortable cane 
 chairs, a round table and a hired cottage piano were 
 grouped about the stove. Macrae himself, a hard- 
 headed, hard-drinking Scot, lived chiefly in his 
 office, where, at present, he and a few congenial 
 spirits were playing " slough." His family would 
 probably see nothing of him the whole evening. , 
 
 And, while Derek did full justice to his belated 
 meal, and the darning needle stabbed 'Salie's stocking, 
 Mrs. Macrae's flow of talk took on a more confidential 
 tone. Lois seemed rather on her mind. 
 
 " She did oughter marry, that girl," was her sage 
 conclusion ; and Derek opined that the odds seemed 
 in favour of it. 
 
 " She's full young, though, isn't she ? " he added, 
 helping himself to more pie. 
 
 " Just turned twenty," Mrs. Macrae informed him 
 with a side-long glance of which he was placidly 
 unaware. " Plenty girls marry earlier than that ; 
 and she's a lone thing, poor dear ! No belongings on
 
 INTO THE DEEP 249 
 
 earth but a stepmother, who nags her life out because 
 she's soft and feckless. But she's a dear lovable 
 girl, if she is a shade too partial to a story book and 
 an armchair. Fact is, she wasn't reared to earn her 
 living. Her poor father never thought she'd need. 
 For she's of good stock, Derek Blunt. Her dead 
 mother was my first cousin. That's really how she's 
 here : and she does her best, poor child. But, as I 
 say, she'd ought to marry a man that'll take her 
 to the Old Country or the Island. She's not fit for 
 this life. And work's not her line. The man's her 
 line : and mebbe that's about the best you can say 
 of a woman." 
 
 " Yes perhaps if she hits on the right one." 
 
 " Well I guess she will if he gives her half a 
 chance." 
 
 A lurking significance in her tone prompted Derek 
 to ask frankly : " You don't mean Agar ? " 
 
 The note of disapproval was unmistakable and 
 she misread it utterly. 
 
 " Sakes, no ! Not much ' right man ' about Jos. 
 They've been fooling round some. Young folks will. 
 But there's nothing to it. You can take my word. 
 Jos isn't the kind to marry. He can get all he wants 
 without that. And Lois, well she fancies him some. 
 But my ! if men and women had a call to marry 
 all those they'd fancied, we'd need to be Turks and 
 Mormons outright to keep the accounts square ! 
 Don't you worry. If Lois is a mite feckless and 
 young of her age she's a good girl a good girl." 
 Mrs. Macrae repeated with what seemed to Derek
 
 250 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 unnecessary emphasis. And he perceived, with a 
 jarring shock, that the kind soul was by way of 
 administering comfort to a discouraged lover. The 
 discovery, following upon his recent vision, fired 
 him with an insane desire to bolt before Lois Aymes 
 appeared. He plunged desperately into disjointed 
 talk about his journey ; and thanked heaven when 
 the vagrant children charged into the room and took 
 complete possession of him. But respite was brief ; 
 for Al had long overstayed his bed-time and now 
 his mother was adamant. No more excuses ; he 
 must go. 
 
 " Delek, too," the boy whimpered, clinging to his 
 friend. " Want Delek to tuck me in." 
 
 " Sure thing, old chap. I'll tuck you in, if you 
 don't kick up a fuss," Derek reassured him soothingly. 
 
 " Well of all the spoilt boys ! " 
 
 The speaker was not Mrs. Macrae ; and Derek 
 looked up with a slight start. There, in the veranda 
 doorway, stood Lois Aymes. . . . Framed in a 
 background of summer darkness, with the light full 
 upon her hair, she looked even fairer and more 
 fragile than usual ; and as much out of place in the 
 Wild West as a lily of the valley in a cabbage 
 patch. She wore a simple gown of dull blue linen 
 with a quaker collar that revealed the swanlike curve 
 of her throat. But the long lines of her figure were 
 too immature and slender for grace. Her cheek- 
 bones, that were a shade too prominent, narrowed 
 unexpectedly to the oval of her chin ; and in the 
 hollows beneath them were patches of clear
 
 INTO THE DEEP 251 
 
 carmine. Her eyes had a deceptive far-away look ; 
 and the chief charm of her face lay in the mobility of 
 her softly sensuous mouth. 
 
 Though she apostrophized the boy, her welcoming 
 smile was for Derek, who returned it with a touch of 
 constraint. 
 
 " So you really have come," she began, " I 
 wondered " 
 
 " Well, if you wondered you might have come 
 along sooner to find out," Mrs. Macrae took her up 
 with a touch of asperity. " And you'd ought to bin 
 minding the kids. After dark, too ! What kept 
 you so late ? " 
 
 Derek, aware of her faint hesitation, hated himself 
 for knowing the truth and knowing that she would 
 conceal it. 
 
 " I got walking too far on the Ranch," she said 
 rather huniedly. " It was lovely among the trees. 
 I didn't notice how the time went. Then I had to 
 hurry back. I didn't mean any harm. I'm sorry. 
 Come along, Al." 
 
 But Al clung stoutly to Derek. " Please you put 
 me all to bed," he began coaxingly ; and Derek 
 jumped at the heaven-sent chance of escape. 
 
 " Blest if I won't ! " he cried, and swung the small 
 boy up on to his shoulder. " Don't say ' No ' to 
 us, Mrs. Macrae. Promise I won't stay fooling with 
 him. And I'm sure Miss Lois is tired after her walk." 
 So between them they carried the day. 
 
 When he returned Lois was at the piano, crooning 
 a love song ; Mrs. Macrae engaged with the inevit-
 
 252 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 able stocking, and Rosalie, curled up on the cane 
 settee, clasping the Halma board, obviously awaiting 
 him. She was a thin over-grown child ; not pretty, 
 though fresh coloured, with her mother's eyes and 
 crisp brown hair. But Derek was quite uncritical 
 over children. In the rare cases when they were 
 obnoxious, he unwaveringly set it down to their 
 elders. 
 
 " Let's play ' Stalking,' " she whispered as he sat 
 down by her. " Stalking " was a game invented by 
 Derek one evening because the rules of Halma were 
 beyond her. His solitary piece was " The Enemy," 
 her nine were the Bold Bad Brigands ; and the 
 enemy stalked them. If they were not very careful 
 he captured them. For 'Salie the game never lost 
 its thrill ; partly because Derek never played 
 down to her. He stalked her without mercy ; 
 never merely allowed her to win ; so that her few 
 victories were genuine triumphs. 
 
 And while they played, Lois, at the piano, was 
 singing : " Oh come, my love Oh come, my love, 
 with me" in tones so frankly sentimental thatDerek 
 felt quite uncomfortable. The recollection of Mrs. 
 Macrae's discreet encouragement did not serve to 
 mend matters. The wretched business had quite 
 spoilt his holiday. He had meant to stay over 
 Sunday night. Instead, he would cross to Nealston 
 that afternoon. If Lois Aymes should happen to 
 suspect Mrs. Macrae's latest scheme for her future 
 welfare the position would become intolerable. 
 
 She had left the piano now and was standing close
 
 INTO THE DEEP 255 
 
 to him, watching their game. " How can you keep 
 on at such nonsense ? " she suddenly remarked. 
 
 " It's not nonsense," Derek answered without 
 looking up. " It's a rattling good game. Look out, 
 'Salie, or I'll have you." 
 
 But 'Salie, with a squeak of triumph, escaped out 
 of the toils : and the game went on. 
 
 After a short silence Lois spoke again. " Have you 
 nearly finished ? It's long past her bedtime. You 
 do spoil them " 
 
 But 'Salie clutched the board with both hands, 
 " Oh, we must finish we must ! Mother, mayn't 
 we ? I still can corner him." 
 
 " Well, be quick about it," Mrs. Macrae answered 
 with surface severity ; and for once Derek was 
 guilty of conniving at the process. At parting the 
 child flung her arms round him and pressed a flushed 
 cheek against his cool one. " I do love you," she 
 whispered. Then she ran off and Lois took her place. 
 This time there was no concentration on the game, 
 Lois looked much more often at Derek than at the 
 board; and when he beat her hollow, she simply 
 laughed and said : " Try again." 
 
 In a general way their game would be enlivened 
 by snatches of mild chaff ; but to-night he was 
 acutely aware of Mrs. Macrae, in the background,, 
 putting a wrong colour on his innocent remarks. 
 Nor were matters improved when Lois began to look 
 pathetic and tried to catch his eyes between the 
 moves. If she had Agar, why did she bother about 
 himself, he wondered with masculine density.
 
 254 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Once Mrs. Macrae left the room for a few minutes 
 and Lois gave the board a little petulant push. 
 
 " It's a fool game. I'm sick of it." 
 
 " That's all right," Derek said, smiling and sweep- 
 ing up the scattered pieces. " I like straight 
 speaking." 
 
 " Do you ? " she gave him a shy look. " Well 
 then what's the matter with you to-night ? 
 
 This was more than he had bargained for, but he 
 managed to keep his countenance. " Nothing. 
 Sorry I've bored you. I suppose I'm in a stupid 
 mood." 
 
 " You didn't seem to be with 'Salie. I believe 
 you care for those children more than anything." 
 
 He smiled at that. ' I can always hit it off with 
 children." 
 
 " And I s'pose not being a child, I'm not in it ! " 
 
 ' You don't seem to me much more than a child," 
 he said in a tone he would not have ventured on with 
 Mrs. Macrae sitting behind him. 
 
 " Don't I ? Well I am lots more." The toss 
 of her head, and the young importance of her tone 
 made the scene in the orchard seem more like an 
 optical illusion than ever. " Say, it's s'tupid sitting 
 here. Let's walk in the veranda. There's a moon 
 and the honeysuckle's just sweet." 
 
 At any other time, to please her, he would have 
 consented. But to-night he did not dare. '' Better 
 not," he said, " you look tired this evening." 
 
 She glanced at him through the curtain of her 
 long straight lashes, red-gold like her hair.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 255 
 
 " That's just an excuse. You're cross with me." 
 
 " Honour bright, I'm not. But we can talk quite 
 as well sitting here ; and I'll try not to be stupid any 
 more." 
 
 " Well, talk then ! We won't make a fool pre- 
 tence at playing Halma.^ I am rather tired. P'raps 
 it's the spring " 
 
 At that moment Mrs. Macrae came back into the 
 room ; and by the end of the evening his impulse 
 not to stay over Sunday had hardened into a decision. 
 
 Next morning when Lois took him out to see her 
 " fairyland," she had an inspiration. 
 
 " Let's have a supper picnic out here to-night. 
 You ask her. She never says ' No ' to you." 
 
 This was disconcerting ; but Derek was not easily 
 swayed from his purpose. " I would, like a shot," 
 he said smiling at her eagerness, " but I can't stay. 
 I've too much business to get through on the other 
 side," 
 
 It hurt him to see her face fall and her soft mouth 
 quiver like the mouth of a chidden child. 
 
 " Well, you are " 
 
 " Oh no, I'm not ! " he rallied her : but her dis- 
 appointment was too keen to be laughed off. 
 
 ' Then what makes you seem so different, and go 
 rushing off like this ? No one 'ud reckon we're 
 s'posed to be friends " 
 
 " We are though, real friends," Derek seized upon 
 that safe and blessed word. " I can't make talk 
 and say pretty things. But if I could ever help
 
 256 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 you if you were ever in trouble then you'd 
 know " 
 
 He broke off rather lamely, and she sighed. " Oh, 
 I do know. You're real kind, and you're fine. But 
 it's not much shakes being friends, if it's only when 
 you're in trouble " 
 
 " It's not only then," Derek consoled her gently. 
 It was all so young that he began to feel a fool for 
 running away from her. " But it's then you can 
 tell the real thing from the sham." 
 
 " Yes, I guess that's so," she admitted without 
 enthusiasm. " But I do want that picnic. It was 
 such a notion, and the kids would love it." 
 
 That last shook his resolve a moment. Possibly 
 she knew it would. 
 
 " We'll save it up for next time," he began. 
 
 " Next time there'll be mosquitoes and no cherry 
 blows. This time's the only time for any- 
 thing." 
 
 " That's philosophy ! " /Then he too had his 
 inspiration. " Look here, why not middle day ? 
 Sandwiches and fruit and things. Just you and I 
 and the imps. Better than nothing. I'll fix it up. 
 You leave it to me." 
 
 She was radiant. He had not disappointed her ; 
 yet he had managed to hold his ground. For a 
 reputed muddler, he considered he had done rather 
 well. Of course it would confirm Mrs. Macrae in 
 her crazy notions ; but if he kept away long enough, 
 afterwards, that would die a natural death. And 
 Agar might play up. There was no knowing.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 257 
 
 Meantime, why shouldn't the children enjoy their 
 picnic ? 
 
 They did enjoy it, all four of them to the top of 
 their bent ; and later in the afternoon Derek 
 departed with their shrill insistent : " Come along 
 again soon," sounding pleasantly in his ears. 
 
 And he could not come along again soon bad 
 luck to it simply because Lois Aymes was not the 
 child he had taken her for, and Mrs. Macrae was 
 bitten with the matchmaking instinct of her kind. 
 No escape, even in the wilds, from the woman com- 
 plication, which did not seem to him by any means 
 the first consideration in life. And if a man had no 
 hankering after that sort of thing, why on earth 
 couldn't the women leave him alone ? It was 
 confoundedly annoying ; the more so that, in his 
 reserved fashion, he had grown fond of the girl. 
 He was haunted uncomfortably by her pathetic 
 look at parting and the clinging clasp of her hand ; 
 haunted still more by, the fear that Agar, being what 
 he was, she might be in trouble sooner than she 
 dreamed. Her very weakness made an irresistible 
 
 appeal to his strength. But as to falling in love ! 
 
 In the circumstances it would be a disaster. More- 
 over, it had never entered his head. Very good rea- 
 sons, both, why it must not be allowed to enter hers. 
 
 " And that's an end of that," he reflected ruefully 
 as he leaned upon the taffrail, smoking and staring 
 down into blue-green unfathomable depths. 
 
 By the time he reached his hotel in Nealston, the 
 
 i
 
 258 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 morning's cloud of depression had returned ; and 
 \vith it the craving to get away, to be himself again. 
 The girl at the bureau smiled a friendly greeting 
 and handed him a letter from Bombay ; for the 
 Hotel was his official address w r hence correspondence 
 was forwarded on. Though unpretentious, it was 
 thoroughly comfortable, with a good cuisine. He 
 allowed himself, on these occasions, the luxury of a 
 decent dinner, a bottle of wine, Home papers and a 
 real armchair. He found that abstinence rather 
 increased than diminished his appreciation of these 
 things. To-day he went straight up to his room, and 
 established himself on the strip of balcony with his 
 letter and his " Weekly Times. " Lord Avonleigh sel- 
 dom wrote long letters, and this one was shorter than 
 usual. It was also rather more intimate than usual, 
 which increased the restless craving at his heart. 
 
 " MY DEAR BOY," he wrote, 
 
 " I haven't much time this morning, but I can't 
 let this mail go without sending you word of us, as I 
 know from experience that any sort of letter is 
 welcome when one is quite cut off from the things 
 of Home. I may add that occasional letters .from 
 your end are very welcome, also, and it is a long time 
 since one came our way. Aunt Marion who is 
 very fond of you suffers from periodical qualms as 
 to what you may be up to. It would be an act of 
 real consideration to keep her posted up a little 
 oftener. And though Mother may not say very 
 much, the same remark applies to her. I am philo-
 
 INTO THE DEEP 259 
 
 sophic enough to accept the fact that silence probably 
 means all is well ; but I admit that a sight of your 
 handwriting would give me great pleasure. We have 
 good news from home. Things seem to be going 
 well and young Schonberg turning out a success. I 
 have now every hope of persuading Mother and Van 
 to come out in October and spend the winter here. 
 A pity you can't complete the party. But no doubt 
 you are well occupied solving your own problems 
 and imbibing first-hand knowledge ! An ounce of 
 it is worth a ton of the other kind, and I appreciate 
 your constancy of purpose. Some day, God willing, 
 we shall see you again. At any rate let us hear from 
 you. 
 
 " Your affectionate father, 
 
 " AVOXLEIGH." 
 
 Derek brooded a long while over that letter, which 
 so vividly brought before him his father's keen face 
 and hawk-like eyes. Not a word about himself or 
 his health. So 'like him ! Still more like him the 
 friendly dig about first-hand knowledge, that might 
 or might not contain an undernote of sarcasm. The 
 touch about constancy of purpose rang true and 
 warmed his heart. But judged by results, what 
 did that constancy amount to after all ? 
 
 Not for the first time, a chill trickle of doubt ran 
 through him : Was he doing any earthly good to 
 himself or any one else by this freak of " bucking " 
 and " under-cutting " in a lumber camp ? Or was 
 he simply wasting three of the best years of his life ?
 
 260 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 He had felt so splendidly sure when he took the 
 plunge and what had come of it ? 
 
 Certainly he had solved no problems ; though he 
 had gleaned some strange and varied knowledge 
 for what it was worth of human nature in the rough. 
 He had learnt to see his England through other than 
 English eyes ; to regard her, perhaps, more critically 
 yet with a deeper pride in all that she stood for, 
 wherever her spirit held sway over the minds of 
 men. In Australia and Canada he had come to 
 know her as never at Oxford or Avonleigh ; for 
 great striving countries should be seen from afar if 
 we would have them in the pure idea. As for 
 getting into closer touch with the men of another 
 social order, he had at least got sufficiently inside that 
 problem to discover its immensity ; to realize that 
 the thing could not be achieved in eighteen months 
 of casual labour : possibly, not in half a lifetime. If 
 so where, in the name of common sense, was the use 
 of hanging on ? And as to constancy of purpose was 
 not sheer obstinacy nearer the mark ? There spoke 
 the voice of the tempter : and in the hope of silencing 
 it, Derek glanced again at his father's letter. 
 
 One sentence leaped from the page : "I have 
 now every hope of persuading Mother and Van to 
 come out in October. ... A pity you can't com- 
 plete the party." In October they would all be 
 together having no end of a good time ; while 
 he. self -banished, would be picking somebody's 
 blasted fruit or working at the mills. There was 
 no earthly sense in it. All the old jars and rubs
 
 INTO THE -DEEP 261 
 
 seemed at this distance, of a transient insignificance 
 beside his deep-rooted love of them all, the stir of 
 kindred blood in his veins 
 
 And suddenly it flashed upon him that by October 
 two years would be up. He had said " two at 
 least ; three at most." Let him stick it out till 
 October ; then honour and obstinacy would be 
 satisfied. After that, if his father rose to the idea of 
 Xrevanyon, he could put in his third year on a farm, 
 and pull it through cheerfully with a genuine object 
 in view. His flagging spirits went up with a run. 
 He would say nothing yet awhile. Like Stevenson's 
 lantern-bearers, he would keep his new-lighted hope 
 buttoned up under .his coat ; and be content to 
 know that it was there. A little nearer the time, he 
 would write and announce his intention of coming to 
 complete the party. 
 
 He was seized with boyish impatience. Six 
 months seemed suddenly an eternity to wait. Any- 
 thing might happen. Certainly nothing worth 
 mentioning had happened in the past twelve ; but 
 now Fate might have some horrid upheaval up 
 her sleeve. Derek had no faith in Fate. She was 
 his sworn enemy. But he would not be frightened 
 into ignominious surrender. He had made up his 
 mind to wait till the two years were up and wait he 
 would : Let her do her damnedest ! 
 
 Six months ! A mere bagatelle ! They would be 
 gone in no time. 
 
 Meanwhile he was hungry and thirsty and 
 thoroughly in the mood for a good dinner.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 " We who make 
 Sport for the gods, are hunted to the end." BROWNING. 
 
 BACK in camp, with a secret lantern buttoned 
 under his coat, Derek put worries behind him 
 and settled down to his logging again with a will. 
 Abe had a big contract on hand ; and for the next 
 month or two they would be working at high pressure. 
 From morning to night forest and clearing resounded 
 with the ringing notes of axes on wood, clatter of 
 steel cables and the crash of falling trees. Some 
 nights they worked overtime by flare, while the pines 
 performed a ghostly shadow dance around them, 
 and the large, friendly figure of " Maggots " prowled 
 among them with his war-cry : " Get to it, boys ! 
 Get to it all the time ! " 
 
 And what blessed dreamless sleep was the guerdon 
 of their health-giving toil ! Better than town work 
 any day. Clean Nature all about you. Her tempers 
 to put up with : rain, wind and snow, black-fly 
 and mosquitoes. Her strength to pit your own 
 against, in place of the frauds and jealousies of men. 
 Work that called for endurance, for the triple dex- 
 
 262
 
 INTO THE DEEP 263 
 
 terity of hand, eye and brain ; and, by supper-time, 
 made a man " feel good all over," at peace with 
 himself and his kind. In these early summer days, 
 when the whole camp was putting its collective back 
 into Abe's big thing, and Abe was sending up word 
 that they were " the straight goods every man jack 
 of them," and the sun shone and the chipmunks 
 chirruped, Derek felt more keenly alive, than ever 
 before, to all that most satisfied him in the surround- 
 ings and the life. Every day, some urgent and 
 interesting task on hand ; sheer athletic pleasure in 
 the effortless swing of an axe, or the movement of 
 a saw ; the flattering knowledge that one's scrap of 
 work counted, because, in this vast world of logs 
 and loggers, trees were more plentiful than men. 
 And above all he liked the spirit of the thing ; the 
 friendliness that would go a long way round to give 
 one of the boys a hand ; the unflinching spirit that 
 would admit no " ifs " or " buts " ; that bade a 
 man stand up to difficulties and ply his native 
 common sense if he desired to win the respect of his 
 fellows and to keep his job : in brief, the spirit of the 
 West. The essence of that spirit had been rubbed 
 into Derek, at the start, by big, kindly Mick Sayers, 
 brother to Dan. " Don't you never let on you can't 
 do this nor that," had been his private word of 
 warning. " You go right ahead every time. Use 
 yer own horse sense an' leave the boss to do the 
 worrying" : which sound advice, boldly acted on, 
 had pulled Derek round more than one critical corner. 
 Mick himself was a skilled woodsman, close on
 
 264 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 thirty ; and Derek found his untiring Canadian 
 vigour as good as a tonic. At the moment he was 
 " under-cutting " ; and Derek, on his return, was 
 asked to take over the vacancy left by Symes, whom 
 the merciful " Maggots " had merely shifted on to 
 less skilled work. This meant seeing more of Mick, 
 an arrangement thoroughly congenial to them both. 
 Altogether things were going so well with him in 
 his cheerful corner of the world that he began to 
 grow less distrustful of Fate 
 
 The Sunday following his trip he devoted to Home 
 letters ; a long one to his father, that gave a pleasing 
 general impression of his well-being, and promised 
 Aunt Marion more frequent assurances that he was 
 quite prosaically safe and keeping clear of scrapes. 
 
 If he vouchsafed them few facts, he rarely indulged 
 in gratuitous fiction ; and at that moment his sense 
 of well-being was genuine enough. It was late 
 afternoon and most of the boys were congregated 
 in the store. Derek was alone in the forest, about 
 a mile from the clearing, sitting in a canvas chair, a 
 camp table at his elbow and close behind him a very 
 small, very rough log cabin, built with his own hands 
 and afterwards contended for with all the quiet 
 doggedness that was in him. 
 
 His trick of disappearing on Sundays, or in the 
 summer evenings, had first roused curiosity, then 
 suspicion. Then some one had spied on him and 
 explored. Derek firmly believed it was Symes or 
 Moulin, the French Canadian a bully and some-
 
 INTO THE DEEP 265 
 
 thing of a brute. The result had been the discovery 
 and wrecking of his cherished retreat. There was 
 nothing vicious about the proceedings. To them it 
 was simply inconceivable that any sane man should 
 want to be " so damned private." Wherefore they 
 had registered their protest by demolishing his shelter 
 and using it to feed camp fires. 
 
 Derek had been furiously angry. But he had 
 hardened his heart ; and slowly, secretly, built it 
 up again, elsewhere. Again it had been discovered 
 and wrecked undoubtedly by Moulin and a few 
 others of his kind. This time Derek's anger was 
 white hot ; but his Winchester training told. They 
 should not have the satisfaction of seeing how 
 enraged he was how disheartened ! He had no 
 idea how long they were prepared to keep up the 
 argument ; but he would not be the first to give in. 
 If he was up against the Western spirit, they were 
 up against the British spirit ; and it takes " some " 
 beating, as they were presently to admit. 
 
 For Derek had very secretly removed the ruins of 
 his little shack to yet another spot ; and had rebuilt 
 it, for the third time, under the outspread wing of 
 a red cedar, within sound of a waterfall whose 
 unceasing music never wearied his ears. And there 
 the argument ended to his immense relief. 
 
 He discovered, afterwards, that he owed a good 
 deal to the championship of Mick and Joe Smithers, 
 the cheery little Cockney, who had christened him 
 " No yer don't," and had an absent-minded way 
 of calling him " sir " that went to Derek's heart.
 
 266 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 By now the whole affair was ancient history ; and 
 he enjoyed his spells of solitude unchallenged. He 
 could even invite a congenial spirit to share it and 
 sample his cocoa ; for he kept a small store of things 
 there under lock and key ; and bounded in that 
 friendly nutshell, counted himself a king of infinite 
 space 
 
 That week's mail had brought a letter from Jack, 
 enjoying Sandhurst, with the Indian Cavalry in 
 view ; and hostile as ever to the Schonberg connexion 
 that had long since become an accomplished fact. 
 Burltons Ltd. was steadily coming to the fore in the 
 steel and iron and motor world. Schonberg, it 
 seemed, had graciously deprecated any change in 
 the title of the firm, but the ungrateful Jack tact- 
 lessly demanded to know how much English money 
 there was in the concern ; how many German 
 shareholders ; how many Germans on the board 
 
 " The old man's as close as an oyster on the sub- 
 ject," he complained to Derek, his sole confidant. 
 " He evidently considers that sort of thing outside 
 my mental grasp. But as I'm heir to Burltons 
 (that was) I maintain I've the right to know some- 
 thing about it. Old Schonberg' s awfully friendly. 
 The kids are getting quite fond of him. But I can't 
 cotton to him and I fancy he knows it. So it's not 
 much sport going home these days, and Gay is still 
 stuck out in Canada. Her aunt wants to take her 
 West for a spell before letting her go home. She says 
 it's great ; and why don't I come out and try my 
 hand at ranching and we'd run the thing together.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 267 
 
 Rather sport ! I'd love to have a look round and 
 get a sight of your good old phiz again." 
 
 The letter ended with a flagrant outburst of 
 affection, which an isolated Derek no longer quar- 
 relled with, as in the old days. If he still remained 
 mildly sceptical, it was the not unnatural outcome 
 of his home atmosphere : and his patent failure to 
 win close to his mother's heart Yet, now he had 
 removed himself to the ends of the earth, even she 
 seemed to care a little what became of him. The 
 knowledge was distinctly comforting ; though there 
 were ungracious moods in which he wondered how 
 long her solicitude would outlast his return home ? 
 
 Another Sunday came round and still no word 
 from the Ranch. Derek began to feel worried. It 
 was not his habit to write to Lois unless she wrote to 
 him. But he now arrived at wondering if he had 
 better not drop a hint of warning to Mrs. Macrae. 
 Only the embarrassing nature of their last talk with- 
 held him. His action would certainly be misunder- 
 stood, and after all the affair was none of his business, 
 which common-sense consideration did not prevent 
 that disturbing vision in the orchard from haunting 
 his brain 
 
 The following Sunday, mindful of his promise to 
 Bill, he begged leave to take the boy down for a 
 jaunt on the Lake, returning Monday : and it is 
 a question which of them most keenly enjoyed the 
 trip. Derek felt a brief pang when they passed 
 Beulah Landing. 'Salie and Al would be much
 
 268 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 better for Bill than " the Pictures " at Jkealston- 
 But even while he debated the possibility his chance 
 was gone. Well, perhaps there would be news when 
 he got back 
 
 And it was so. 
 
 They reached camp about noon ; and Derek went 
 straight to the shack. There they found Mrs. 
 Margett alone ; and while the child poured out his 
 tale, the woman gave Derek an odd searching 
 look. 
 
 " You've not been to the Ranch then ? " she 
 asked ; and Derek, resenting the question, answered 
 casually. " No. It wasn't in the programme." 
 
 Again that odd look. " Then I s'pose you've not 
 heard the news ? " 
 
 " What news ? " 
 
 " Oh there's been no end of a commotion 
 
 She glanced at Bill ; took him by the shoulders and 
 put him from her, not ungently. " Scoot old man," 
 she said. " Wash and brush up for dinner. I've got 
 business with Mr. Blunt." 
 
 When they were alone Mrs. Margett took an 
 envelope from her desk and handed it to Derek. 
 
 " For you," she said, " from Mrs. Macrae. That 
 girl you're so keen about has given them all a fright. 
 Been at death's door with haemorrhage. Seems she's 
 pulled round this time ; but of course " 
 
 A gesture conveyed the hopelessness of it all ; 
 and she added more feelingly : "I was afraid if 
 you hadn't bin there it would give you a bit of a 
 knock."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 269 
 
 Derek set his lips and looked out of the window. 
 Her insinuation passed clean over him. 
 
 " It's cruel," he said in a repressed voice. " Can 
 they do nothing for her nothing ? " 
 
 Mrs. Margett shrugged. " That depends. The 
 Doc. seems to think the trouble's gone pretty far. 
 But he says she'd do better up at Windyridge. 
 That's how Mrs Macrae wrote to me. If she's well 
 enough the Doc. will bring her along next week, when 
 he comes to sniff round the camps ; and they want 
 I should give her a shake-down for one night, so he 
 can take her on next day. That's all I know. 
 Likely Mrs. Macrae has told you a good bit more." 
 ' Yes of course," Derek assented absently, look- 
 ing at his envelope. Then he turned to go. 
 
 " Won't you stay dinner ? " she asked. 
 
 " No, thanks." 
 
 But she could not let him go without asserting 
 herself. " Poor old son," she said, and caressingly 
 touched his shoulder. " Lucky you've not let 
 yourself in. But don't let it down you as bad as all 
 that ! " 
 
 " Me ? " he turned sharply, withdrawing his shoul- 
 der from her hand. " I was thinking of her." 
 
 She threw up her head and laughed. " That's 
 one way of putting it. Guess you're the limit, 
 Derek Blunt. 7 don't know what to make of you." 
 
 " Hard lines," he said quietly, and went out, leaving 
 her to make of him what she pleased. 
 
 It was twenty minutes yet to the dinner hour. 
 The men were still at work, and the bunk house
 
 270 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 would be empty. There, seated on a log, with the 
 sun streaming in upon him, he opened Mrs. Macrae's 
 letter. It was a long one and it spared him nothing. 
 They had all been frightened. Lois had been mortally 
 frightened. 
 
 " Seems like a kind of judgment on her, poor dear 
 
 " she rambled on, confident of his sympathy, 
 
 his desire to hear all. " For she'd been out late 
 again once or twice. She's getting bad that way. 
 It won't do. But what's that matter now ? The 
 Doc. says he gives her six months. And whatever 
 I did, I was not to let her know. But that bad child, 
 'Salie, heard him ; not understanding, of course. 
 And what does she do but tell the poor girl ' The 
 Doc. says he gives you six months. What's he 
 mean, Miss Aymes ? ' I could almost have twisted 
 her neck, though she is my flesh and blood. Poor 
 Lois went all white and fainted slap off. And she's 
 been that queer ever since, kind of locked up herself. 
 I can do nothing with her. I believe she's scared. 
 Only she won't speak. And there's more ailing her 
 than her lungs. Jos came around to see her when 
 she was better ; and the Lord knows what he said, 
 but it knocked her flat again. I s'pose he did mean 
 marriage, and now he's backed out. It's cruel hard 
 on the poor child. But the Doc. says she's pulled 
 around wonderful and he'll take her up to Windy- 
 ridge next week. Mrs. Wilkins up thar is a good 
 soul. She'll do the best any mortal can. When 
 you see Lois, try and put some heart into her. 
 Maybe she'll come unlocked for you. She thinks the
 
 INTO THE DEEP 271 
 
 world of you, Derek Blunt. You won't mind if I 
 say that now. But you'd no eyes. You're too 
 modest by half. And now well, it doesn't stand 
 thinking of " 
 
 When he had finished reading, Derek sat very still, 
 staring at nothing. The clang of the dinner gong 
 startled him like the trump of doom. 
 
 Mrs. Macrae was right. The thing did not bear 
 thinking of. Yet all that afternoon, while he was 
 " undercutting," he could think of nothing else. 
 Lois lifting her face to Agar in the twilight ; Lois 
 standing in the doorway, with the summer night 
 behind her and the light on her hair ; Lois begging 
 for her picnic because " this time was the only 
 time " 
 
 And now she had been given six months, she 
 was scared and miserable. And what had the 
 devil Agar said to her the cowardly brute ? Had 
 he been straight with her all along ? The whole 
 pitiful tragedy stirred him to the depths. In the 
 past eighteen months he had confronted death in 
 its rougher, uglier aspects ; but this stealthy, 
 implacable undermining of a young life took a 
 painful hold on his imagination and his heart. 
 
 As he moved mechanically from one splendid tree 
 to another, marking each one for death, he saw 
 himself suddenly as a symbol of Fate, the ghostly 
 Undercutter, who moves through the forest of human 
 lives, setting his unseen mark with how much or 
 how little discrimination ? on one and another ; 
 here a woman, here a man, there a child. He shook
 
 272 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 off the idea as morbid ; but it haunted him. 
 
 And now the fatal finger had touched Lois Aymes 
 a pretty harmless butterfly made for love and 
 laughter and the sweets of life. All he had ever 
 criticized in her, all the trivialities that had jarred 
 him were submerged in one overwhelming flood of 
 pity. And none could help or save her. That, for 
 him, was the essence of the tragedy. 
 
 He managed, not without difficulty, to write her 
 a few cheering lines, reminding her that doctors 
 often made mistakes ; bidding her cling to hope 
 (he, the least hopeful of mortals) looking forward to 
 seeing her in camp. 
 
 Her brief reply gave him the measure of all she 
 had suffered and was still suffering. For Lois was 
 not given to brevity. 
 
 ' You're real kind," she wrote, " like you always 
 have been, and I'll be real glad to see you. Do you 
 remember you said last time if I was in trouble, I'd 
 know the true friend from the sham one. Well I 
 am and I do. But it's not much use to any one any- 
 way. My head feels all wuzzly. I can't write about 
 it. But thank you. Gratefully, Lois Aymes." 
 
 He read that poignant note twice over ; and sharp 
 tears pricked his eyeballs. It was a sensation he had 
 not felt since he stood on the tramp steamer watching 
 the grey blur, that was England, melt into the haze of 
 sea and sky. 
 
 Ten days later she arrived with Dr. Rally, in Abe's 
 buckboard. Derek was off duty ; for the camp
 
 INTO THE DEEP 273 
 
 worked early and late in summer and had three hours 
 " slack " in the heat of the day. 
 
 " You'd better be around and do the introducing," 
 Mrs. Margett had said with her sidelong look. " Any 
 old excuse will serve ! " 
 
 So Derek was " around " when the rough cart 
 little more than a case on wheels drove up the 
 main track from the valley ; and Lois was so patently 
 glad to see him that he hoped Mrs. Margett's eyes 
 were engaged elsewhere. 
 
 In a light summer coat and wide-brimmed hat, 
 the girl looked prettier than ever ; and it surprised 
 him to find her so little changed. The hollows under 
 her cheek bones seemed a shade deeper and her soft 
 mouth had a pathetic droop. Otherwise there was 
 nothing to suggest that ten days ago she had been 
 at'death's door. Only once or twice, when she fell 
 silent, Derek caught a strange new look in her eyes. 
 Mrs. Macrae was right. She was " scared." This 
 evening he must talk to her and do what he could. 
 Meantime, he was uncomfortably aware of Mrs. 
 Margett's scrutiny and jarred by the Dcotor's well- 
 meaning chaff. Rally was a big lean Irishman, with 
 a mop of brick-red hair and a laugh fit to lift the 
 roof off : a slap-you-on-the-back sort of fellow/ un- 
 hampered by the finer sensibilities. Unaware of 
 'Salie's misdemeanour, and anxious to cheer up his 
 patient, he treated the whole matter as a joke. 
 
 " Sure, we're afther being no end of an invalid 
 because we can't get rid of our little coff," said he 
 with a wink at Lois and a huge guffaw. " But,
 
 274 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 begorra, 'tis Windyridge that'll do the trick ! " 
 
 Derek could almost see the girl quiver under these 
 kindly onslaughts, and felt thankful when the doctor 
 departed, in a final explosion of laughter, to enliven 
 less sensitive patients in the camps higher up the 
 valley. 
 
 By then, Derek's time was nearly up ; and he was 
 wondering how far he dare respond to Lois' appealing 
 glance, when Mrs. Margett bored with the whole 
 situation came to his aid. 
 
 " Better take Miss Aymes out and show her 
 round. And you might come back later on to 
 supper," she said. 
 
 So he took her out and they strolled to and fro 
 in the shade of the pines. She moved listlessly, 
 looking about her with dreamy unconcern : and 
 Derek, badly at a loss, drew her attention to the 
 grand array of peaks that dominated the valley. 
 
 She shook her head at their magnificence with 
 a small rueful smile. " They're mighty fine. But 
 I hate them. . . ." A pause. " Where's your little 
 shanty you used to tell about ? Is it near here ? " 
 
 " Not very far. It's away in the forest the other 
 side of the big clearing." 
 
 "I'd love to see it- 1 and the waterfall with the 
 deep pool. Couldn't you take me there this evening ? 
 I don't like that woman." 
 
 Derek smiled. " Nor do I ! The walk would be 
 nice if it wouldn't over-tire you." 
 
 " Of course not." She looked away from him. 
 " I feel much better now."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 275 
 
 " I'm glad. And up there you'll feel better 
 still." 
 
 He saw her wince and cursed himself for a clumsy 
 fool. " Don't you get telling lies, like the Doc.," 
 she said very low ; and her rebuke smote him silent. 
 There seemed nothing more to say. They both felt 
 so shy and tongue-tied that it was a relief when 
 young Bill charged down upon them and took 
 command of the situation. 
 
 ' Tell Mrs. Margett not to wait supper," Derek 
 said when it was time to go. " Soon as I'm free 
 I'll get a snack and come along. Billy wilt see after 
 you." . 
 
 ' Yes, I'll see after her," the boy echoed with 
 masculine importance and a shy upward glance at 
 the lovely vision, who was quite obviously Derek's 
 princess. 
 
 ' That's a good chap," Derek said gravely, and 
 went off, leaving them together. 
 
 It was near sunset when he returned to find Mrs. 
 Margett alone writing letters. No sign of Lois or 
 Bill. 
 
 " Are they out ? " Derek asked as she glanced up 
 to greet him. 
 
 ' Very much out ! Your young lady who looks 
 wonderfully well, considering sneaked off soon after 
 supper and no one's set eyes on her since." 
 
 " Gone ! " Derek's heart contracted ; and Mrs. 
 Margett saw the fear in his eyes. 
 
 " You innocent enough to be scared ? " she asked
 
 276 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 with a touch of amused contempt. " Not such a 
 fool as she looks, that girl. She knows right enough 
 if she stops out there you'll go and look for her. So 
 you'd better make tracks and not disappoint her ! 
 Bill's been hunting round like mad." 
 
 Derek too angry and anxious to retort turned 
 and left the shack without a word. 
 
 " Where the devil can she have gone ? " he 
 muttered half aloud. Then he shouted for the boy, 
 who came running to him with a face of dismay. 
 
 " Oh, Deny I couldn't help it I did try ! " 
 
 Tears were imminent and Derek laid a reassuring 
 hand on his shoulder. " All right, old man. Per- 
 haps she just wanted to look round and she's missed 
 her way. I'll be sure and find her." 
 
 " Can't I come too ? " 
 
 " No. I might be late. But I'll bring her back all 
 safe. Don't you worry ! " 
 
 The boy sighed and stood looking after him, with 
 dog-like devotion, till he disappeared among the 
 pines.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " Heart too soft and will too weak 
 To front the fate that crouches near ; 
 Dove beneath the eagle's beak." EMERSON. 
 
 FOR all his brave words, Derek had not a guiding 
 idea in his head as to why the girl had gone or 
 where. Some childish romantic impulse probably 
 to explore the forest ; and she had lost the track. 
 He was a fool to have told her about his shanty ; 
 but lacking even the ghost of a clue, that direction 
 would be as good as another. 
 
 He paused in the open clearing, quiet and empty 
 now ; no scurrying figures ; no shriek and whirr of 
 machinery. Man, the eternal intruder, had vanished 
 from the scene. There remained only the great 
 silent forest people the quick and the dead. Derek 
 loved the place at this hour, when the peak in the 
 West wore the afterglow like a halo of glory. But 
 to-night he had no eyes for sunset splendours ; no 
 thoughts for anything but one pitiful human frag- 
 ment wandering somewhere in that dim wilderness 
 of pine-trunks and undergrowth and deceptive 
 side-tracks. He would find her if he had to walk all 
 night ; and the fact that she could not have gone 
 
 277
 
 278 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 very far would not necessarily make his task any 
 easier. 
 
 Before he had gone many paces, he was checked 
 by a shout behind him. It was Maggot's odd job 
 boy, running after him with something white in his 
 hand. 
 
 " What's it ? " Derek asked impatiently. " I'm 
 in a hurry." 
 
 " Wa-al," the boy said, grinning, " she arst me 
 to be sure and give you this anyway that gal from 
 the Ranch. She's gone off in the forest. I tole her 
 she'd better keep her wits alive an' stick to the 
 track." 
 
 Derek's impatience vanished. 
 
 " Did you happen to see which way she went ? 
 
 Bob indicated the direction with a grimy finger. 
 
 " Long ago was it ? " 
 
 The boy grinned again. " Less'n a lifetime ! 
 Mebbe half an hour mebbe more." 
 
 " Thanks," Derek said curtly and hurried away. 
 
 The track indicated led towards the waterfall, and 
 it was with a sharper prick of anxiety that he tore 
 open the envelope, without slackening his pace. It 
 contained a letter hurriedly and unsteadily scribbled 
 in pencil ; and Derek's frown deepened as he read. 
 
 " I feel I must write this to say good-bye to you 
 and explain. Nobody else really cares a rap, so I 
 don't trouble about the others. They're sending 
 me up to Windyridge to drag out the misery and get 
 me away from Jos. But I can't and I won't sit still 
 in that dull hole just waiting and waiting so I'm
 
 INTO THE DEEP 279 
 
 going to get it over and done, if that pool you told 
 about is deep enough. It will be easier that way. 
 At least I hope so. It's all frightening and horrible, 
 and nobody in the world has any use for me. So 
 good-bye Derek. It doesn't matter if I call you 
 that now, and you're the only real friend I've ever 
 had. I heard you came to Nealston. Why didn't 
 you come to us ? Were you unhappy ? Did you 
 guess about Jos ? W T ell, I'll tell you true. He just 
 fascinated me with his don't-care masterful ways. 
 You seemed so sober and steady. Jos was fun and 
 he was always there. I thought he meant marriage. 
 Perhaps he did. I don't want to make him out worse 
 than he is. But I know now that with men like 
 him, if they can't have one woman, another will do. 
 And he didn't lose much time letting me know I 
 wouldn't do because of my wretched cough. And 
 if no man will ever look at me again, there's no sense 
 in life. Oh, I did hate him when he told me. But I 
 suppose I was the fool to expect anything different. 
 Men in life don't act like men in books. But I 
 couldn't help thinking you would have been different, 
 and I know now you are worth fifty of Jos, and it 
 w r as only I was fascinated. But it's too late. I'm 
 done for all round. If I've hurt you any I'm fright- 
 fully sorry, and I do thank you from my heart for 
 being so good and kind to your foolish unhappy 
 
 Lois AYMES. 
 
 " I hope Bob will give you this. I gave him a 
 quarter to make sure. Don't try to stop me. It's
 
 280 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 simply cruel and it won't be any use. Good-bye." 
 It had been impossible not to loiter a little while 
 he wrestled with that illegible, unrestrained effusion, 
 that struck at his heart like the cry of a wounded 
 thing heard in the night. It appealed to the 
 deepest most commanding impulse of his nature 
 the impulse to help ; and now he went ahead down 
 the sloping trail with long swift strides. 
 
 She said it would be cruel to stop her, to drag 
 out the misery ; and he was too honest to deny it. 
 He held very strong views upon that complex pro- 
 blem ; but by choosing to confide in him, she forced 
 upon him the only possible line of action for a man 
 so placed. He doubted her courage to take the 
 plunge when it came to the point, in which case she 
 might shrink from the idea of coming back, of con- 
 fessing failure after that letter. She might lose her 
 way and very certainly she would be chilled by the 
 sudden drop of temperature at sunset in the moun- 
 tains. Sheer pity mastered him. Her very follies, 
 her softness and fecklessness gave her the appeal of 
 a child ; and children held a peculiar place in his 
 heart. By some means he must save her. Beyond 
 that point he had no leisure to look. 
 
 On he went in the deepening dusk, peering anxi- 
 ously this way and that. At last, where the trees 
 fell a little apart, the undergrowth showed signs of 
 being recently trodden. Something light-footed had 
 passed that way. His pulses gave a leap and swerv- 
 ing aside he followed those faint traces leaving very 
 definite ones behind him.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 281 
 
 In swerving he had turned eastward, and right 
 before him through the pine stems glowed the new- 
 risen moon tawny-golden, immense, intimate as a 
 living presence in that dim solitude. Derek caught 
 his breath and stood still. He was nearing the little 
 waterfall now ; and there, in a patch of open space, 
 the moon showed him what he sought. 
 
 On the rocky bank above the pool stood Lois, a 
 mere strip of pallor against the dusky back- 
 ground. 
 
 Noiselessly he drew nearer and discovered that her 
 face was hidden in her hands. It had not proved so 
 easy after all : and Derek, in the reaction of relief, 
 could afford to feel annoyed with her because she 
 had come out, Lois-like, with neither hat nor coat 
 to protect her from the evening air. 
 
 Softly he called her name. She threw up her head 
 and swung round, dropping her hands with a gesture 
 unconsciously dramatic. 
 
 " Oh ! why did you come ? I told you not ! " 
 And it was hard to say whether her cry had in it more 
 of remonstrance, relief or fear. 
 
 " It was the only thing a man could do," Derek 
 answered in his most matter-of-fact tone. " Thank 
 God, I'm in time." 
 
 " There's no God ! " she flung out wildly, edging 
 away as he drew near. " Or if there is, he cares no 
 more than these terrible mountains what comes to a 
 wretched girl like me. I've prayed and prayed I 
 might be brave enough to jump and finish every- 
 thing quickly "
 
 282 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Her voice broke. Sudden tears rained down her 
 face. 
 
 " Have you been here long ? " he asked gently. 
 He felt powerless to cope with her in a mood so 
 violent and uncontrolled. 
 
 " / don't know. It seems like ages," she an- 
 swered, wringing her thin hands together and choking 
 back her tears. " And it isn't because I'm afraid of 
 God that I couldn't do it. But the water looks so 
 cold and fierce. I I didn't think out how it would 
 be. I thought I'd make one big rush and it would 
 be over. But : when I got here everything looked 
 so peaceful so beautiful ; and I I was too fright- 
 ened to make the rush, and now it's all to do over 
 again." 
 
 " It's not to do over again ever." Derek forced 
 himself to speak sternly. She so plainly needed 
 steadying. " You must promise " 
 
 " I won't promise -I won't," she cried, edging 
 away again, nervous yet defiant. " How can you 
 ask me to go on living with nothing to look forward 
 to, simply coughing my life away. Nobody knows 
 what it's like. Nobody cares. They send me up 
 into the hills. I hate the hills. They're so big and 
 cruel. My stepmother doesn't want me back and I 
 hate her too. I can't stop on with Cousin Rose. 
 It's just a nightmare. I've got to escape some- 
 how " 
 
 Again her voice broke ; and to Derek's dismay, 
 she sank upon the ground, hid her face and broke 
 into a storm of tears.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 283 
 
 Never, in his limited experience, had he seen a 
 woman so completely lose hold of herself ; and the 
 tradition of self-control in which he had been reared 
 made the thing seem almost indecent. Had the 
 circumstances been less tragic he would have gruffly 
 begged her to " buck up " and pull herself together. 
 But she was more than merely hurt. Her wound 
 was mortal ; and he shrank from laying a clumsy hand 
 on it. Controlled grief would have moved him to 
 deeper feeling. As it was, the ache of pity within 
 him was tinged by a masculine feeling that he ought 
 not to be present when the poor child was behaving 
 like this. So he stood there considerately looking 
 away from her to the moon that blossomed like a 
 great night flower among the pine boughs. Then it 
 occurred to his practical mind that she was catching 
 cold : and having found something definite to say he 
 turned to say it. 
 
 But at that moment she still further disconcerted 
 him by dropping her hands and looking up, her face 
 disfigured with weeping. 
 
 " I thought you would be different," she reproached 
 him, with a pitiful catch in her voice, " but you're 
 just as bad as the others. You don't understand 
 you don't care *-" 
 
 " I do care," he contradicted her, honestly, but 
 with misleading emphasis ; and, to his dismay, she 
 caught his hand in hers, that was dry and feverish, 
 and pressed it against her tear- wet face. 
 
 " Oh, if you care, why do you stand there and 
 say nothing ? " she murmured breathlessly, still
 
 284 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 clutching his hand. " You're the only person who 
 can stop me from wanting to finish it all off quick. 
 You're so kind so safe I wouldn't feel so fright- 
 ened. I'd promise you anything and I'd keep my 
 promise. But I was a fool, and if I hurt you I'm 
 ever so sorry " 
 
 And Derek stood there silent, feeling stupefied 
 and helpless, like a creature caught in a trap ; 
 realizing, painfully, that by those three words spoken 
 straight out of his heart he had cut the ground from 
 under his feet. To tell her she had mistaken his 
 meaning seemed as brutal as striking her. Yet 
 the alternative staggered him. 
 
 For the moment he could only compromise 
 matters by taking both her hands and lifting her to 
 her feet with the prosaic remark : " We ought to be 
 going back, you know. It's treacherous in the 
 mountains after sunset. If you stay out here much 
 longer you'll catch your death of cold." 
 
 " So much the better," she retorted, with a 
 smothered sob. 
 
 Derek did not feel called upon to argue that point. 
 Without a word he took off his own rough coat and 
 slipped it on to her. The action brought her almost 
 into his arms. She swayed and would have col- 
 lapsed against him ; but he had just enough presence 
 of mind to grasp her shoulders as if to steady her. 
 And in that moment of contact he knew that to live 
 out a lie was, for him, the last impossibility. By 
 some means, as mercifully as possible, he must con- 
 trive to tell her the truth.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 285 
 
 'You can walk back, can't you?" he asked 
 gently. " You've knocked yourself to pieces. 
 You're shivering." 
 
 She nodded, clenching her teeth to keep them still. 
 " If you'll hold me ... I might manage. . . ." 
 
 " All right. I'll hold you " he slipped a hand 
 through her arm. " My little shanty's not far off. 
 Better go there first and rest a bit. There's a camp 
 chair, cocoa and milk and things I can make 
 you a hot drink. Mrs. Margett will be anxious. 
 But you're simply not fit you're all to pieces." 
 He spoke more rapidly than usual, spinning out 
 commonplaces, as it were holding off the silence that 
 would force out the truth ; and all the while he was 
 leading her back to the trail, holding her arm, just 
 firmly enough to support her no more. 
 
 Once or twice she glanced at him under her long 
 lashes'; then "Derek you are queer," she said 
 with a small catch in her voice. " No one 'ud think, 
 the way you behave, that you meant what you said 
 just now." 
 
 " I did mean it," he interposed, gratefully seizing 
 the cue she had given him. " Only not quite not 
 quite the way you took it." 
 
 He released her arm and confronted her. They 
 had reached the trail now. 
 
 ' Not that way ? " she echoed, her eyes wide 
 and dazed. " But there's only one way that counts 
 with a man and a girl. Why did you pretend 
 it was cruel " 
 
 " I didn't pretend. I spoke the truth we've been
 
 286 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 good friends, haven't we ? And because we're friends, 
 it hurts me seeing you suffer. I'm ready and 
 willing to help you ; to do any mortal thing that I 
 can " 
 
 " Except the only thing that's a mite of use," she 
 murmured with shaking lips. " And it isn't as if 
 ... it would be ... for long." 
 
 The childlike simplicity of those broken phrases 
 and her pathetic attempt at self-control moved him 
 far more deeply than her tragical outburst of grief. 
 "Whatever else he could not do, one thing was cer- 
 tain : he could not leave her comfortless, doomed, 
 uncared for. There was only one way, as she said, 
 and thereupon he resolved to offer her the most he 
 felt able to give. 
 
 " Miss Aymes " he began. 
 
 " You might call me Lois." 
 
 " "\Yell Lois," he flung it out with a touch of 
 defiance and his hands closed firmly on hers, that 
 were not feverish now, but clammy and cold. " I 
 had to tell you the truth." 
 
 Her faint smile seemed to question that painful 
 necessity. 
 
 " I said I'd do anything ; and you say you'd 
 feel safe with me. So will you give me at least 
 the right to protect and care for you ? " 
 
 " D'you mean marriage ? " she asked half 
 nervous, half eager. 
 
 " Of course. If I am to be any use, you must take 
 my name. We must go through the form " 
 
 " The form ! " The blood rushed to her face and
 
 INTO THE DEEP 287 
 
 she tried to release her hands ; but he held them 
 fast. " I'm to be just a drag on you and you'll be 
 good to me out of pity and charity ? Never ! I 
 have got a mite of pride, if I did talk wildly. I 
 thought you cared or I wouldn't have spoken. 
 I know you mean it kindly, but I'd drown myself 
 rather " 
 
 This time she was too quick for him ; and wrench- 
 ing herself free, she ran blindly, stumblingly back 
 towards the river 
 
 Derek torn between pity and vexation sprang 
 after her. In a flash he realized that half -measures, 
 must go overboard ; and in that flash his decision 
 was made. She needed saving from herself and 
 he must go all the way to save her. There was no 
 time to see or think of anything else. 
 
 " Lois ! Lois ! Come back," he commanded, 
 " You must listen I haven't said all." 
 
 Some new note in his voice seemed to strike her. 
 She stopped dead and swung round, facing him.. 
 " Sure thing this time? You won't let me down 
 again ? " she asked and a half smile glimmered 
 through her tears. 
 
 " I didn't let you down and I never will," he 
 answered gravely : and while the words fell upon his 
 heart like stones, his detached brain noticed what a 
 quaint figure of tragedy she looked in his big loose 
 coat, the sleeves half covering her hands. " Come 
 be a good girl," he added, " it's worse than foolish- 
 ness hanging about like this. We ought to be back 
 in camp."
 
 288 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 She came obediently now her tragic aspect 
 changed to a faint glow of happiness and laid her 
 two hands lightly on him. 
 
 " It's not only just out of pity, is it ? " she asked, 
 looking anxiously into his eyes. " You are a little 
 fond of me ? " 
 
 "I'm very fond of you," he answered truthfully, 
 ignoring the inconvenient half of her question. By 
 way of proof he passed his hand lightly over her hair. 
 She sighed and smiled in one breath. To a man more 
 easily wrought upon she must have seemed suf- 
 ficiently alluring for purposes of love making, if no 
 more. But in Derek at that moment every sensa- 
 tion was subordinate to the nightmare sense of being 
 snared in silken meshes that he had not the heart 
 to tear asunder. 
 
 " And " she hesitated. " We'll really be 
 
 married soon ? " 
 
 " Presently," he said and his hand fell away from 
 her hair. " You must give me time to fix things ; 
 see about other work. And you must be good Lois, 
 and wait quietly at Windyridge till I'm ready for 
 you. Wonderful air up there." 
 
 She wrinkled her nose. " I've no use for Windy- 
 ridge. But I'll be ever so good. And when we're 
 married, I'll slave for you, I'll worship you 
 
 " Oh Lord, not that ! " he said so abruptly that 
 she gave him a quick look like a startled animal. 
 *' Now come along to my little hole. Plans can 
 wait." 
 
 Again he slipped a hand through her arm and led
 
 INTO THE DEEP 289 
 
 her along at a brisk rate ; and again she glanced at 
 him once or twice in sheer bewilderment, that he 
 should hold her arm when her waist was available. 
 " Derek," she said for the second time, " you are 
 queer. Haven't you ever made love to girls ? " 
 
 " Never," he answered simply, looking straight 
 before him. His brief madness in Jamestown 
 scarcely came under that heading. " I'm not cut 
 out that way ; so you must make allowances and 
 not get thinking there's anything wrong." It 
 might prove a useful disability, he reflected, with an 
 ironic flash of humour, like being a duffer at bridge. 
 
 By this time the rising moon had conjured the 
 forest into a place of enchantment and eerie mystery. 
 The trail, deeply shadowed in parts, was mottled 
 with pearl-grey patches of light. Stars flashed 
 through the pine branches like diamonds in dusky 
 hair. The brooding silence above and around 
 enfolded them like a ghostly presence. 
 
 Lois pressed closer. " Are there wild animals and 
 things ? " 
 
 " Nothing to be afraid of." And by way of 
 reassuring her, he just perceptibly tightened his 
 hold. 
 
 " Oh, you are a dear," she whispered, her head 
 so near his that stray wisps of hair brushed his 
 cheek. And quite suddenly it came over him that 
 he could not face twenty minutes alone with her in 
 his " badger-hole." Sheer funk he admitted it. 
 Straining at a gnat when he had swallowed the 
 camel. But he badly needed time to realise the 
 
 K
 
 2QO STRANGE ROADS 
 
 whole incredible situation. And she was such an 
 elastic creature. Already she seemed astonishingly 
 revived. 
 
 In a patch of moonlight he paused and consulted 
 his watch. 
 
 " I say, it's later than I thought. If you're feeling 
 better up to it, we really ought to forge ahead and 
 get you your hot drink at the other end. They'll 
 be wondering it's hardly fair on them." 
 
 " I suppose it isn't," she agreed ; and her evident 
 reluctance made him feel a brute. Yet it stiffened 
 his resolve. Possibly she hoped it might have the 
 opposite effect. 
 
 " It's not so very far. I can manage all right," 
 she added valiantly, after a small gap of silence. 
 "I'd just love to see your shanty. But perhaps 
 some other time ? " 
 
 " Yes. Some other time," he assented cheerfully 
 and they went forward a little quicker than before. 
 
 Only when they were almost at the edge of things, 
 where the forest merged into the clearing, he 
 stood still and faced her, a whimsical half smile 
 in his eyes. 
 
 " Look here, we must get you out of my coat and 
 settle just what did happen ! " he said. " I hate 
 telling lies ; and if I have to, I mostly bungle them. 
 But Mrs. Margett's not precisely an understanding 
 woman, and it isn't a thing to talk about anyway. 
 \Ye'll have it that you got off the track lost your- 
 self, and I had a tough job to find you. That'll wash. 
 I'll do the telling and it's all she needs to know."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 291 
 
 " Not about us ? " Lois ventured shyly. She 
 had never known shyness with a man before ; but 
 more and more she perceived that this man was not 
 as those others. 
 
 He shook his head. " Time enough after- 
 wards." 
 
 She sighed and acquiesced. Though he had saved 
 her so romantically, he seemed bent on depriving her 
 of all her little triumphs and satisfactions this very 
 chivalrous and strangely backward lover. 
 
 " I'm yours now," she added with engaging 
 meekness. " I'll do anything you tell me, if you'll 
 only love me a little. It's all I want in the world." 
 
 " Foolish child ! If I didn't, we should hardly be 
 here now," he said more tenderly than he had spoken 
 yet : and so plainly did her lifted face await the 
 kiss she had every right to expect that no man in his 
 senses could fail of understanding or response. 
 
 Very gently he took her shoulders between his 
 hands, closed his eyes and touched her forehead 
 with his lips. ' 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. That simple, 
 unaccustomed act and the ivory smoothness of 
 the girl's skin swept him in a flash miles away 
 from the moonlit forest, from Lois and her tragedy 
 to the drawing-room at Avonleigh and the difficult 
 moment of parting with his mother. So vivid 
 was her transient presence that it was almost 
 as if his lips touched the smoothness of her fore- 
 head ; and there came to him a whiff of the faint 
 scent she used, the very sound of her serene :
 
 292 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Good-bye, dear. Take care of yourself. Don't do 
 anything rash." Could she have guessed could 
 he . . . ? 
 
 In that bewildering instant he saw it all as through 
 her eyes the eyes of his own world. . . . 
 
 Then his brain righted itself with a jar and he 
 found that Lois was sobbing on his shoulder. 
 
 The whole tiling passed in the twinkling of an 
 eye ; but the sharp revulsion of feeling painfully 
 endured.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " Fate, higher than heaven, deeper than the grave, 
 That saves and spares not, spares and does not save." 
 
 SWINBURNE. 
 
 AN hour later he was lying in his bunk between 
 two logs that divided him from Mick and Joe 
 Smithers. Joe slept musically, with his mouth 
 open. It gave him a ludicrous air, as if he were 
 trying to shout and could produce no sound. Mick 
 lay on his back, in a wide strip of moonlight. His 
 strong clean-cut face might have been graven in 
 marble. A fine fellow : Canada at her best. All 
 
 % 
 
 the cotton-covered windows were flung open. A 
 restless breeze wandered through the pines like the 
 sigh of a passing ghost. The long, barn-like room 
 was barred with light and shadow, and softly sonor- 
 ous with the breathing of thirty-four lumber jacks, 
 who had royally earned their six hours of sleep. 
 
 The thirty-fifth lay very wide awake, realising, 
 slowly and very completely, what he had done ; or, 
 rather, had been driven to do by force of circum- 
 stances and the appealing weakness of one unhappy 
 girl. This, then, was the culmination of his great 
 
 293
 
 294 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 adventure in search of knowledge ! Fate, that had 
 thwarted and harassed him from nursery days, must 
 needs pursue him even to the ends of the earth ; 
 forcing him from his chosen path ; thrusting him 
 into one that he had no ambition to explore. He 
 had kept away from the Ranch solely in order to 
 avoid the very meshes that to-night had entangled 
 him unawares. And he had not even the sustaining 
 sense of doing a chivalrous or unselfish action. He 
 simply did not see how any decent man, so distract- 
 ingly placed, could have done otherwise ; nor did 
 it occur to him that the worldly-wise young man 
 would never have wandered far enough from the 
 sheep-track to risk stumbling into such a bog. Yet 
 released from the tension and the tragedy of it 
 all he could see the thing quite clearly from the 
 sheep-track point of view : the view of Van and his 
 mother who thank Heaven need never know of his 
 passing madness. That was how they would regard 
 it, at the mildest computation. And in truth he felt 
 rather mad himself, now that the chill of reaction 
 had set in and practical considerations came crowd- 
 ing into his brain. . . . 
 
 No question of Bombay in October. He might 
 have known ! Later on, perhaps goodness knew 
 when ! That was one of the many things he must 
 not let himself think about now. And he must 
 give up the logging as soon as Maggots could replace 
 him ; find some occupation wherever the climate 
 or surroundings gave her the best chance. Per- 
 sonally he would prefer Beulah Ranch if Jos could
 
 INTO THE DEEP 295 
 
 be eliminated. Mrs. Macrae, with her sound good 
 sense, would be a real stand by and the children. 
 He felt convinced Lois could never run a house. 
 He also discovered with a shock that the idea of 
 living alone with her terrified him. 
 
 That discovery pulled him up sharply. It re- 
 minded him of the moment, on the voyage out, 
 when he had felt like jumping into the sea ; and it 
 had much the same effect. It restored his deadly 
 clearness of vision and sense of proportion that saved 
 him from inflating either pain or pleasure simply 
 because his own ego was involved. It sharply 
 reminded him, now, that his own dilemma would 
 pass ; while she, poor child, was in a far worse case 
 " coughing her life away." He recalled the uncon- 
 scious vividness of her piteous phrase. Let him 
 be thankful he had the means to brighten her few 
 remaining months of life. That was the only sane 
 way to look at it. Fate and Lois had thrust 
 upon him this difficult and delicate job. He must 
 pull it through to the best of his ability. No use 
 lamenting that he " didn't know how." He would 
 have to find out how. There spoke the spirit of the 
 West, dinned into him by Mick and a year in the 
 logging world. All he asked was that he might be 
 allowed to pull it through v alone. There could be 
 no thought of going home ; and none of them need 
 know. Had it been a question of marrying for life, 
 he would have no right. On that point he felt as 
 strongly as any of them. But it was simply a 
 terrible emergency. No way out of it that he could
 
 296 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 see. Even his little local world need never suspect 
 the truth. Mrs. Margett, who had received last 
 night's explanation with polite scepticism, must be 
 left to suppose that he had already let himself in ; 
 and he could easily give Maggots the impression of 
 an existing engagement. They might think him a 
 fool if they chose, so long as he managed to shield 
 Lois. 
 
 He repeated her name half aloud : " Lois 
 Lois " as if he were trying to whisper it into 
 favour : then, quite suddenly, he fell sound asleep 
 and never stirred till the strident tones of the 
 cook-house gong called the whole camp to work 
 again. 
 
 At the moment of waking, realisation smote him 
 afresh. But the thing was done ; and a strenuous 
 morning's work left small leisure for brooding. 
 Not till he had bolted his midday meal was he free 
 to put in an appearance at the shack and bid Lois 
 good-bye. They were on the eve of departure. 
 The buckboard was waiting. Rally was engaged 
 with Maggots in the office ; Mrs. Maggots was 
 exchanging laboured commonplaces with Lois in the 
 living-room ; and when Derek arrived she surprised 
 him by pointedly leaving them alone. 
 
 For a moment he stood silent, feeling shy and 
 dismayed ; then Lois slipped a clinging hand into 
 his. Her eyes were radiant. Her soft mouth 
 quivered. 
 
 " Oh, Derek is it really true ? " 
 
 " It's true all right," he said, smiling. Then a
 
 INTO THE DEEP 297 
 
 little awkwardly he put an arm round her shoulder 
 and kissed her cheek. " Feeling a bit happier this 
 morning, are you ? " 
 
 ' Tons happier." She nuzzled her head against 
 his sleeve, like an affectionate animal. " I believe 
 Mrs. Margett knows." 
 
 " Quite likely. She's no fool." 
 
 A pause : and suddenly she glanced up at him. 
 " When ? " she asked under her breath. 
 
 That simple question so startled him that, in self- 
 defence, he pretended to misunderstand her. " I'll 
 try and manage Sunday," he said cheerfully. 
 " Then we can talk things over. So be a good girl 
 and don't get worrying." The voice of Dr. Rally 
 resounded without. " There time to be off. So 
 its good-bye Lois. Not for long ! " His lips 
 touched her hair. 
 
 She clung closer and kissed him shyly just below 
 the ear. 
 
 " I simply hate going, but I'll try and be patient 
 now." 
 
 Five minutes later he stood with Mrs. Maggots at 
 the door of the shack, watching the buckboard 
 as it swung round a curve in the narrow road. 
 Then she turned and looked at him a deliberate 
 look that brought the blood into his face. 
 
 " You going to be fool enough to marry that 
 girl ? " 
 
 " Yes I'm going to marry her," he said coolly. 
 
 " I s'pose you understand she's some crock ? 
 Her lungs are pretty far gone."
 
 298 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 He nodded, hating her. " No decent man would 
 throw a girl over because of that." 
 
 She smiled her sleepy sceptical smile. " Has it 
 bin on long ? " 
 
 " I've known her close on six months ; and I'm 
 not one to blab about my affairs." (" Neatly 
 done ! " he congratulated himself.) " Now of 
 course I must quit logging and fix things up as soon 
 as possible." 
 
 " Quit ? When there's all this work on hand ? " 
 . " Yes. I'm sorry. But she's sick. She needs a 
 comfortable home. I must see after her do what I 
 can." 
 
 Again that long, deliberate look ; but it had a 
 changed quality. " Well I guess she's in luck ! 
 But what d'you suppose Maggots' 11 say to your 
 quitting just now ? " 
 
 " Remains to be seen. I rather think " he 
 frankly returned her look " the boss is the kind 
 that will understand." 
 
 " Mebbe you're right," she agreed indifferently. 
 " He's soft ! " 
 
 " He's straight," Derek flung out, in spite of him- 
 self and left her. 
 
 He was not mistaken. Maggots though regret- 
 ful and mildly disapproving did, in a manner, 
 understand. 
 
 " The cards are all agin you, sonny," he said 
 gravely, when Derek had made the best he could of 
 a lame tale. " But if a man can't square the cards, 
 he kin always play the straight game. It's a knock
 
 INTO THE DEEP 299 
 
 losing you. But I'd sooner have you quit than go 
 back on a woman." 
 
 Just because Derek's heart went out to the big 
 simple fellow, whose wife systematically went back 
 on him, he stood there tongue-tied : and Maggots, 
 after chewing pensively for a few moments, went 
 on : " She's a taking piece. Pretty as a bit o' china, 
 an' nigh as brittle. But I reckon you don't b'long 
 West. Logging isn't needs must with you ? " 
 
 " No. I can give her a good home ; and she needs 
 it now. ... So it's only fair . . . the sooner the 
 better. ..." 
 
 " That's flat," Maggots agreed heartily. " I'll 
 buzz round for a substitute an' you kin nip up an' 
 see her Sundays." A pause. He cleared his throat, 
 spat scientifically out of the window, and turned 
 his candid eyes full on Derek. " Wa-al, here's luck 
 to you, sonny. An' take my word there's no call 
 to get too downhearted over her lungs. She's 
 young ; and consumptives, mostly speaking, have 
 nine lives. You may enjoy a good few years to- 
 gether yet for all the doctors say." 
 
 If Derek had been tongue-tied before he was 
 petrified by that staggering attempt at consolation. 
 
 " Yes it's possible I hope so," he muttered 
 confusedly ; then pulled himself together with a 
 jerk. " I hate putting you out. I meant to hang 
 on till the contract was through. But I thought 
 . . . you'd understand. ..." 
 
 With that, he made his escape, leaving the mysti- 
 fied Maggots to fall back on his private conviction
 
 300 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 that women though the world would be a blank 
 dull place without them were, generally speaking, 
 the devil ; a sentiment which poor Derek would have 
 echoed, at that moment, from the depths of his heart. 
 
 " A good few years " All the afternoon, while 
 
 he worked, those four words seemed to knock upon 
 his brain like hammer strokes ; revealing to him, 
 with terrible clearness, the character and dimensions 
 of the risk he had taken, or been forced to take : 
 he who was not altogether his own, to run risks with 
 in that line. That the doctor might be out by a 
 few months was a contingency he had faced ; but 
 years ! Years of estrangement and misunder- 
 standing with those he loved ; years of Lois, cling- 
 ing, eternally clinging, dragging him down. He 
 now began to perceive the essence of his own 
 tragedy: the knowledge that for him all hope of 
 happiness and freedom hung upon the death of one 
 poor, pretty, feckless girl whom he had just promised 
 to make his wife 
 
 Kind-hearted Bill Maggots would have bitten his 
 tongue out sooner than have proffered that ironic 
 crumb of consolation had he guessed the truth. 
 
 On Sunday, in the keen freshness of very early 
 morning, he and Kitts set out for Windyridge. It 
 was a long ride, most of it uphill ; and it was a 
 glorious ride. Now and again the track meandered 
 through patches of forest ; shadowy regions where 
 day was hardly yet born. But chiefly it climbed 
 and curved along the open hillside, falling away to
 
 INTO THE DEEP 301 
 
 the river-haunted valley with its savage guardian 
 peaks that, at almost every turn, showed some 
 change of aspect, some fresh play of light and shade. 
 
 Reluctant lover that he was, Derek would fain 
 have ridden on and on till sundown. He and Kitts 
 took their time over the journey, yet they came all 
 too soon upon the huddled shacks and buildings of 
 Windyridge Camp ; a blotch of ugliness on the 
 grandeur ; an outcrop of sentient life in that region 
 of rock and stone. At sight of it Derek awoke to the 
 fact that he had formed no immediate plans and had 
 yet to tell Lois who he really was. 
 
 He had no difficulty in finding the Wilkins' shack. 
 There were but two women up at Windyridge and 
 they baked and washed and sewed for half the men 
 in camp. 
 
 Mrs. Wilkins proved to be a plump, pincushion of a 
 woman, with a heart that oozed sentiment and kind- 
 ness. She had made every arrangement for their 
 comfort and privacy that her limited means allowed. 
 Lois' cane lounge, a camp table and raw-hide chair 
 were ostentatiously set out in an enclosed corner of 
 her veranda, a primitive affair, smothered with 
 climbing roses that thrust their way between the 
 planks and conjured a mere lean-to into a veritable 
 bower. 
 
 At the edge of the veranda Lois awaited him, 
 looking so fresh and charming in her blue linen, with 
 the sunlight entangled in her hair, that the desperate, 
 fear-stricken girl of a week ago seemed almost the 
 figment of a dream.
 
 302 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Thar ain't no tonic like happiness. That's what 
 I allus says," purred sentimental Mrs. Wilkins ; and 
 she retired precipitately that they might enjoy their 
 fill of it undisturbed : an act of consideration for 
 which Lois was grateful, if Derek was not. 
 
 But the half shy eagerness of her greeting caught 
 at his heart. Without a word he put an arm round 
 her and would have kissed her cheek ; but she 
 turned as if by chance and her lips lightly brushed 
 his. Derek found their soft contact not unpleasant 
 by any means ; but the palpable manoeuvre checked 
 his impulse towards her. So long as she was child- 
 like, the charm held : at a hint of the woman he 
 shrank instinctively, like the sensitive plant brushed 
 by a passing foot. 
 
 " That's over, anyway," he reflected, and pro- 
 ceeded to settle her in her chair. But he found 
 himself mistaken. It was only just begun. 
 
 " You look a new creature," he said, smiling down 
 at her. " This wonderful air " 
 
 " It's not that. It's what Mrs. Wilkins said. 
 Don't stand there and look uncomfortable. Sit 
 down and smoke." 
 
 She drew his chair so close to her own that when 
 he rested an elbow on it she could lean her head 
 against him. He felt a brute for objecting to the 
 arrangement ; suppressed a sigh and accepted the 
 inevitable. 
 
 " Have I got to stay up here much longer, 
 Derek ? " she asked presently. " This week's 
 seemed like an age."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 303 
 
 He proceeded to explain matters as best he could, 
 addressing his remarks to the crown of her head and 
 the delicate tip of her nose and chin. 
 
 " If I quit the logging, I'd better come and work 
 up here," he concluded sagely. " Dr. Rally says this 
 is where you ought to be." 
 
 She shook her head and pressed it against his arm. 
 " No no. I couldn't stand the mountains long 
 even with you." 
 
 Check number one : and .he hopefully played his 
 next card. " Well what about the Ranch ? It's 
 homely there " 
 
 She drew in a sharp breath. " Oh, Derek I 
 couldn't. Because of Jos " 
 
 " Were you in love with him ? " 
 
 "I think so. Not a bit the way I feel for you. 
 But he thrilled me. You can't help it if a man 
 makes love to you." 
 
 " D'you mean did it ever amount to an engage- 
 ment ? " 
 
 " I don't know. He wasn't one to talk that 
 way. We kind of took things for granted." 
 
 " That's rather dangerous." 
 
 " Yes it is. But I'm safe now." She nestled 
 closer and her fingers caressed the back of his hand. 
 " Deny are you jealous ? " 
 
 " No ! I'm not much given that way." 
 
 She looked up at him with a faint droop of her 
 lips. 
 
 " Isn't that all right ? " 
 
 " I s'pose so. But I'd like you to be a little ! "
 
 304 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Sorry I can't stage manage it for you ! " he said, 
 trying to leaven her sentiment with humour. "It's 
 just the way I'm made. And I'm sorry the Ranch 
 is no go. But I want to settle you where you'll be 
 happy and where it's best for your cough. Have 
 you got any notion up your sleeve ? " 
 
 " Well, of course I'd like a nice little house in 
 Nealston, where I could see the shops and the cars 
 and the movies. Could you manage that, Derek ? " 
 
 " Yes I could manage that," he said slowly, and 
 paused : for he saw the moment had come and he 
 found that he hated telling her. He was mortally 
 afraid she would make a fuss over it all. But he 
 achieved it after a fashion ; the bare facts, sedu- 
 lously unadorned. 
 
 Lois, however her mind saturated with cheap 
 fiction could be trusted to do the adorning. She 
 listened entranced amazed. She even lifted her 
 head from his shoulder that she might look at him 
 and realize him in his new romantic role ; her prince 
 in disguise ! And Derek, feeling anything but 
 princely, righted himself in his chair with a very 
 ungallant sense of relief. He foresaw the inevitable 
 question : and the next moment, it was out. 
 
 " But Derek if you've got a fine house and money 
 and a real live Viscount for a father, what's the sense 
 of fooling around out here with a herd of common 
 men ? " 
 
 He laughed and turned it off. " I thought you 
 were a democrat ! Plenty of 'em are quite as good 
 as I am. And there are lots of well-born English-
 
 INTO THE DEEP 305 
 
 men doing -rough work out here. Very good for 
 them." 
 
 " But they've mostly made a mess of things," she 
 remarked sagely. " Have you made a mess of 
 things, Deny ? " 
 
 " Not that I'm aware of," he said with a wry smile. 
 Her harmless shaft struck home. " It's just a plan 
 of mine and I intend to carry it through. No use 
 badgering me. I'm dead obstinate ! " 
 
 She sighed. " You are some puzzle, Derry ! It 
 seems so stupid Can't you take me to England 
 and show me your grand home ? " 
 
 " No, I can't" he said bluntly. 
 
 " But you've got the money," she murmured ; 
 and he saw that the position would become untenable 
 unless he made a stand once for all. " Look here, 
 Lois you must just take my word for things or 
 we'll never pull through. I'll do all I possibly can 
 for you. But if you pester me with questions, 
 you'll make me really angry " 
 
 " Oh ! please don't get mad. It's only you're 
 so mysterious." 
 
 " I'm not. We all have our reserves. And as 
 to Avonleigh no one's living at home just now. 
 My father's in India. I've got to stick out here for 
 the present and I've got to work. I've told you the 
 facts because I like things straight and aboveboard. 
 The main point is I've the means to give you a com- 
 fortable home and pretty things and little luxuries 
 and all the care you'll need doctors and medi- 
 cines "
 
 306 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 He broke off there ; for her eyes, that hung upon 
 his face, were changed. He saw the shadow of fear 
 creep back into them. The joy of his coming, the 
 romance of his revelation had banished it com- 
 pletely. For a brief, blessed half-hour she had 
 forgotten. . . . Now the inexorable truth over- 
 whelmed her. 
 
 " Oh, Derek so soon ! " she murmured brokenly : 
 and hiding her face against him burst into tears. 
 She was the hurt frightened child again and all 
 Derek's awkward reluctances vanished outright. If 
 her sentimentalism cloyed and repelled him, her 
 real pain and tragedy moved him to the depths. 
 
 Enraged at his own stupidity, he put his arms 
 round her and held her close. 
 
 " Poor Lois poor dear little girl ! I'm a clumsy 
 brute." 
 
 " No no," she assured him with muffled vehe- 
 mence: and suddenly she was convulsed by a violent 
 fit of coughing that seemed as if it would shake her 
 frail body all to pieces. Derek could only hold her 
 closer till the paroxysm passed, and she lay limply 
 against him, her handkerchief to her lips. 
 
 Presently she removed it, glanced at it nervously 
 and thrust it into her blouse. Poignant compassion 
 pricked him and he kissed her hair. 
 
 " D'yc-u want anything ? " he asked gently. 
 " Milk ? Brandy ? " 
 
 " N-no, thanks." Her breath was still coming 
 short and quick. " Better now. It's not half so 
 bad, with you holding me."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 307 
 
 " I'm thankful for that," he said, and continued 
 to hold her ; while she, at intervals, opened 
 her eyes and embarrassed him with a gaze of rapt 
 adoration. 
 
 In less than half an hour she was herself again, 
 eager over details and dates. Derek suggested 
 July ; just the civil ceremony, no fusses or furbe- 
 lows. 
 
 " Not a wedding dress ? " she asked ruefully. 
 " I wouldn't feel married without it." 
 
 " Oh yes, you would ! You shall have something 
 just as pretty and more serviceable, and you can call 
 it what you please ! " 
 
 She surrendered her wedding garment with a good 
 grace and pounced upon the honeymoon. Derek 
 who had left it clean out of his calculations looked 
 a little blank. He could not bear to hurt her feel- 
 ings ; but the prospect terrified him. 
 
 " Are you death on a honeymoon ? " he asked 
 tentatively. 
 
 " Of course ! It's the best part of the whole 
 thing. At least " she hesitated, blushing a little 
 " in novels it always is." 
 
 ' You read too many novels, Lois, and the wrong 
 sort," he said, swerving from the point. " They're 
 about as much like life as a page of print seen in a 
 mirror." 
 
 But she was not to be put off with evasions. The 
 honeymoon was her ewe-lamb and she clung to it 
 with meek persistence. " It's not only novels.
 
 308 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 I've heard about it in life. So ideal, Deny no one 
 but each other." 
 
 " And at the end of a fortnight any one but 
 each other ! " quoth the embryo cynic, shaking a wise 
 head at her. " You both lose your tempers and get 
 badly bored ! " 
 
 " I haven't much temper to lose, and I could never 
 tet bored with you," she countered fervently, taking 
 he wind out of his sails. 
 
 " Anyway, I've warned you ! " he said, concealing 
 his dismay. " So we'll risk it." He was on his 
 guard now, speaking as if it were a life-long affair ; 
 and she was radiant. 
 
 " Oh Boy ! And where shall it be ? " 
 
 Problem on problem ! There seemed no end to it. 
 But he was quick enough to see and seize the chance 
 of modifying his ordeal. " As you are keen on 
 towns," he suggested, " we might ' do the grand ' at 
 a good hotel. Vancouver or Victoria. Plenty 
 to amuse you. And I'd like to have a look at the 
 Island. Or a steamer trip up the coast might be 
 Better for you. Sea air would pick you up." 
 
 Mercifully, she rose to the idea : and at mid-day, 
 when they joined the Wilkins family two small boys 
 and three stray bachelors for dinner, she was full of 
 it all ; her cheeks flushed ; the haunting shadow 
 clean gone from her eyes. 
 
 " It's worth putting up with a good deal to achieve 
 that much," Derek reflected in the course of his 
 homeward ride. " And she's a lovable thing, if
 
 INTO THE DEEP 309 
 
 only she had a shade^nore sense and a shade less 
 sentiment ! " The future did not look quite so 
 desperate as it had looked a week ago. He knew 
 very well there would be tragic and terrible things 
 to pull through before the end came. But he had 
 discovered his guiding principle : it was her tragedy. 
 He was simply there to help her through. His own 
 share of it was a transient and entirely secondary 
 affair. And his own world need never know. For 
 that crumb of comfort he was thankful exceedingly. 
 Like a good hunter, he gauged his fences well ahead ; 
 and, on reaching them, was the better able to take 
 them in his stride. He belonged, in fact, to the finer 
 type of pessimist ; the type that looks mischance 
 full in the face, confidently expects it, and still goes 
 forward unhopeful yet undismayed. 
 
 Incidentally he had promised to buy Lois a ring 
 next time he went to Nealston. She had chosen a 
 ruby, and it should be a fine one. Whatever he was 
 able to give her, he would give without measure or 
 stint.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 " There is one thing that is stronger than all our plans 
 about life and that is life itself." MAARTENS MAARTENS. 
 
 BUT Fate seemed unable to leave him alone. 
 Whether his stoic refusal to be beaten was a 
 negative form of inviting attack, let psychologists 
 decide. The fact remains, that two days later she 
 struck him another shrewd blow in the friendly guise 
 of a letter from Jack. 
 
 At first sight it gave him a shock of pleasure. 
 Then he discovered, with a start, that it bore the 
 Nealston post-mark and the stamp of his own 
 particular hotel. Pleasure evaporated. Just when 
 his isolation was a blessing, an urgent need ! 
 What the devil ? Hurriedly, he tore open the 
 envelope and read : 
 
 "DEAR OLD DIRKS, 
 
 " Can you believe the evidence of your eyes ? " I 
 can see you blinking mightily at the sight of my fist 
 on your own special stationery ! And I'm wonder- 
 ing mightily which of all the patches of forest I can 
 see from my window enjoys the honour of your 
 
 310
 
 INTO THE DEEP 311 
 
 company. But the point of this letter is to explain 
 things more or less : so here goes. Remember what 
 I wrote about Gay and ranching ? Well, it's in the 
 air now. I've come out to have a look round, armed 
 with an introduction to an English stockman in 
 Calgary, wherever that may be ! Fact is, I've had 
 rather a dust-up with my old dad. Schonberg, of 
 course our chronic and colossal bone of contention. 
 Details when we meet. I got to loggerheads with 
 him last time I was at home. Arguments and talk- 
 ing too straight about Germany and England. Old 
 S. turned rather crusty over some remarks of mine. 
 Dad sided with him. I lost my temper and there 
 was the devil to pay. Next day the old man rounded 
 on me for being narrow-minded and impertinent. 
 That was one too many for yours truly. Dad jawing 
 about narrow views when he can give me points 
 in that line from here to Timbuctoo ! I could have 
 shouted with laughter if I hadn't been in such a 
 rage ; and I begged leave to point out that as he had 
 spent vast sums on my education he might give me 
 credit for knowing a thing or two. Schonberg: 
 himself may be all square ; but it's pretty common 
 knowledge that the Germans are playing a low-down 
 commercial game in this country, while our Radical 
 lot are simply giving 'em everything they want and 
 more also, with both hands ! 
 
 " Lord, how I'm running on ! Anyhow, it 
 came to this I said outright that if he was. 
 wedded to Schonberg the less we saw of each 
 other the better. Then Gay's notion occurred to.
 
 312 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 me. Just a chance, if we stuck it out and did 
 well, we might yet rescue Burltons from the clutch 
 of the furriner ! 7s it a crazy castle in the air ? 
 I'm mad keen to get the benefit of your elephantine 
 wisdom ! I'm also keen to include you in the plan. 
 Notion is I should spend a year or so on this ranch 
 learning the ropes then we can make our little 
 plunge in land and cattle ! Great sport ! Can't you 
 chuck and come ranching with me ? Better still, 
 have a hand in the plunge if you feel inclined ? 
 Put that in your pipe and smoke it ! Gay and the 
 aunt have come West. They're at Victoria now 
 and I'm joining them. Felt I must get a sight of 
 you first and talk all this over. Can the mountain 
 come to Mohammed or may Mohammed have the 
 honour ? I'd rather like to see you in your war 
 paint. Anyhow, let me see you first possible 
 moment. 
 
 " Yours till Hell freezes, 
 " JACK." 
 
 Derek ran his eye over that amazing letter and 
 could have cursed aloud. Then he read it through 
 again, slowly, with a feeling of stunned despair. A 
 fortnight, even ten days earlier, and it might have 
 saved him. Now it was a mockery ; a mere feast 
 of Tantalus ; and, in addition to refusing, he must 
 contrive to act the part of newly-accepted lover 
 with Jack, of all people on earth 
 
 After dinner, he retired to his badger-hole and 
 wrote a brief reply.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 313 
 
 " DEAR JACKO, 
 
 " Your bombshell has duly exploded and I'm 
 still collecting the fragments of my scattered senses. 
 It will be great to see you again. Bu^ I can't get 
 away this week, so you must come along here. My 
 friend the manager will put you in the way of getting 
 to the siding where you change for Number One 
 Camp ! I can meet you there with a mount of 
 sorts. And I can offer you a bunk for the night if 
 you don't mind roughing it with a mixed lot, mostly 
 good fellows. As to your castle in the air I'm not 
 so sure if it's an improvement on the Indian Army. 
 But with Burlton blood in your veins I don't 
 wonder you're keen to have a try. We may be 
 doing Schonberg an injustice. There are Germans 
 and Germans. But I'm all for keeping British 
 commerce in British hands. 
 
 " For myself I'm not free now to come and see you 
 through your tenderfoot trials. Since last I wrote, the 
 unexpected has happened and I've got myself engaged 
 to be married. You can't be more surprised than I 
 am. I met her at the RanchI told you of. Her name is 
 Lois Aymes. She is pretty and very delicate. In fact 
 there's just been a rather bad illness and the doctor 
 says her lungs are affected seriously. So it's a 
 sad sort of business for both of us : just the kind of 
 thing that would happen to me. Arid see here, 
 Jacko. I'm not telling them at home. She's a 
 dear, good girl, but not exactly their sort. And as 
 there's this trouble, she's better out here. So here 
 I propose to rdhiain for the present. But I must
 
 314 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 quit roughing it and make a home for her. Just 
 accept the facts and don't plague me with questions, 
 there's a good chap. I'm keen to hear all your plans 
 and news. So there'll be plenty to jaw about. 
 Come Thursday if you can. 
 
 " Yours ever, 
 
 " DEREK." 
 
 " Sport the roughest togs you possess, or it will be 
 a case of ' Who's your dandy friend ? ' 
 
 Jack came on Thursday, in his roughest togs, and 
 Derek met him at the siding with Kitts and a brother 
 cayuse contributed by Maggots, who had given him 
 half a day off. Jack was in great spirits, admiring 
 everything, and there was " plenty to jaw about," 
 apart from Derek's disturbing and rather mysterious 
 communication ; and yet 
 
 Every now and then their talk would hang fire, 
 in an odd, unnatural way : not the comfortable 
 silences of friendship, but discomfortable blanks. 
 They were " one and one with a shadowy third " ; 
 and that shadowy third robbed their intercourse of 
 its old free and easy flavour. Though Derek had 
 always been " a secretive villain " at best, one could 
 frankly chaff him about it. There had never been 
 between them the awkward under-sense of having 
 to tread cautiously here or sheer off altogether 
 there : a sense that nine times out of ten can be 
 accounted for in three words enter the woman. 
 Also, Derek seemed to have grown years older and 
 miles farther away.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 315 
 
 " Confound the women ! " thought Jack, who, 
 personally, appreciated them as the luckless Derek 
 had never done. And he straightway concluded, 
 with youthful sapience, that the pretty delicate 
 thing was " no chicken " and had doubtless inveigled 
 old Dirks who was as innocent as a babe for all his 
 sagacity ; and naturally the good fellow wasn't 
 going to give her away. If only he had come out a 
 month or two earlier ! It was beastly rotten luck 
 all round 
 
 In the intervals between these distracting reflec- 
 tions they talked and laughed naturally enough. 
 Derek in defiance of reserves keenly appreciated 
 the mere change of associating with a fellow being of 
 his own sort, one who shared his personal interests 
 and ideas. Though incommunicative about himself, 
 he had plenty to say about the ways of forest crea- 
 tures and the super-equine intelligence of Kitts the 
 second : while Jack enlarged on the wonders of his 
 recent journey through the Rockies, and reasserted, 
 between whiles, with increasing conviction, that 
 Canada was " great." Then they dabbled fitfully 
 in home politics and the threat of civil war. Alto- 
 gether there was much virtue in the long leisurely 
 ride and the mere satisfaction of being together 
 again ; though it was not the unmixed delight it 
 would have been under happier auspices. 
 
 Later on, when they were established in Derek's 
 badger hole, matters improved considerably. No 
 shadowy third impaired the enjoyment of their 
 picnic supper canned stuffs, fruit and cheese
 
 316 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 washed down with Derek's famous brew of cocoa 
 and milk. 
 
 " Jove ! It tastes like Trinity and your princely 
 rooms there ! " Jack sighed, adding hot water to 
 the dregs, as his habit was in those unshadowed 
 days. 
 
 Derek nodded feelingly. " Good old Trin. 
 Coll. ! Wonder what lucky beggar is luxuriating 
 in my rooms now ? Light up, Jacko, and we'll go 
 into committee on this comprehensive plan of yours. 
 There's something to be said for it ; but I have my 
 doubts whether you'd cotton to the life." 
 
 Jack admitted that the Indian Army would be 
 more congenial ; but the bare chance of rescuing 
 Burltons from the Schonberg yoke, off his own bat, 
 had fired his youthful optimism. 
 
 " The old dad laughed at me first go off," he con- 
 fessed, looking up at a star that glimmered through 
 the outspread wing of Derek's cedar " But when 
 he saw I was in earnest he admitted that some- 
 thing might come of it in time, if Gay put in part 
 of her money and all her sound French brain, not to 
 mention her sisterly genius for keeping me on the 
 rails. It's the first year I rather boggle at. And 
 I was counting on you, you old sinner." 
 
 " Then you should have come sooner. But here I 
 am anyhow," he added with resolute cheerfulness, 
 " and I can put you up to a tip or two." 
 
 He proceeded, without further invitation, to 
 recount certain incidents of his own early days that 
 had not found their way on to' paper ; and Jack, as
 
 INTO THE DEEP 317 
 
 he listened, began to understand why this new Derek 
 gave him an impression of having taken liberties 
 with the calendar. 
 
 Too soon their time was up and they must think 
 about getting back to camp. 
 
 " To-morrow morning," said Derek, as he fastened 
 his locker, " you shall see for yourself the up-to-date 
 process by which a hundred-foot Douglas fir is con- 
 verted into fodder for the saw-mills. I've marked 
 down a dozen splendid fellows to-day. I'm fool 
 enough to jib at it sometimes." 
 
 ' Yes it does seem rather a shame. And when 
 are we to meet again, Dirks, and have another 
 pow-wow ? " 
 
 Derek looked doubtful : then yielded to temp- 
 tation. " I might manage Nealston on Sunday, if 
 you care about hanging on." 
 
 " Rather. I'll wire to Gay." 
 
 Derek did not answer. He was looking thought- 
 fully into the heart of darkness barred with ink-black 
 pine-stems. " I've been thinking," he said slowly, 
 " about Calgary. I believe it's a decent sort of 
 place. I might find out if there's accommodation 
 and other things suitable for for Lois." 
 
 It was his first direct mention of her. It brought 
 back at once the lurking shadow of restraint that 
 withheld Jack from hoorooshing, as he would natur- 
 ally have done, over Derek's happy idea. 
 
 " Ripping notion," he said. Then, after a brief 
 hesitation, he took courage. " See here, old chap, 
 you said I wasn't to plague you with questions, and
 
 3 i8 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 you must admit I've been the very pink of obedience. 
 But I suppose a pal that sticketh closer than a 
 brother may be permitted to ask When is it going 
 to be ? " 
 
 Derek's smile lacked the sudden radiant quality 
 Jack remembered so well. " About the middle of 
 the month," he said. 
 
 " Mayn't I offer my services as best man ? " 
 
 " Lord, no. There'll be nothing of that sort. The 
 registrar at Nealston will do the job. I hate a fuss, 
 and she has hardly a belonging in the world." 
 
 " Ah, that explains ! " thought Jack, still hugging 
 the inveiglement idea. " And then what next ? " 
 he ventured aloud. 
 
 " We thought of a steamer trip up the coast 
 amongst the islands. After that I hardly know 
 yet." 
 
 All in a moment Jack saw his chance and seized 
 it boldly. 
 
 " Well / do. You come and stay with us at 
 Victoria a week at least. I want you to meet Gay, 
 and I'm naturally keen to meet your wife." 
 
 Derek started at the unfamiliar word. "I'm 
 sorry, Jacko, and I don't want to seem a beast ; but 
 I'd very much rather not. And it saves futile 
 argument if I say so straight." 
 
 Jack's face fell. He was more than hurt. He was 
 almost angry. "I'm damned," he said with con- 
 viction. " If you're going to take that line, you 
 may just as well chuck me outright and be done 
 with it."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 319 
 
 To his surprise Derek quietly took hold of his arm. 
 " Jacko don't make a blame fool of yourself," he 
 said in a gentler voice that recalled old days. " If 
 it was only you it might be all very well. But 
 I hardly know your sister, and I've never seen her 
 aunt. Nor have you. And you must admit it's a 
 bit thick to go giving invitations, in their name, to a 
 pair of stray folk who would probably bore them to. 
 death." 
 
 Jack laughed. " You won't wriggle out of it 
 that way. If they endorse my invite will you 
 accept ? " 
 
 And as Derek did not answer at once he went on 
 impatiently : " What's the blooming mystery,. 
 Dirks ? You're not committing a crime. Of course 
 this cruel bad business of her health makes it not 
 like an ordinary affair. But you can trust Gay to 
 any lengths for sympathy and understanding! She's, 
 not the fair-weather kind. It's when there's trouble 
 she comes out at her best. So do give us a chance, 
 old man, if they back me up." 
 
 He was irresistible ; and Derek had no genuine 
 desire to resist. What matter, after all, once the ice- 
 was broken ? 
 
 " All right," he said, " we'll leave it at that, if all 
 parties are agreeable." 
 
 And at sight of the relief in Jack's face, he tight- 
 ened his hold. " Good old Jacko ! Did he have 
 his aquiline nose bitten off by a beast who had lost 
 his manners in the wilds ? " 
 
 But Jack was very much in earnest. " I don't
 
 320 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 care a damn about manners. But I do care about 
 you. I feel as if I'd mislaid a bit of you, and I 
 don't half like the sensation." 
 
 " You incurable old sentimentalist ! " 
 
 " Rot ! I suppose a man's allowed to care for his 
 friends ? " 
 
 " Happy thought ! We're in the same boat, as 
 far as that goes. So if you can work a bona fide 
 invite, we'll come along to Victoria after our trip." 
 
 And on that understanding they parted next day : 
 Jack still anxious and mystified ; Derek considerably 
 cheered at the prospect of curtailing honeymoon 
 conditions and spending a part of that dreaded 
 month in Jack's society.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "In her heart hovered the thought of things 
 Past, that with lighter or with heavier wings. 
 Beat round about her memory, till it burned 
 With grief that brightened and with hope that yearned." 
 
 SWINBURNE. 
 
 IT was a clear afternoon of late July, the sky 
 incredibly blue, the air warm and very still. 
 The land-locked strip of ocean, between the west 
 coast and the Island, jewelled with a host of lesser 
 islands, lay drowsing in the sunlight, its milky surface 
 rising and falling rhythmically as the breath of sleep. 
 Only passing steamers and small craft set up a 
 commotion of surface ripples that here and there 
 aspired to be wavelets and fell again too lazy to 
 break in foam. And away across the Straits of 
 Juan de Fuca, the Olympian mountains sprang sheer 
 out of the Pacific ; their rugged masses of rock and 
 promontory lowering darkly between the opalescent 
 sea and the galaxy of peaks that dreamed and 
 gleamed far up in the burning blue. 
 
 Summer at its zenith seemed poised spellbound, 
 a brooding spirit of peace, above the frets and agita- 
 tions of earth ; but Derek Blunt, leaning on the 
 
 321 L
 
 322 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 taffrail of the Victoria boat, felt in his veins and in 
 his spirit more of the languor than the enchantment 
 of the year's high noon. The sensation was so foreign 
 to his nature, the root cause so self-evident, that he 
 was doing his valiant best not to be aware of either. 
 He told himself he was tired of idling ; but he knew 
 very well that he owned a healthy appetite for idling 
 in the right company. If that wonderful trip up 
 the coast had been made with Mark or Jack ! 
 
 But it was Lois now, unbelievably his wife who 
 leaned on the rail beside, him, her arm pressed against 
 his. He could feel all through him that she was 
 aggrieved at his prolonged silence ; waiting for him 
 to speak. And the curse of it was that he had 
 nothing to say. Probably she was in the same 
 predicament ; but it was one of her obsessions that, 
 if he fell silent for more than five minutes, he was 
 bored. Whereas, if the truth could be told, the 
 fatal thing assailed him most acutely when he was 
 belabouring his brain to make small talk for her 
 benefit. But the truth so far as he was concerned 
 could never be told ; and he had not realized in 
 advance how subtly that simple fact would vitiate 
 their whole relation. 
 
 Already they seemed to have exhausted their few 
 topics of mutual interest ; and Derek, as he watched 
 the misty uplands of Vancouver Island grow clearer 
 every moment, was blessing Jack for the invita- 
 tion he had so ungraciously refused 
 
 " Say, Derry look there ! What is it ? A 
 fountain in the sea ? "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 323 
 
 Lois' voice startled him out of his reverie ; and 
 he saw what seemed a jet of silver spray that caught 
 the sunlight, shimmered into a mist of powdered 
 jewels and vanished like a breath on glass. 
 
 " Never seen a whale blowing off steam ? " he 
 asked, smiling at her wide-eyed wonder. He could 
 love her almost in her childish moods. " I saw 
 no end on the way from Australia." 
 
 " My, how queer ! What d' they do it for ? " she 
 asked, and he proceeded to explain the phenomenon. 
 It enabled him, unobtrusively, to shift his position, 
 a small manoeuvre at which he was becoming an 
 adept ; and it led him to notice a torn petticoat 
 frill that drooped forlornly below her short skirt. 
 
 " Lois there's -your frill torn again," he said 
 reproachfully. " I thought you'd mended it." 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " With a needle ? " he challenged her, smiling. 
 
 " No : with pins." 
 
 ' Thought so. That's your one notion of mending. 
 Run and stitch it on properly there's a good girl. 
 Looks so degraded . . . and I want you to make a 
 good impression." 
 
 " Oh, Derek how unkind you are ! " Tears 
 sprang to her eyes. " And I put on my prettiest 
 things on purpose." 
 
 " So I see. Very becoming ! " He surveyed her 
 with amused tenderness. In her wide straw hat 
 and silky summer frock she looked pretty enough, 
 almost, to justify the idea that he had stumbled into 
 an imprudent marriage because his heart had run
 
 324 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 away with him. That was the best that could be 
 made of it to outsiders. " You look ripping," he 
 added, quite sincerely, " but you don't seem to 
 see how those little untidinesses spoil the whole 
 show. Look sharp ! We're nearly there ; and for 
 heaven's sake be ready in time." 
 
 " I'll try, Deny," she promised, soothed by his 
 compliment, and hurried away. Once she looked 
 back to see if he were watching her ; but he was 
 leaning on the rail again. Happily she could not 
 guess the nature of his thoughts. 
 
 There had been a slight strain between them the 
 last few days ; honeymoon politeness wearing a 
 little thin ; and the blessed relief it was to be without 
 her, even for ten minutes, made him feel apprehensive 
 for the future. But then thank goodness ! there 
 would be work to do ; unfailing avenue of escape 
 from every ill. He would pull it through, somehow : 
 he must, for her sake and his own self-respect. In 
 very truth he grudged her nothing he was able to 
 give. He deferred to most of her whims, was tenderly 
 concerned for her health, and very patient, on the 
 whole, with certain petty yet annoying defects that 
 closer intimacy revealed. In Vancouver City he 
 had bidden her buy any feminine finery she wanted, 
 and had wandered with her from shop to shop, 
 marvelling at the cost of such flimsy affairs as 
 transparent blouses, ruffles and scarves that would 
 be little or no use to her up at Nealston. He 
 honestly wanted her to be happy to forget the 
 haunting fear. He was prepared to do anything, in
 
 INTO THE DEEP 325 
 
 reason, that would keep her happy except make 
 passionate love to her, morning, noon and night : 
 and by now he had discovered that this state of 
 things was her one idea of bliss. Yet she lacked 
 altogether the coquette's power to provoke and 
 charm, that might have made matters easier. She 
 was simply drenched with sentiment and genuinely 
 in love. Unhappily for her, the very clinging nature 
 of her devotion and what he called her penny 
 novelette point of view had the fatal effect of 
 making Derek shrink farther into himself. 
 
 It was all quite in keeping with the sub-acid irony 
 of life as he had known it from childhood. Then, 
 the natural love he craved had been denied him. 
 Now when he had put his heart into other things, 
 a love he did not crave was given him in cloying 
 measure the wrong kind from the wrong person. 
 But that was no fault of hers, poor child. The 
 difficult demands she made on him were natural 
 enough ; and he, without lover's love at command, 
 had done his halting best. To him the whole affair 
 still seemed dreamlike and unreal. Ever since the 
 fatal day when they had been transformed, by a 
 few sentences and signatures, into man and wife, 
 he had put behind him all futile hankering after the 
 old life. He was simply Lois' husband while she 
 needed him ; self-dedicated to protect and cherish 
 her and, if might be, to prolong her short lease of 
 life. Since then he had not written a single letter. 
 The dream-feeling of detachment made things a 
 trifle easier. He half dreaded the intrusion of Jack
 
 326 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 and his sister who would dispel it ; even while he 
 craved the intelligent companionship of his real own 
 kind, who would not incessantly make calls on him 
 that he could not fulfil. 
 
 The details on the low foreshore grew clearer every 
 moment : Victoria's noble Parliament buildings on 
 one side, the upward sweep of the town on the other, 
 the winding river-like harbour thronged with craft, 
 great and small. That child was taking her time 
 over things. She would be late to a dead certainty. 
 She was invariably late for everything 
 
 And Lois, seated on her cabin trunk, was pricking 
 her fingers over the detestable frill which she had 
 twice mended with pins and grieving that the most 
 wonderful experience of her life was over. It had 
 exceeded all her visions, if not her desires. t)erek 
 had been an angel to her ; and yet vaguely, without 
 analysing things, she felt troubled. His original 
 confession that he did not care " that way " had been 
 overlaid by the thrill of after events. 
 
 Responsive and emotional herself, she had taken it 
 for granted that the right sort of feeling must come in 
 time. Now she began, dimly, to fear it never would. 
 He was odd and difficult ; and yes in some ways, 
 a little disappointing. But for all that, she adored 
 and admired him more than ever. The glamour of 
 Jos Agar was almost as if it had never been. Yet 
 Jos had given her whai- she craved the passionate, 
 masterful love making that one read about in books ; 
 and she could not altogether shut out the memory
 
 INTO THE 'DEEP 327 
 
 of those thrilling, disturbing weeks when the spring 
 had " gone to her head " ; when his fierce caresses 
 had demolished her frail instinctive scruples, and 
 her. terrifying illness had revealed, in a flash, the 
 loveliness of life, the awful mystery of death and 
 the nature of Jos Agar's love- 
 Ought she to tell Derek everything ? 
 During their engagement that question had 
 troubled her at intervals. And it troubled her still. 
 She was not by nature deceitful, and she hated to 
 have a big secret from him. But first she had 
 feared he would not marry her ; and now she feared 
 his anger, the loss of his tender protecting kindness. 
 The sense of having done wrong troubled her hardly 
 at all. She had meant no harm ; but she was quite 
 aware that right-minded girls did not go all lengths 
 before marriage. Now she was miraculously married 
 to a man who was a " really truly gentleman." 
 
 The grand ladies of his world would never so de- 
 mean themselves, and she shrank from shaming him 
 by a confession of such improper behaviour. Some- 
 times she wondered if she were making too much of 
 everything. Men were queer she did not under- 
 stand them. But without them there was no sense in 
 life. And her thoughts trailed off into speculations 
 about this " Jack " that Derek seemed so fond of 
 \11 these mental distractions so hindered the 
 progress of her needle that, when the pulsing of the 
 engine throbbed slower and slower, of course she was 
 not ready and Derek was seriously annoyed. He 
 did not say very much, but it was the 'things he
 
 328 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 refrained from saying that were apt to hurt her most. 
 On this occasion his annoyance was short lived. 
 
 It vanished at sight of Jack, resplendent in tennis 
 flannels, awaiting them on the quay. Beside him 
 stood the girl of the Southampton express with the 
 sun in her eyes and the same clear swiftness about 
 her whole aspect, like a bird poised, ready for flight. 
 Derek was surprised to find how distinctly the impres- 
 sion of her had remained in his memory. He did 
 not know that others had made the same discovery. 
 There are certain natures that cannot hide their light 
 under a bushel. Gabrielle de Vigne was neither very 
 lively nor very talkative, her gaiety was of the spirit, 
 deep down ; and her light, sure touch, even on 
 trivial things, was simply a part of the French genius 
 for life. 
 
 Before the drive out to Silversands was half over, 
 Lois had lost her shyness ; and Derek who had 
 been distinctly apprehensive about " those women " 
 felt blessedly at ease. The stretch of open country, 
 with its English aspect, was pure refreshment after 
 the forest-burdened mainland. Here, on the 
 southern tip of the Island, were lightly wooded slopes, 
 fields and hedgerows ; and at sight of a lordly oak, 
 sunset-tinted with its second leafage, Derek 
 exclaimed aloud. 
 
 " You never told me, Jacko, I was going to get a 
 sight of England." 
 
 " Thought it would be a pleasant little surprise ! 
 Wait till you get to Silversands and you shall sniff 
 England real sweet peas and mignonette ! "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 329 
 
 "Oh, good ! And on the quay I heard England 
 
 Miss De Vigne's smile suddenly reminded him of 
 the moment when he had edged nervously away 
 from the sleepy young woman in the train. Was it 
 the same Derek who sat opposite her to-day ? 
 
 "It does sound friendly, doesn't it ? " she was 
 saying. " The legend on the mainland is that the 
 Victoria voice is even more English than the real 
 thing ; and the right-minded Victorian takes it for 
 a compliment ! Coming straight from the East it's 
 curious to notice how the voices soften as one nears 
 the Pacific. This end of the Island has a lovely 
 atmosphere of Home ; and Silversands belongs 
 to a retired naval officer, who evidently set him- 
 self to plant a real bit of it out here in the 
 West." 
 
 Derek's heart warmed towards that unknown 
 naval officer as they rolled up the drive, and his 
 nostrils breathed in the first faint whiff of lilies and 
 sweet peas and .mignonette, and the lemon-scented 
 fragrance from Cloth of Gold roses that smothered 
 the veranda. 
 
 " My ! Isn't it just lovely ! " murmured Lois 
 and the illusion of home was gone 
 
 Madame de Fontenac greeted them kindly, if a 
 little formally. She was a slender woman with iron- 
 grey hair, features a trifle austere in repose and a 
 charming* smile. Her very correct English was a 
 little stilted and she talked French to her niece. 
 
 Lois, in a bedroom with leaded casement windows
 
 330 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 and Chippendale furniture, fancied herself in fairy- 
 land. 
 
 " Is your home anyway like this, Deny ? " she 
 asked, opening mysterious little drawers and 
 fingering the polished wood. 
 
 Derek was standing near the window, sniffing 
 luxuriously. ' ' Well no, ' ' he said, smiling . ' ' About 
 three houses this size could go comfortably into 
 Avonleigh. It's a great old place mostly built of 
 stone. But it smells like this, in summer 
 
 She caught the wistful note in his voice. " Don't 
 you feel just mad to get back there sometimes ? " 
 she asked superfluously. 
 
 He nodded and sought refuge in his dressing-room 
 from further inflictions. She had a genius for 
 unwittingly touching him on the raw. 
 
 Dinner in the rose-covered veranda enhanced 
 the fairyland sensation; and here were no mos- 
 quitoes, no black-fly that, on the mainland, makes 
 high summer a very doubtful joy. And the dinner 
 was worthy of its setting sweet-peas in the 
 vases, the gleam of polished glass and silver, perfect 
 cooking, soft voices and intelligent talk. It was a 
 long time since Derek had so enjoyed a meal. 
 
 When the men were left alone with their coffee and 
 cigarettes, they sat silent for a spell in sheer content 
 with the whole thing and the pleasure of being 
 together. Presently Jack said : 
 
 " Dirks she's a sweet creature. But so young ! " 
 
 Derek smiled. " Did you expect a Methuselah ? " 
 
 And Jack, half ashamed of the inveiglement obses-
 
 INTO THE DEEP 331 
 
 sion, could only murmur : " No. But such a kid ! 
 It's cruel hard Lines." 
 
 Derek was silent. He did not want to talk about 
 Lois. The spell of home associations was on him. 
 He wanted, for a brief hour, to forget. And Jack, 
 watching him while he smoked, wondered what was 
 at the bottom of it all. 
 
 Suddenly Derek raised his head and sniffed 
 deliberately. " Low tide ! " he said. " Seaweed ! 
 I can smell it through all this. Lord it's good. 
 Are we reasonably near the shore ? " 
 
 " Quite. There's a path at the end of the garden 
 leads straight to the beach." 
 
 With a great sigh Derek rose to his feet. " Come 
 along then," he said. " I feel like walking all night." 
 
 " Righto ! I'm agreeable." 
 
 At that moment Gabrielle re-appeared. " The 
 spectacle-case of ma tante, please, Jacko ! " she said ; 
 then, looking from one to the other, " Are you coming 
 in, you two ? " 
 
 " No, we're off to the shore. Don't get rattled 
 if we're latish." 
 
 Her smile had an indulgent mother-tenderness. 
 " I'll be up," she said, and left them. 
 
 Strolling through the garden, they breathed the 
 indescribable fresh moisture of England's summer. 
 But once they were through the lane with the scrunch 
 of pebbles underfoot, the dream evaporated. For 
 there, over the water, loomed the great mainland 
 ranges Canada's coastal mountains and the Rockies 
 resplendent in the after-glow. Farther south, the
 
 332 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Olympian snow-line, and Mount Baker, ghostly, 
 aggressive ; a landmark to ocean steamers for miles 
 and miles. 
 
 Hills and the sea can earth boast a more splendid 
 conjunction than these, the symbols of eternal 
 steadfastness and eternal unrest ? Derek though 
 inured to the sublimities caught his breath and 
 stood silent, absorbing it all. Then he turned to Jack 
 with a smile of grave content. 
 
 " This is great," he said quietly. " Come on ! " 
 Thus majestically companioned, with no sound 
 but the lazy lapping of wavelets against seaweed- 
 covered rocks, they walked on and on ; and for 
 that one while Derek did manage almost to 
 forget. . . 
 
 It was near eleven when they returned ; and 
 Gabrielle, who was busy writing, had a tray ready for 
 them ; yet another reminder of Home. 
 
 " Mrs. Blunt seemed rather tired," she said, " so 
 I persuaded her not to wait up for you." 
 
 " And who the dickens is Mrs. Blunt ? " asked 
 Jack, screwing up his nose. " I practically regard 
 her as a sister-in-law. Can't we call her Lois, old 
 'man ? " 
 
 " Certainly," said Derek; " she'll appreciate it." 
 
 " Good ! I vote for Christian names all round. 
 Anything else would be sheer rot." 
 
 Derek went up to bed feeling happier than he had 
 done for months. Jack was going to be a trump 
 about it he might have known. And4hie girl too.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 333 
 
 Lucky devil to have a sister like that. A blessing 
 that Lois had turned in early and would be sound 
 asleep 
 
 But Lois was not asleep. She had merely 
 exchanged her dress for a kimono and was lying 
 back in her chintz-covered chair with a novel on her 
 lap and undried tears on her cheeks. 
 
 " Oh, Deny I thought you were never coming ! " 
 she greeted him Math an aggrieved droop of her lips 
 that he was beginning to know too well. 
 
 " And / thought you had gone to bed like a sensible 
 girl. Miss de Vigne said you were tired.'' 
 
 ' Yes but I was mostly bored. It was real mean 
 of you going off like that the first evening. I 
 hadn't any use for two strange women. It was you 
 I wanted and your friend." 
 
 Derek frowned. " I'm sorry," he said without 
 much penitence in his tone. " But if I can't leave 
 you with them sometimes, how the dickens am I to 
 see anything of Jack ? And what else d'you sup- 
 pose I'm here for ? " 
 
 " I thought we were here for our honeymoon. 
 But if you only want to get rid of me " 
 
 " Oh, Lois, don't be so unreasonable ! " he broke 
 in desperately. Tears were imminent and he 
 dreaded them only a shade less than her fits of 
 coughing. " I ought to have thought. Careless of 
 me. But you know, dear, Jack and I are like 
 brothers. So you must make allowances. You're 
 dead tired. Hurry up and get to bed." 
 
 It was useless. The sobs she had been trying to
 
 334 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 restrain came in a sudden storm : choking her, 
 shaking her 
 
 And while he halted a moment between vexation 
 and pity, sobs gave place to a paroxysm of coughing. 
 At once he was on his knees ; clasping her in his 
 arms ; recalling her pathetic remark at Windyridge 
 " It's not half so bad with you holding me." 
 
 It was the most startling attack he had seen yet. 
 There was blood on her handkerchief ; and her terror 
 at sight of it steadied him 
 
 " Am I dying, Deny ? " she asked in a small 
 voice when the worst was over. 
 
 " Nowhere near it, little girl," he assured her 
 stroking her hair that was dank with sweat ; and 
 she nestled against him with a sigli of content. 
 " There's milk," she murmured. " Miss de Vigne 
 put some. She's real kind." 
 
 He gave her the milk. Then, very tenderly, if 
 not very skilfully, he helped her into bed and bathed 
 her forehead with eau-de-Cologne. Still she clung to 
 him. " Stay by me, darling I'm frightened. I just 
 want to feel you there." And after a pause : 
 " Will you kiss my eyes to sleep ? " 
 
 It was her childish, sentimental fancy that his 
 kiss on her eyelids would charm away night terrors ; 
 and because it was childish, it appealed to him. So 
 he kissed them in turn and stayed by her till the 
 clinging fingers fell away from his. 
 
 Then, for a while, he stood looking down at her, 
 strange and sad emotions distracting his heart. 
 She was such a pretty creature ; so affectionate and
 
 INTO THE DEEP 335 
 
 fragile and pathetic : why did she so completely fail 
 to stir his pulses and win the thing she craved ? 
 The problem was beyond him. He gave it up as 
 hopeless ; undressed and slipped into his own bed 
 devoutly hoping she would be better in the morning. 
 
 She was not better in the morning. She awoke 
 
 flushed and feverish, obviously unfit to get up. He 
 
 ' had all a man's dislike of making a fuss in a strange 
 
 house ; but there was nothing for it, and he bade 
 
 her stay in bed. He would explain. 
 
 He went down dreading it ; but Jack's amazing 
 sister received his information without turning a 
 hair. Derek was not to be anxious. " The poor 
 child " was probably a little overdone : she would 
 send for Dr. Clifton. And she insisted on carrying 
 up the tray herself ; while Madame de F9ntenac 
 charmed to find that Derek could talk French 
 made gracious, tactful inquiries that completely set 
 him at ease. 
 
 For all that, he felt convinced that they must clear 
 out ; and he said as much to Jack the first moment 
 they were alone. Knowing his Jack, he was prepared 
 for a tussle ; for anything, in fact, except what 
 actually occurred. 
 
 The tussle took place in the veranda. Jack 
 would not hear of it. Derek would hear of nothing 
 else. 
 
 ' We're obviously unsuitable as guests," he 
 insisted, after Jack had wasted several rounds of am- 
 munition on him. " At any moment things may
 
 336 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 take a serious turn. I'll go and squint round the 
 hotels. The doctor may know of a Home 
 
 At that moment Gabrielle herself appeared and 
 Jack flung a detaining arm round her shoulder. 
 
 " Gay, you old darling, come and stand up for 
 me. Dirks is the most obstinate beast in creation. 
 He's talking rot about rushing off to an hotel. Thinks 
 they're in the way. I tell him that's an insult and 
 he's a blithering idiot. Kindly confirm my state- 
 ments." 
 
 And she proceeded to confirm them, with such 
 patent sincerity, that Derek could no longer hold his 
 ground. 
 
 "As to being in the way if you want the real 
 truth, it's you two men who would be better else- 
 where just for a few days. In fact, I was coming 
 to suggest it," she. added, in response to Derek's 
 incredulous gaze. " There's nothing to be anxious 
 about, Dr. Clifton says. The the whole thing has 
 been a little too much for her strength. A few days' 
 rest and fa ira. If you'll trust her to me " 
 
 Derek, fearful of betraying his relief, was thankful 
 for Jack's shout of triumph. 
 
 " There now ! What did I say, you old sceptic ? 
 Your Lois knew exactly how to win Gay's heart. 
 She never loves any one properly till they're ill." 
 
 " Jacko, you're superfluous ! " The girl laughingly 
 waved him aside. Then she turned to Derek. 
 " Well have I done for myself altogether ? " 
 
 " Rather not if it's really better for her if she 
 agrees "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 337 
 
 " I've told her it's a sound prescription that I 
 shall be delighted " 
 
 " You've told her ! " he echoed, surprised out 
 of his caution ; and the smile deepened in her 
 eyes. 
 
 ' Yes. I thought as a medical suggestion, it might 
 be more acceptable. She was very sweet about it 
 very brave 
 
 ' Thank you thank you I'll go up to her," 
 Derek muttered, quite overcome, and plunged into 
 the house. 
 
 Jack looked thoughtfully at the empty doorway. 
 " Poor old Dirks ! " he said. " I can't make him out 
 these days. Something wrong somewhere." 
 
 ' The chief wrong," said his sister quietly, " is 
 that she's utterly unfit. He ought not to have 
 married her." 
 
 " Oh, I say hard lines ! A very stem Gay ! " 
 
 " Over some things yes." But her eyes were 
 more indulgent than her tone. They were remark- 
 able eyes under brows that had the clear sweep of 
 a bird's wing. They had tried in turn to be blue, 
 green and brown ; and had finally compromised 
 in an iridescent mingling of all three. " Of course 
 it's bitter hard lines ; but that doesn't affect the 
 right and wrong of it. And one can see your Derek 
 is a man of character, which puzzles one the more. 
 You know? Jacko, I'm very French in my notions 
 about marriage. It is for the race. Of course 
 one understands the temptation. She's a sweet 
 child,, if not very much more "
 
 338 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 And upstairs Derek found the " sweet child " 
 propped among her pillows with a red gold plait over 
 each shoulder ; a little languid, but surprisingly 
 acquiescent in view of her outburst the night before ; 
 and he was too grateful for the change to worry about 
 the how or why of it. 
 
 "Are you pleased with the plan, Deny ? " she 
 asked, smiling, a wistful note in her voice. 
 
 " Well if you're quite sure you'll be all right," 
 he said truthfully. " I want to do whatever' s best 
 for you, little girl. You know that." 
 
 ' Yes, I know that." A very small sigh escaped 
 her. " And I'll be all right. She's just sweet to me 
 Miss de Vigne. She wants I should call her Gay. 
 She says it's my best chance keeping very quiet. 
 I s'pose it wasn't you ? " 
 
 " Me ? Of course not ! " His astonishment rang 
 true. " D'you think I'd run away from you because 
 you're ill ? I'm not that sort." 
 
 '' No ! You're just the nicest sort that ever was ! " 
 She caught his hand and pressed it "against her 
 face. " And I do try an' not be a fool Lois about 
 things 
 
 ' You're a very brave Lois. Miss de Vigne said 
 so," he told her, and her eyes lightened. She dearly 
 loved a compliment ; and more than ever, after that, 
 she loved Gabrielle de Vigne. 
 
 An hour later the two men were dismissed with 
 Gabrielle's blessing ; knapsacks on their shoulders 
 and deep content in their hearts. Her instructions 
 were that they should take the train to Sydney, a
 
 INTO THE DEEP 339 
 
 delightful journey along the coast ; from there they 
 could push on, afoot, into the wilder parts of the 
 Island. And they were not wanted back till 
 Saturday. 
 
 ' That's orders, old man ! " quoth the delighted 
 Jack, convinced she had planned the whole thing 
 purely for his benefit. " No use having a mad 
 impulse to rush back on Friday. At home we call 
 her She-who-must-be-obeyed." 
 
 " When it happens to suit our convenience ! " 
 Gabrielle corrected him with her smile. 
 
 If indeed she was considering Jack, as well as her 
 patient, it was Derek who, of them all, owed her the 
 deepest debt of gratitude ; though no one had any 
 inkling of the fact. ' Three days of Jack's good 
 company the sheer ease of it ; the perfect freedom 
 of mind and body ; after two weeks of honeymoon 
 atmosphere " to order." 
 
 He could scarcely believe in his good fortune, 
 even when they two were settled opposite each other 
 in the brisk busy little train, rolling through miles 
 of fair and open country, discussing Home telegrams 
 that revealed a horizon dark with the threat of war. 
 By the time they had'lunched in Sydney's one hotel, 
 and cruised among beautiful islands and had decided 
 which one they would annex when the great moment 
 came, Derek shed his scepticism and basked in the 
 sun of Jack's unblushing triumph. Later still, when 
 they left Sydney and plunged afoot into the wilds, 
 the immediate past Australia, Canada, Lois fell 
 away from him. For a blessed while he recaptured
 
 340 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 the irresponsible freedom of Oxford days. All trace 
 of languor vanished from body and brain 
 
 Trinity College friends and Mark Forsyth in 
 particular had sometimes wondered what satisfac- 
 tion a man of Derek's brains and character could find 
 in Jack Burlton's society ; and probably Derek him- 
 self could not have enlightened them. Can a man 
 ever account for his friends ? 
 
 For him, it sufficed that the satisfaction was 
 there. From Sydney he wrote his wife a brief 
 letter, adding that, as they would be on the tramp, 
 she could not hear again. That done, he mentally 
 banished her and took with both hands the good 
 hour given him by the gods and Gabrielle de Vigne 
 
 In the light and dark of after events, those 
 three unclouded days shone in his memory like stars 
 that the years quench not.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " Our acts our angels are, for good or ill ; 
 Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 
 
 SHAKSPERE. 
 
 AND at Silversands, Lois was doing some close 
 thinking on her own account. Not for a 
 moment did she doubt that Derek had gone at Gay's 
 suggestion ; neither did she doubt that he had gone 
 willingly. He had been very " dear " at parting ; 
 but because he was too honest to make insincere 
 protestations, he had taken refuge in silence and 
 affectionate generalities not for the first time. 
 
 During their trip, she had tried to accept his odd 
 silences as part of his general oddness in certain 
 things. Now she began to suspect their true nature. 
 He still did not care " that way." Perhaps he never 
 would. That last, she well knew, depended mainly 
 on herself. Such force as she possessed dwelt in her 
 capacity for emotion ; her love of love. If she could 
 not, by some means, make him care, there was little 
 
 use in being his wife. And wives did She had 
 
 read of them in novels. She was reading one now, 
 in which the husband was Derek ; the wife, herself ; 
 
 341
 
 342 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 and jealousy the key with which she unlocked his 
 heart. Derek had said he was not much given that 
 way : and if she could only rouse him what a 
 triumph ! She herself s was feeling distinctly 
 jealous of Jack; and her childish plan was to turn the 
 tables by being a shade less accessible to Derek and 
 particularly pleasant to his friend. After all he had 
 seldom seen her with Jos. If things went on under 
 his eyes, it might be different ; and once she felt 
 sure of his love, it might be easier to tell him every- 
 thing. 
 
 She had not wit enough to perceive that she was 
 planning to make the whole situation ten times 
 harder for him : so urgent was her craving for his 
 love, for the comfortable assurance that he knew and 
 forgave all. Not being prone to deceit, nor burdened 
 with any real sense of having sinned, the secrecy 
 worried her more than the fact. Once or twice she 
 caught herself wondering if the truth were known, 
 would she be spurned as unladylike and worthless 
 by Gay who, in her eyes, was a revelation second 
 only to Derek himself. Her brief glimpse into his 
 world, and sisterly intimacy with the kind of girl 
 who might have been his wife, made her regard him 
 more than ever as a prince in disguise. By the 
 miracle of his great kindness he had married her : it 
 remained for her to complete the miracle, like the 
 wife in her novel, by winning his love. . . 
 
 So, in secret, she hugged her cherished scheme and 
 wondered would he perhaps come home sooner than 
 he had said ?
 
 INTO THE DEEP 343 
 
 He did not come home sooner ; in fact, not till 
 tea-time on Saturday. It had been a weary morning ; 
 the two women immersed in newspapers, talking 
 anxiously and rapidly in French. Some big trouble 
 looming in Europe, she gathered. But she asked no 
 questions. She simply withdrew into herself, dream- 
 ing her dreams. What was Europe to her or she 
 to Europe ? Derek was coming home ; and she 
 was going to make him love her as husbands loved 
 wives in books. 
 
 It was disappointing that he should arrive at 
 tea-time, when they were all together in the veranda, 
 and she could not get away alone with him or give 
 him the particular welcome she had planned ; but 
 at least it would enable her to " begin on Jack." 
 And she had been hoping that the arrival of the 
 men would check the everlasting talk about countries 
 that, for her, were mere names on a map ; though 
 Gabrielle and her aunt when they happened to talk 
 English spoke of them as if they were female 
 relations. But Derek and Jack seemed to have 
 caught the obsession in advance. They brought 
 more papers. Their eyes had the same look of 
 preoccupied anxiety. They talked in the same 
 queer, personal fashion of Russia and Belgium and 
 France ; and of Germany being " out to smash 
 Europe " as if Europe was a tea-set ! 
 
 Derek greeted her with his friendliest smile and 
 pressed the hand that hung nearest him. ' You look 
 awfully well," he said. " Quite a good prescription 
 getting rid of me ! "
 
 344 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " It wasn't through getting rid of you," she mur- 
 mured reproachfully ; and Jack, who was reading 
 out snatches from his paper, broke in : " Just what 
 you said, Dirks. It's going to be a gamble on the 
 great scale. War on two fronts 
 
 " All the better," said Derek grimly. " She signs 
 her death warrant. But Russia will take weeks to 
 mobilise:" 
 
 " And the notion is, while she's rubbing her eyes, 
 Germany will just march to Paris and back 
 
 " Mon Dieu, non \ " Madame de Fontenac's low 
 voice was charged with passionate protest. ." In 
 Paris again les sales Bofhes les cochons never ! 
 I was there in '70. A child : but one remem- 
 bers. Pas possible ! The good God is above ; and 
 below there are a few French soldiers." 
 
 " Also a handful of British ones," Derek said 
 quietly. " If our great and warlike Government 
 permits." 
 
 " "ou doubt if England will stand by France ? " 
 
 It was Gabrielle this time ; her voice quiet as his 
 own, but a gleam in her eyes made the orange flecks 
 in them seem like sparks of fire. 
 
 " It's not England I doubt, but her present 
 Government. I believe it will be touch and go 
 
 ' Go ' for choice ! " remarked the irrepressible 
 Jack. " In that case I scoot back and clamour 
 for a commission. I'm pretty well qualified 
 
 Suddenly he glanced at Derek's face and said no 
 more. 
 
 To Lois their talk conveyed little or nothing ; but
 
 INTO THE DEEP 345 
 
 she refrained from worrying them with questions ; 
 partly because she was not much interested, partly 
 because she did not want to shame Derek by reveal- 
 ing her ignorance to his friends. Only one concrete 
 fact emerged. Jack was going to " scoot back and 
 clamour for a commission." But the connexion 
 escaped her. A commission had something to do 
 with a " deal." That was all she knew about it ; 
 and her sole concern was lest Jack should scoot before 
 he had served her secret purpose. 
 
 After tea, when she had lured Derek into the 
 garden, she ventured a question or two. " Did 
 Jack mean is he going back to England because of 
 all this whatever it is ? " 
 
 Derek frowned. " Yes, of course he'll go if we 
 fight." 
 
 " Who is ' we ' ? " she pressed him, suddenly 
 alarmed lest Derek be implicated also. 
 
 " England the British Empire that Germany is 
 out to destroy." 
 
 " Oh, I see."- A pause. She was as much in the 
 dark as ever. " Would that make a lot of difference 
 over here ? " 
 
 " A middling amount ! D'you happen to realize, 
 Lois, that you are living in the British Empire ? " 
 
 She glanced at him to see if he intended a joke. 
 " I thought I was living in Canada B.C." she said. 
 
 " And you didn't know that the two are parts 
 of one big thing, just as your arm is a part of your 
 body ? " 
 
 She shook her head " I'm afraid I seem to all
 
 346 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 of you a proper fool. But after father died, I 
 didn't get much education 
 
 That ' pathetic confession and the break in her 
 voice moved him to put an arm round her. " Don't 
 worry about that, dear," he said, patting the shoulder 
 his hand rested on. " Education isn't everything. 
 I'll teach you things'in the evening once we're settled 
 down. We'll all need to rub up- our geography if 
 this conflagration spreads and it's pretty sure to 
 spread 
 
 But she scarcely heeded his words. His caress, 
 his brotherly kindness, in place of the husband's 
 greeting she craved, let loose a flood of emotion that 
 swept away her poor little plans for conquest 
 
 Without a shadow of warning she flung her arms 
 round him and kissed him passionately. 
 
 " Oh ; Derek, darling," she said, leaning her whole 
 light weight against him, " It's real good having you 
 home again. You are just a mite glad, too aren't 
 you ? " 
 
 Derek taken aback and genuinely stirred by her 
 passion tightened his hold and let her glean what 
 assurance she might from that. " Don't make a 
 scene over it, dear," he pleaded, drawing her down 
 on to a seat screened by evergreens. " It's this kind 
 of thing upsets you so. You're simply shaking." 
 
 " I know. And I wouldn't need to, if ' she 
 caught her breath and drew away a little. "Oh, 
 Deny can't you see it ought to be you not 
 
 " Of course it ought," he agreed with smothered
 
 INTO THE DEEP 347 
 
 vehemence. " But it isn't, and it never has been 
 what it ought to be. That's the curse of the 
 whole situation for both of us. At least I've been 
 straight with you, Lois. I've never pretended 
 
 " I don't want you to pretend ! " she flung in, 
 with flaming cheeks. " But haven't you won't you 
 ever " 
 
 " Oh, my dear why torment yourself and me by 
 pressing the point ? I'm doing my best and I'll go 
 on doing it. Can't you leave it at that ? Can't 
 you see I'm worried to death about this big busi- 
 ness at Home that dwarfs all our petty personal 
 affairs ? " 
 
 He broke off there ; for she suddenly sprang up 
 ' and left him, with never a word or a backward look. 
 
 Half relieved and wholly puzzled, he sat watching 
 her, till she vanished into the house. He was sin- 
 cerely sorry if he had hurt her, but he could not feel 
 sorry that for once the truth had been spoken 
 between them. It might help to clear the air 
 
 Then, with a 'great sigh, he rose and paced the 
 far end of the lawn ; to and fro, to and fro, in the 
 hope that mechanical movement might quiet the 
 tumult in his brain. Controlled by temperament 
 and training, it needed a strong wind to stir his 
 deeper emotions ; but to-day, in this tremendous 
 hour of crisis, the intensity of his love for England 
 and for Avonleigh burned with a clear white flame 
 that blinded him to all lesser matters, as he had tried 
 to make Lois understand. England must fight . . . ! 
 If a temporizing Government dared withhold her, the
 
 348 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 very spirits of her great dead would rise up in protest. 
 Yes England would fight : and he, Derek Blount 
 an insignificant unit among her millions of loyal 
 sons must remain where he was ; chained hand and 
 foot by his own act. It was the culminating stroke 
 of Fate. . . 
 
 Lois, watching from her bedroom window, won- 
 dered, fruitlessly, what were the thoughts that goaded 
 him to walk up and plown, up and down. She had 
 never seen him taken that way before, and it gave 
 her, for the first time, a feeling of mother-tenderness 
 towards him. She wanted to comfort him, to ease 
 his restlessness, as he so often eased hers. She had 
 been a fool to run away just when he was trying to 
 tell her things ; but it hurt her so to realize that the 
 desperate business of winning him was not even 
 begun, that she could think of nothing else. What 
 was wrong with her that she should not make him 
 care ? Jack was her last hope 
 
 He did not prove a difficult subject. Glad of a 
 respite from the one topic, he responded to her shy 
 advances readily enough. He even suggested a stroll 
 in the garden after dinner ; while Derek and 
 Gabrielle spent a strenuous evening over maps, 
 moving imaginary armies and out-generalling the 
 Imperial German Staff. When bedtime came, she 
 felt she had made a promising start. 
 
 Upstairs she was eloquent in praise of Jack ; and 
 Derek absent-mindedly agreed with her. Neither 
 of them alluded to the scene in the garden or the 
 threat of War.
 
 . INTO THE DEEP 349 
 
 On Sunday they all went to church except Madame 
 de Fontenac, who attended Mass. Derek spent most 
 of the afternoon writing to Mark, while Lois went 
 her own way and found Jack more charming than 
 ever. He discovered that she sang ; and as he 
 could strum a little he accompanied her by ear. 
 During the process, Derek came in for a book, glanced 
 at them, made a casual remark and went but again. 
 
 " I wonder if he's annoyed ! " thought Lois, 
 hopefully ; and decided that to-morrow she would 
 persuade Jack to take her out somewhere pictures 
 or shops. But Derek's annoyance, if it existed, was 
 too slight to be of any account. 
 
 On Monday he seemed more absent-minded than 
 ever ; and there was a tense, strained look in his 
 eyes. He spent most of the morning in the naval 
 officer's study, poring over familiar volumes of 
 history that he had last handled in his rooms at 
 Trinity, and blessing the owner for the mental relief 
 they afforded, even as he had blessed him for the 
 scent of sweet peas and mignonette. 
 
 To Lois, this new Derek seemed almost a stranger. 
 Her contact, so far, had been with his character 
 rather than his mind. He was simply her prince dis- 
 guised as a lumber jack. Now she saw him as a 
 man of thought and books ; a man more than ever 
 removed from her untutored simplicity ; and while 
 she plied her small arts, it was she who felt the pang 
 of jealousy, when she heard him talk to Gay and 
 Madame de Fontenac as never to her, and could 
 scarcely follow a word. Still she persevered in her
 
 350 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 desperate resort ; though he hardly seemed to notice. 
 Even when he spoke to her, his mind seemed half 
 astray ; and the failure of her passionate outburst 
 withheld her from repeating that form of appeal. 
 She sighed and concluded ruefully that it was all 
 this horrid war. A world cataclysm had crushed her 
 poor little plan. It was as if a traction engine 
 had passed over a butterfly. 
 
 Gay, who had been so affectionate, was changed 
 also. She too seemed able to think and talk of 
 nothing but this vague and terrible event which, for 
 Lois, had no meaning at all. And by Monday even 
 Jack was less attentive, more withdrawn into 
 himself. 
 
 German troops in Belgium and in France ; and 
 still no decisive word from England ! 
 
 They began to be aware that Madame de Fontenac 
 thought a good deal more than her French politeness 
 would allow her to say : and they chafed under the 
 justice of these unspoken criticisms. The acute 
 anxiety endured by all right-thinking British men and 
 women, during the four days of August 1914, was the 
 measure of their deep distrust of an Administration 
 which had led .them blindfold to the crater's edge. 
 
 But Jack, however anxious, was always well 
 mannered. Also, he saw Derek was taking things 
 hard ; and j on the whole, he found Lois and her 
 serene ignorance a relief. They spent most of 
 Monday together. In the afternoon, at her sugges- 
 tion, he took her for a drive ; and later they went 
 to see a touring company in " The Merry Widow."
 
 INTO THE DEEP 351 
 
 Lois thoroughly enjoyed herself ; and on her return 
 she saw the first sign of a change in Derek's manner. 
 He said nothing, however ; and she could hardly 
 sleep for hoping and wondering whether he would 
 speak in the morning- 
 He did speak in the morning. He had risen early, 
 but came in again while she was dressing. 
 
 " Look here, Lois," he said, " if you want to go 
 anywhere to-day, I'll take you myself." 
 
 His tone was quite friendly ; but she could not 
 leave well alone. 
 
 " Why ? " she ventured, adjusting a tortoise-shell 
 comb. " D'you mind me going around with Jack ? " 
 
 " Not within reason. D'you prefer it ? " The 
 question raised her hopes and she played up to it 
 accordingly. 
 
 " Well, he's fun and he's real kind. Things aren't 
 mighty cheerful just now. And I thought you'd 
 like us to be friends." 
 
 " Of course. 3ut I can't have you playing the 
 fool with him . . . the way you do. It gives a 
 wrong impression and it's not fair on Jack." 
 
 Those five words took the wind clean out of her 
 sails. He was simply thinking of Jack ! In her 
 bitter disappointment, she felt almost angry with 
 him. 
 
 " Guess he's old enough to look after himself," 
 she retorted with a toss of her head. " And you 
 haven't a word or a smile these days 
 
 " If it's my fault I'm sorry," he said with
 
 352 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 disarming gentleness. " Don't be later than you can 
 help." 
 
 When he had gone, she burst into tears and was 
 glaringly late in consequence. But no one seemed 
 to mind. 
 
 The paper had arrived. Derek was reading out 
 the telegrams. Even Lois could feel a tingle of 
 excitement in the air. 
 
 " That about settles it thank God ! " Derek 
 remarked when he had finished reading. 
 
 " Hope we go in with both feet," said Jack. " No 
 mere naval demonstration." 
 
 " Not likely if we get Kitchener." 
 
 '' And we don't, any of us, understand, in the 
 minutest degree, what it all means," Gay murmured, 
 thoughtfully stirring her tea. " I wonder how 
 long ? " 
 
 " Years and years," said Derek, " if it isn't a walk 
 over." 
 
 She shivered. " Anything rather than that ! " 
 
 After breakfast, the air being clearer, Lois begged 
 Derek to explain so that she could understand : and 
 he explained to the best of his power. A good deal 
 still passed over her head ; but she pounced on one 
 concrete fact. 
 
 " Jack said he must go home at once. Has he got 
 to fight ? " 
 
 " Sure thing when he's been trained. Agar, too, 
 if he has any grit, will go and scores and hundreds 
 of others : thousands, I hope, in good time. The 
 British Army's the straightest goods what there
 
 INTO THE DEEP 353 
 
 is of it. But there isn't over much : and if we're 
 to knock spots out of Germany, we'll need every 
 available man in the Empire." 
 
 A pause. She had pounced on another concrete 
 fact. " Deny are you an available man ? " 
 
 " No I'm not." He set his teeth lest " worse 
 luck " slip out in spite of him. 
 
 " Are you wishing it ? " she ventured very low. 
 
 " Wishing's neither here northere," he said briskly. 
 " Don't worry your head about that, little girl. 
 Bad luck you can't keep Jacko. You'll have to put 
 up with me ! " 
 
 To his intense relief she merely murmured, " Don't 
 want Jacko " ; gave his arm a convulsive squeeze, 
 and said no more. 
 
 Jack himself broached the subject on the veranda 
 after dinner. The thing had to be gone through ; 
 and Derek was glad to get it over. It came after 
 Jack had unfolded his own plans in a quiet business- 
 like voice, assumed out of consideration for Derek, 
 who could make none. But at the last his natural 
 self prevailed. 
 
 " Oh, Dirks, old man," he broke out desperately 
 after a portentous silence, " it's the very deuce 
 leaving you stuck out here. If we could only go 
 into this together ! Think of it ! " 
 
 Derek frowned and looked straight before him 
 into the gathering dusk. " Thanks I'd rather not. 
 Fate doesn't square things that way. I can't leave 
 Lois so that's that." 
 
 Jack considered Derek's unpromising profile for a
 
 254 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 moment. Then he remarked tentatively : " Shoals 
 of married men will join 
 
 " Not with wives in her precarious state of health 
 and no responsible belongings." 
 
 " But, Derek, she's an awfully sweet person. 
 Couldn't you bring her home ? " 
 
 " And leave her with whom ? " Derek could not 
 keep the bitter note out of his voice. " She is a 
 sweet person. But picture her with mother Ina 
 -Van ? " 
 
 " But if they don't know you're married, they'll 
 be expecting you to turn up." 
 
 " I shall write to Father, of course." A pause ; 
 then he added gruffly : " Drop it, Jacko. Freeze on to 
 your own affairs. Won't your sister go with you ? " 
 
 " No. She can't come yet because of her aunt. 
 But the minute she's free she'll be off Red Cross 
 in France, I gather. Somehow 7 I never seemed to 
 realize her Frenchness very much till just lately. 
 You stop on anyway till I'm off, Dirks ; and we'll 
 go along together as far as the Fates allow." 
 
 To that last Derek assented willingly enough. 
 
 Four days later they left Victoria an oasis of 
 peace and pleasantness never to be forgotten : and 
 travelled together till the parting of the ways. 
 
 Then it was " Good-bye, old man. Good luck " ; 
 the vigorous waving of Jack's hat as the Canadian 
 Pacific whirled him east ; and Derek, heavy at heart, 
 yet outwardly cheerful enough, set his face towards 
 Nealston.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 "Life is at her grindstone set, 
 That she may give us edging keen, 
 String us for battle ; till, as play, 
 The common strokes of fortune shower." 
 
 MEREDITH. 
 
 ' I \HREE weeks later, he and Lois sat at supper 
 Ji together in the veranda of their own home. 
 It was a still, oppressive evening, the .last of August ; 
 and in Nealston there was nothing to distinguish 
 this particular day from any other of that heroic and 
 terrible first month of war. 
 
 Yet away, on the other side of the world, in an 
 apple orchard near Ne"ry, a certain British battery 
 was carrying on a certain preposterous duel three 
 guns against twelve that will live for ever in the 
 annals of history and romance. On this day, too, 
 the Channel ports lay open and defenceless, awaiting 
 the influx of German hordes that never came. 
 
 The shadcrw of that dark month was on Derek's 
 heart and in his eyes. He had almost grown to hate 
 the superb serenity of lake and mountain that so 
 mockingly contrasted with his inner vision of bat- 
 tered, pursued, undaunted flesh and blood. Only 
 a miracle could now save Paris ; and Derek foolishly 
 
 355
 
 356 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 supposed the age of miracles was past. His faith 
 in things not seen so far as it .had survived the 
 shocks of early doubt was too nebulous to uphold 
 him in this hour of awful uncertainty. Nor was he 
 sustained by the optimists' innate conviction that the 
 worst can never happen. He knew very well that 
 the worst could happen. It might be happening 
 even now ; while he, in another hemisphere, was 
 savouring the salmi of his talented Chinese cook. 
 One had frankly to face the appalling fact ; and, 
 in the teeth of things, hang on somehow. It was not 
 a pleasant process : but where faith falters, there is 
 the greater need of courage ; and courage, like 
 wisdom, is justified of her children. 
 
 As for Lois, though partially enlightened, she 
 could not, in the nature of her, realise the half of 
 what he was suffering in his dumb, lonely fashion. 
 Unperceptive by nature, she was further blinded, af 
 the moment, by the fulfilment of her twin desires 
 a man and a house of her own. The little house 
 was her new toy. Every detail interested her : and 
 she insisted that he should be interested too. More 
 he was called upon to make up her mind for her 
 about every domestic item, from the pattern of a 
 curtain to the shape of a vase. In his free hours he 
 must take her to " movies " the more glaringly 
 melodramatic the better or follow her endlessly 
 from shop to shop. He was infinitely patient with 
 her futile vagaries ; and she, by way of reward, 
 idealised him in the very manner he could least 
 endure. Distracted with anxiety, there was neither 
 
 i "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 357 
 
 peace nor refreshment for him within the four walls 
 of his home 
 
 The place itself was pretty and pleasant enough, 
 set well above the town that climbed the skirts of 
 the mountain ; its houses rising tier beyond tier, like 
 the seats of an amphitheatre. He owed the discovery 
 mainly to Mrs. Macrae. She was also responsible for 
 their " help " ; a motherly widow woman, without 
 whose ministration there would have been little of 
 comfort or tidiness in the house and Derek appre- 
 ciated both. The cook had been his own find ; and 
 he^was not above admitting that the man's skill 
 helped, considerably, to oil the wheels of things. 
 
 On reaching Nealston Hotel, they had found a note 
 from Mrs. Macrae begging them to pay her a visit 
 before settling down. In a casual postscript she 
 added that Jos had gone East, with several others, to 
 the big camp that was already springing up at 
 Valcartier. More men were leaving soon. They 
 would welcome extra help ; and Derek was glad 
 enough to be of use, It had surprised him to find 
 how he relished the return to regular, outdoor work ; 
 how it soothed and relieved the strain on his mind. 
 
 At Beulah Ranch he had written that difficult 
 letter to his father, which told very little, yet implied 
 much to any one who really knew him. He stated, 
 simply and plainly, that tragic and unusual events, 
 outside his control, had landed him in a marriage 
 which he could not expect any of them to approve, 
 perhaps not even to condone ; j since the extenuating 
 circumstances were not altogether his own to reveal.
 
 358 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 He had done his best to give a favourable impression 
 of Lois ; had dwelt upon her youth, her precarious 
 state, and his own conviction that, as matters stood, 
 he could not leave her while she had need of him. 
 
 " I think," he had concluded, " that you will 
 understand though I express myself vilely how I 
 hate having to give you such news at a time like 
 this and how badly it hurts not being able to go 
 straight home to join Kitchener's Army. I've tried 
 to write to Mother about it, but have only succeeded 
 in half filling the waste-paper basket. She would 
 never come within miles of understanding. But if 
 you thinkshe ought to know and Van will you 
 please tell them whatever you think fit. One will 
 be misjudged on all sides that's the curse of it. 
 But so long as I stand square with you, I can put 
 up with the rest. Make a few allowances if you 
 know how for your ' faithful failure,' who hardly 
 deserves the honour to be your loving son, 
 
 " DEREK BI.OUNT. 
 
 " P.S. My apologies to Aunt Marion. I wrote 
 the truth at the time. Hadn't a notion how soon 
 it would be otherwise." 
 
 It had been an unspeakable relief to get that letter 
 off his mind ; he could not expect an answer for 
 weeks ; and even while he craved it, he dreaded the 
 sting of sarcasm that his seeming folly could scarcely 
 fail to evoke. 
 
 Meantime he would have been well content to 
 remain on the Ranch. But Lois, the bride, with her 
 pretty clothes and rather languid airs, seemed more
 
 ITO THE DEEP 359 
 
 than ever out of place there. The heat upset her 
 and the mosquitoes, after respite from their tyranny. 
 She had been frankly bored and begged Derek to 
 be quick about finding a house. And he had been 
 aware of a change in Mrs. Macrae. Though kind as 
 ever, she was less outspoken ; and Derek often felt 
 her watching them both, in a way that recalled that 
 long-ago evening, when he would have laughed in 
 the face of any lunatic who had prophesied his 
 marriage with Lois Aymes. He had never told her 
 the facts, and her one letter to him had clearly shown 
 that she did not quite know what to make of it all ; 
 but only of urgent necessity would he broach the 
 subject. She must think what she pleased. To be 
 misjudged on all sides seemed his portion. 
 
 As for his fellow workers who were going East 
 as a matter of course what must they think of him, 
 a British subject and a gentleman, ignoring the call 
 to arms ; content to waste his manhood on Macrae's 
 apples and plums. They must either dub him a 
 shirker, or a bridegroom too much married to 
 face the wrench of leaving his wife : and he hardly 
 knew which libel he resented most. Better, 
 after all, a fresh job, where he could straight- 
 way make it clear that his wife's ill-health \would 
 only permit him to work half time. To Mrs. Macrae 
 he had said frankly : "I hate quitting when the 
 boss needs hands. But I can't explain my private 
 affairs to every man who looks askance at me, 
 though it makes me mad. Besides Lois wants a 
 home "
 
 360 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 And Mrs. Macrae had given him candour for 
 candour. 
 
 " Mighty hard on you, old son. I'd keep her 
 here for you, and willing ; but she's not fit. You're 
 right. It's a decent home she needs in her state 
 and yourself. She's fair gone on you. Guess you're 
 the slap-up model husband, Deny." 
 
 " Don't you get calling me names," he had 
 answered gruffly. 
 
 Her laughter had cleared the air. She had pro- 
 mised to " buzz round " Nealston for him : and the 
 bungalow on the hillside had been the outcome of her 
 buzzing. 
 
 It had been strenuous work settling Lois in, but 
 her childish delight in it all was his reward. With 
 the hopefulness of her kind, she lived from day to 
 day : while Derek's more imaginative brain was 
 haunted by the ghostly, inexorable shadow that 
 mocked at her content. For himself, meanwhile, 
 mere use and wont eased the sense of enchainment 
 that still irked him badly at times. Between com- 
 panioning Lois and working on another fruit ranch, 
 he had little leisure to call his own ; and he grew 
 genuinely fond of her up to a point. He might 
 even have grown fonder still, but that under her 
 sensuous softness and sweetness he found a vacuum ; 
 and the trail of the third-rate fiction she devoured 
 was over all her thoughts and ways. 
 
 The veranda where they sat at supper, on this 
 August evening, was furnished like a room. It was
 
 INTO THE DEEP 361 
 
 smothered in clematis and ramblers, and it framed 
 incomparable views up the higher reaches of the 
 Lake. Lois, in a clinging blue tea-gown and a 
 flowered scarf, completed a domestic picture charm- 
 ing enough to satisfy any man whose mind was not 
 racked with the craving to be elsewhere. 
 
 Her movements were more listless these days. Of 
 late she had been fretful and irritable, which was 
 unlike her ; and broken nights had laid dark smudges 
 under her eyes. And her trouble was not purely 
 physical. She was beginning to worry about Derek. 
 The steady exodus of young men, from the ranches 
 and the town, impressed her more than any telegrams 
 in the paper : and now there crept into her heart a 
 little gnawing fear that perhaps Derek really was 
 " available." That fear had been urging her to 
 speak out and beg him to go, if he wanted to if he 
 ought. 
 
 She was just screwing up her courage, when he rose 
 abruptly and went over to the end of the veranda. 
 It was a boy with a cablegram. Derek tore it open 
 and stood silent so long that she grew nervous. 
 
 " Derek, what is it ? " she asked. " Bad news ? " 
 
 " Not exactly ! " he said with his whimsical smile. 
 " From my father. Family affairs." 
 
 Instead of tearing it up, he thoughtfully refolded 
 and pocketed the flimsy slip of paper. 
 
 It contained nine words : " Yours received. 
 Deeply deplore circumstances, but approve your 
 decision. AVONLEIGH." 
 
 The idea that his father might cable had never
 
 362 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 occurred to him : and the act implied a measure of 
 understanding, where he had expected none. It also 
 made the task of hanging on to his job a shade less 
 difficult. 
 
 Within a week there came a rift in the war cloud, 
 and his doubting spirit stood rebuked. The miracle 
 had happened. Paris had been saved. In the midst 
 of his incredible relief, he remembered Gabrielle and 
 Madame de Fontenac, whose faith was founded on a 
 rock. He wondered if they were still at Silversands. 
 Miss de Vigne had written affectionately to Lois soon 
 after they left. Since then, they had heard no more. 
 But later on, came news of Jack, who had got his 
 cavalry commission, and a long screed from Mark ; 
 -" in it," of course, up to the eyes. Mark sporting 
 a kilt ! If he could only be there to see ! But it 
 was quite on the cards that he might never see either 
 of them alive again. . . . 
 
 The bewildering news of Mark's engagement 
 troubled him profoundly. Like every one else, he 
 had taken Sheila for granted one of the few girls 
 he heartily admired. Yet Mark judging from his 
 letter was pretty badly smitten. He wondered, 
 sometimes had that faculty been quite left out of 
 his own composition ? Any average man, he sup- 
 posed, would by this time have fallen in love with 
 Lois. And he rated himself for a cold-blooded 
 beast. 
 
 As a matter of fact the war, with its vast and 
 appalling possibilities, was absorbing all his capacity'
 
 INTO THE DEEP 363 
 
 for emotion. England though he criticized her and 
 never talked patriotism was dearer to him, as yet, 
 than any woman. And England was fighting for her 
 life. Derek had no illusions on that score. 
 
 By this time, scarcely a man of his year at Trinity 
 but had secured a commission or joined the ranks. 
 Even " Blinkers " the mild, unwarlike poet was 
 kicking his heels in barracks ; hugely bored, but 
 sustained by the conviction that England had need 
 of him, and rhapsodising to that effect in laboriously 
 " unfettered " verse. Derek could not rhapsodise, 
 but he could serve. He was of those for whom work 
 is prayer; and a perverse Fate condemned -him to 
 idleness while his logging companions and the lucky 
 devils at home were, at least, doing what they could 
 to stiffen England's sword arm. Only his innate 
 sense of proportion steadied him, as always, in the 
 day of trouble. England, it reminded him, could 
 hold her own without his microscopic assistance. 
 Still it takes the individual to make the mass, the 
 atom to make the sphere : and this atom could not 
 but chafe at its exclusion from the field of honour. 
 * He chafed still more when the thrill of pursuit was 
 definitely checked, when Antwerp fell and the Ypres' 
 salient was born. A pencilled scrawl from the 
 trenches told him that Mark was in the thick of 
 things ; and Jack was either going or had already 
 gone. . . . 
 
 And in the bungalow on the hill Lois coughed more 
 persistently, idolised him increasingly, saw him grow
 
 364 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 restless again and watched the shadow of those ter- 
 rible August'-'days creep back into his eyes. He was 
 kindness itself to her. He would take her, when fit, 
 to the pictures or for trips on the Lake. He read her 
 decent literature in the evenings ; and only grew 
 restive when she too clingingly adored him. But all 
 the while she knew that his mind and heart were 
 miles away in England or on the blood-drenched 
 battlefields of Flanders. She hated to feel she was 
 holding him back ; yet she could not bear to let 
 him go. Again and again she tried tactlessly, 
 unskilfully to say what she felt, to discover what 
 he really thought about it ; and always he laughed 
 it off or changed the subject. 
 
 But there came a day when, in spite of him, she 
 fatally insisted on pressing the point. 
 
 It was in the evening. Too cold for the veranda 
 now ; and she lay in her long chair near a glowing 
 stove. Derek sat beside her with a book. He did 
 not know she was watching him ; and he remained 
 unnaturally still for a long time, without turning a 
 page. She saw that his spirit had slipped away from 
 her. Only the shell of him sat there in her pretty 
 drawing-room, because the shell of him was obliged 
 to stay and take care of her. Was he pining to go 
 hating her because she held him ? Last time, 
 when she talked of being a mill-stone, he had got 
 quite cross ; but to-night she felt keyed up even to 
 telling him he must not stay if he felt it was wrong. 
 
 " Derek," she asked suddenly, " what are you 
 thinking about so hard ? "
 
 INTO THE DEEP 365 
 
 He started and looked round at her. 
 
 " The one eternal subject," he said truthfully. 
 " What else ? " 
 
 " Don't you ever these times think of 
 me? " 
 
 His smile reproached her forgivable folly. " Why 
 of course I do, little girl. You are a proper goose ! " 
 
 She sighed. " I'm worse than a goose. I'm, a 
 millstone " 
 
 " Nonsense ! A featherweight like you ! " 
 
 But to-night she was inexorable. " Not a mite 
 of use joking it off, Deny. It's true. And there's 
 times when you sit so quiet all lost ... I can't 
 help but wonder are you ever wishing I wasn't 
 here ? " 
 
 That impermissible question fairly took his breath 
 away. " My dear child you're the limit ! Nice 
 sort of husband you make me out. You ought to 
 know me better by now 
 
 " Oh, Derry, I do in some things. But all the 
 time I can feel that horrid war tugging you away 
 from me. If there wasn't me . . . you'd be off 
 to-morrow wouldn't you ? " 
 
 The tragedy of it, and the tactless futility of her 
 persistence, smote him silent. She was tormenting 
 herself and him to no purpose not for the first time, 
 either. 
 
 " There you see \ " Her plaintive voice trailed 
 on, taking his silence for assent. " And if you really 
 did ought to go, it makes me get wishing almost I 
 wasn't here "
 
 366 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 At that he leaned forward, took her gently by the 
 shoulders and looked so straight into her eyes that 
 the blood surged up to the very hollows of her 
 temples. 
 
 " My dearest little girl if you weren't ill, I'd slang 
 you without mercy. As it is please understand, 
 once for all, that you're my job, first and foremost : 
 and if I'm not quarrelling with the fact, there's no 
 call for you to make fancy difficulties. So don't let 
 me hear you talk like that again 
 
 " But, Deny " 
 
 " Oh, let be, for God's sake. Does a woman never 
 know when to stop ? " But she looked so fragile, as 
 the flush ebbed from her face, that he added in a 
 changed voice : " Now kiss and be a good little 
 wife ; and I'll carry you to bed." 
 
 Without a word she lifted her face and they kissed 
 mutually. Then he carried her to bed 
 
 " Just as well, after all, she should out with it, if 
 it bothered her," he reflected later on, over his book, 
 " but I hope to goodness I've heard the last of it." 
 
 He sat late that night, as often, poring over military 
 history or trying his hand at articles on the problems 
 that thronged his brain. It helped to right the 
 perspective of things 
 
 Next day she was subdued, but smiling ; a little 
 withdrawn into herself. And on the Wednesday 
 returning from work later than usual he found 
 an empty house. Good Mrs. O'Rane's round face 
 was as long as a fiddle.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 367 
 
 " \Yhat 's the matter ? Where's Mrs. Blunt ? " 
 he asked sharply ; and she flung up her hands. 
 
 ' The dear knows. Ye'd scarce bin gone an 
 hour when she wint out o' that door, an' niver a 
 sight of her since the saints preserve her ! " 
 
 Derek had a strange sensation as if his heart 
 slowly rose up and turned over within him ; but 
 his face gave no sign. 
 
 " Did she say where she was going ? " he asked, 
 in a voice so contained that his " help " ejaculated 
 mentally, ' The stony-hearted they are these 
 English ! " 
 
 Aloud she said : " ' Just a thrifle of shopping 
 an' a walk,' says she. Her that's bought all a 
 woman can be wanting an' more, not to mention 
 she had a bit of a tempershaw ' 
 
 Derek had turned on his heel and was leaving the 
 house ; but she called after him on a high note of 
 lamentation : " Dear, oh, dear, sir, there's chops 
 and taties just spoiling for you." 
 
 " Eat them yourself," he flung back. But she 
 would not have it, and sooner than argue he bolted 
 the food without tasting it. Then he set out on his 
 desperate errand with even less of a clue to guide 
 him than on that strange, unforgettable night of 
 June 
 
 Wild possibilities lurked at the back of his brain ; 
 but he clung to common sense, till all likely coverts 
 had been beaten without avail ; her favourite shops, 
 the houses of her few friends. Then fear came upon
 
 368 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 him, and he rang up Beulah Ranch. No news of her 
 there ; and though Mrs. Macrae spoke hopefully, her 
 tone belied her words. 
 
 " Shall I come over to you by the evening boat ? " 
 she concluded. " Or will I be in the way ? No 
 palaver. Say Yes, if you mean ' Yes.' ' 
 
 " Rather not. You'd be the greatest blessing in 
 life. That's the truth if it's quite convenient." 
 
 " Sure thing. I'll just settle the kiddies and come 
 right along. Send Kitts down to the landing and 
 I'll ride up." 
 
 " Thanks. That's you all over. I must be off 
 now and report to the police. So long." 
 
 The head of the local police force was a large and 
 very human person ; and his business-like inquiries 
 were tinged with discreet sympathy. Derek's con- 
 trolled manner cloaked an increasing anxiety 
 tempered by a lurking sense of unreality. That he 
 should be describing Lois to this kindly stranger, 
 as if she were a lost parcel, seemed like some horrid, 
 crazy dream. Yet he listened gravely and grate- 
 fully to assurances that searchers would be sent out 
 in all likely directions and they would ring him up the 
 moment they had anything to report. 
 
 . After that there was nothing more to be done ; 
 but, goaded by desperation and sheer restlessness, he 
 tramped the road above the Lake for a distance far 
 beyond his wife's powers of walking. Then he sat 
 down on a rock and wild possibilities rushed in and 
 mocked him. Was it possible ? Had her dis- 
 appearance any connexion with the pitiful stuff she
 
 INTO THE DEEP 369 
 
 had talked two nights ago ? She was so unaccount- 
 able. It was quite on the cards 
 
 Her remark to Mrs. O'Rane did not wash. In 
 either case she would have waited to go with him. 
 At one moment he felt almost angry with her : and 
 the next, his heart contracted at thought of her alone 
 and frightened, or hurt. For months he had so 
 tenderly guarded her that she seldom went out by 
 herself : and now goodness knew what folly her 
 cheap instinct for the theatrical might have prompted 
 her to attempt ! Was ever woman born at once so 
 aggravating and so irresistibly pathetic ? If a 
 second edition existed, he had no wish to encounter 
 it. 
 
 He felt oppressed by a feeling of helplessness very 
 foreign to him : and he thanked heaven for the great 
 heart and sound head of Mrs. Macrae. 
 
 It was late when he reached home, tired and 
 worried, to find that a cable had arrived in his 
 absence. He tore it open hurriedly and read : 
 " Mark wounded and missing". Feared killed. Tak- 
 ing car Belgium. Will report result. MACNAIR." 
 
 Twice over he scanned the hateful message ; then 
 he sat very still, taking it all in. ... 
 
 Dearly though he loved Jack, Mark was the true 
 comrade of his mine} and spirit ; without him, the 
 salt of life would lose half its savour. He was so 
 vividly, commandingly alive that Derek could not 
 believe in his extinction. But even so there were 
 endless awful possibilities. . . . 
 
 Into the midst of these came Wei Sing's gentle
 
 370 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 reminder that the soup was getting cold. Then he 
 roused himself and remembered Lois also Mrs. 
 Macrae, who ought to be here by now. The sound 
 of hoofs reassured him, and as he stepped into the 
 veranda she came riding up the path a queer, 
 semi-masculine figure in her dungaree divided skirt 
 and felt hat. Like most of her kind, she rode astride 
 and could vault into a saddle or out of it as easily as 
 a man. But to-day there was no ready word of 
 greeting, no light of humour in her brick-red face and 
 blue eyes. 
 
 ' There you are, thank God ! " was Derek's greet- 
 ing ; and while he unstrapped her bundle, she sprang 
 to the ground. 
 
 " No news ? " she asked. He shook his, head. 
 " Only this from home. Things never come singly 
 my best friend." He handed her the telegram ; 
 and when she looked up there were tears in her eyes. 
 " Poor Deny ! My poor boy 
 
 Derek said nothing. He could not trust himself. 
 But he loved her at that moment, as he loved Lady 
 Forsyth ; and for the same quality. Unmothered 
 as he was, the mother-need was strong in him still. 
 Some men, no matter how self-reliant, never lose it 
 altogether. 
 
 At dinner they talked only of Lois. Things began 
 to look serious and Mrs. Macrae did not conceal her 
 anxiety. 
 
 " Had she bin worried any ? " was her first ques- 
 tion, and Derek explained, adding that he believed 
 he had dispelled all that. But Mrs. Macrae looked
 
 INTO THE DEEP 371 
 
 doubtful, she had not much opinion of a man's skill 
 in dispelling feminine fancies. " Women in her 
 state get queer notions do queer things," she said 
 with a significant look ; and seemed on the verge of 
 some confidential remark ; but evidently thought 
 better of it. 
 
 After a silence, during which they made a show of 
 eating, Derek said * suddenly : "What about- 
 dragging the lake near the shore ? " 
 
 Mrs. Macrae looked startled. " Guess Lois 
 wouldn't get thinking of that."- 
 
 But Derek knew she had thought of it once ; and 
 might do so again. He only doubted her courage to 
 carry it through. 
 
 After dinner they rang up the police without 
 result. Then they paced the veranda, guessing, 
 speculating, talking in jerks ; till Mrs. Macrae, in her 
 wisdom, insisted that he should go to bed. 
 
 " \Yhat's the damn use ? D'you suppose I can 
 sleep ? " he asked half angrily, and her smile 
 approved* his wrath. 
 
 ' You can lie flat anyways," she said gently, " and 
 try to hold your mind on a book. There's times 
 Nature will take her own way, no matter what's up 
 inside. Reckon you've been rampaging around all 
 day ; and it may be the same to-morrow. So 
 where's the sense of getting tucked up an' wastin' 
 shoe leather half the night ? It ' won't do a 
 mite of good. That's horse sense, Deny, an' you 
 know it. So you get flat an' give yourself a 
 chance."
 
 372 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 Sooner than argue, he obeyed. Anxiety is 
 exhausting ; and to anxiety was added the strain of 
 conflicting sensations that he was doing his loyal 
 best. to ignore. But Nature would not take the 
 chance he gave her. Even Joseph Conrad's inimit- 
 able tale, " Lord Jim " one of the rare novels he 
 could read and re-read failed to hol^ his attention . 
 or to stifle the insistent whisper " Can't it be the 
 end ? " 
 
 " Not now not this way," was the honest hope 
 of his heart. When her moment came, he must be 
 with her, if only to ease her fears. Strange how she 
 haunted him her listless movements and plaintive 
 voice and the red-gold glory of her hair. They had 
 not been four months married ; and their brief union 
 had been in no sense intimate ; but because she had 
 loved truly, up to her lights, the impress she left 
 upon his heart was genuine if not deep. Now lost 
 and strayed she was no longer the wife who so 
 often worried him, but the frightened child, whose 
 pitiful appeal it was not in him to resist. Whatever 
 might be the fantastic reason for her flight, lack of 
 love had no part in it. She was small. She was 
 futile. Even her capacity for love was mainly a 
 blend of passion and sentiment ; but it was' not 
 altogether base metal in his own case at least. She 
 had lately given proof of that. It was, he began to 
 realise, the one lever that might conceivably lift her 
 above herself. It might even give her the courage 
 she had once lacked 
 
 In his heart he prayed it had done no such thing.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 373 
 But where on earth was he to look for her now ? 
 
 Towards morning Nature had her way at last ; and 
 he fell sound asleep. 
 
 No news at the police office next day ; and Mrs. 
 Macrae was obliged, reluctantly, to return home if 
 only for the moment. 
 
 " What'll you do now ? " she asked at parting. 
 
 " Go on hunting till I drop, "he answered doggedly; 
 and went back to the house to think things out. 
 
 There on the table, a telegraphic envelope lay 
 awaiting him. As he snatched it up, all the sensa- 
 tions of yesterday surged through him : and when 
 he opened it anti-climax was complete. 
 
 It came from an hotel in Victoria, and it ran : " I 
 was going right off to give you a chance, but Gay 
 has left here, so no use. I am ill. Please come. So 
 sorry. Lois." In the confusion of his mixed 
 emotions, relief predominated relief tinged with 
 vexation : but vexation was shamed at thought of 
 all she had risked in her genuine, if futile, attempt 
 to clear the way for him. So like Lois not even 
 to find out if they were there. And he himself had 
 never once thought of the railway station ! He 
 would not have given her credit for so bold a stroke. 
 But now, at all events, there was something definite 
 to be done.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 " For she loved much . . ." ST. LUKE vii. 4 
 
 HE found her almost in a state of collapse. She 
 wept and clung to him and implored his 
 forgiveness ; and he, remembering the thought 
 of his heart, kissed her with a fervour that surprised 
 and uplifted her. Then he scolded her sternly for 
 her own good. The scolding passed clean over her 
 head ; but the treasured memory of that kiss, given 
 when she least deserved it, atoned for all she had been 
 through. She was ill, unquestionably ; scarcely fit 
 to travel. The return journey was an ordeal Derek 
 would not soon forget : and only by a miracle did he 
 get her home in time. 
 
 For more than a week she hung between life and 
 death. For more than a week life itself was a mere 
 appendage to illness and all the paraphernalia of 
 illness : doctor and nurses and hushed footsteps and 
 Lois talking fitfully in a voice that was not her own. 
 Once he heard her talking of Jos, whose existence 
 he had almost forgotten in the stress of recent 
 events. 
 
 And while invisible forces wrestled for possession 
 
 374
 
 INTO THE DEEP 375 
 
 of her fragile body, he worked full time at the Ranch. 
 At home he knew himself useless, simply in the way 
 because he was a man. Yet when Mrs. Macrae 
 came over, she instantly had her status in the sick- 
 room scheme of things because she was a woman. 
 
 Derek himself had need of regular, strenuous work 
 to ease his distraction of mind. He felt, in a measure, 
 responsible for Lois' sufferings and it hurt him keenly. 
 There was also the ache of anxiety about Mark : 
 and, deep down, the subconscious knowledge that 
 her death would mean freedom to spend himself for 
 England, his greater love. The news of Mark had 
 set him longing more than ever to get back to his 
 own country, his own kind, and take his legitimate 
 share of it all. Yet the fright about Lois, the meet- 
 ing at Victoria and the glimpses he now had of her, 
 so stirred and deepened his genuine feeling for 
 her that, with all his heart, he hoped Fate would not 
 exact the full payment for her loving, foolish impulse 
 of sacrifice. > 
 
 And as that strange hushed week drew to an end, 
 it began to look as if her strength what remained of 
 it would weather the storm. 
 
 The doctor had spoken more hopefully that 
 morning ; and in the evening, when Derek returned, 
 the day-nurse just off duty told him that the 
 patient had fallen into a deep natural sleep. If that 
 sleep lasted all might yet be well. Mrs. Macrae 
 was in the sick-room. She would come and see him 
 later on. 
 
 Derek thanked her formally and passed into his
 
 376 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 little book-filled study where he found mail letters : 
 Jack, Mark he would not have believed the sight 
 of Mark's writing could ever give him pain and the 
 long- delayed letter from his father. 
 
 He tore it open hastily, prepared for the worst. 
 
 Lord Avonleigh wrote : " My dearest Boy, It 
 was lucky I wired, as my promised letter was held 
 up by a bout of fever and a touch of inflammation. 
 Nothing to make a long tale about. I would not let 
 Aunt Marion worry you needlessly. Your present 
 position must be quite sufficiently distracting. I 
 hope the wire eased your mind somewhat. That was 
 the idea. But I frankly confess that your news was 
 a staggering shock to us both. A mere scrape of the 
 average variety would have been less disquieting. 
 But on reflection I have the grace to be glad it is 
 otherwise. The complication, though serious enough, 
 is not to your discredit at least it does not sound 
 so from the little you have thought fit to tell me. 
 I was glad you mentioned her age. It puts a good 
 many disagreeable suppositions out of court. Do 
 you remember a remark you made the after- 
 noon of our talk about this that you would try 
 not to make an unholy muddle of things ? Alas 
 you seem to have succeeded pretty thoroughly, for 
 the time being ! I venture to hope that the girl is 
 attractive. It may ease things for you. 
 
 ' You are right about mother. If explanatory 
 facts were piled as high as Nelson's column, she would 
 neither understand nor condone such a flagrant 
 departure from the normal. I am telling her and
 
 INTO THE DEEP 377 
 
 Van that you are keen to join the Army, but you 
 are unfortunately tied up and will be coming home 
 the moment you are free. I gather Van is also keen 
 and also tied up. It is a pity. I would like one of 
 you, if not both, to be doing your duty in that line, 
 
 and I felt quite sure of you " ("Didn't he feel 
 
 sure of Van ? " Derek reflected, not a little taken 
 aback.) ' Your misfortune could not have come at 
 a more cruel moment, but we both feel you are 
 doing right in the sad circumstances. And you 
 have our united sympathy though it is tempered 
 with disapproval ! Write again soon. Marion ties 
 me down to a short letter, so I'll keep clear of the 
 war, which is going to be a bigger business than 
 most of them think. God bless you. Take care 
 of yourself. Your loving father. AVONLEIGH." 
 
 The whole tone of the letter was kinder, more 
 understanding than he had dared to hope for ; and 
 the different ending he very well knew was no 
 mere formula. He seemed only to be discovering 
 his father now that half the world lay between them. 
 Why had they missed each other so hopelessly all 
 through the years of his boyhood ? Partly, he 
 supposed, because both parents had made an idol 
 of Van* partly because he himself had vainly 
 idolised his mother : and in pursuing the shadow 
 had lost the substance of a possible friendship with 
 his father. If they could but meet and talk over all 
 this, Derek had a feeling they might achieve it yet. 
 Some day perhaps ? 
 
 He started. It was Mrs. Macrae at the door.
 
 378 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 " Derry can I come 'long in ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course." He rose and proffered his 
 chair. She accepted it and looked up at him where 
 he stood near the stove, holding his hands over the 
 warmth. 
 
 "I'm tired, some," she sighed and then smiled. 
 " A good sign that.. No time to feel tired till you 
 know you're through the wood." 
 
 "Is Lois through the wood?" Derek asked 
 quietly. 
 
 She nodded. " I reckon so. Sleeping like a babe 
 new born." 
 
 " Thank God for that." 
 
 " So pretty she looks. You did ought to see 
 her." 
 
 " May I when ? 
 
 " Presently. Quiet as a mouse ! " 
 
 He let out a deep breath and was silent, warming 
 his hands. Twice she gave him a significant look. 
 Then she ventured to speak her thought. 
 
 " Say, Derry I s'pose you know there was more 
 to it than her lungs ? " 
 
 His mute bewildered gaze assured her he knew 
 nothing of the sort. " And didn't Lois know it 
 neither ? " she demanded of his silence. * 
 
 He looked uncomfortable. " I really she never 
 said so. . . ." 
 
 " My ! You are a sweet pair of innocents ! Well 
 there's an end to it now. An' better so, may be." 
 Again she paused and looked up at him, thinking 
 what a fine manly face he had and how tired he
 
 INTO THE DEEP 379 
 
 looked ; wondering did he guess, at all, about Jos 
 Agar ? It was she who ought to have seen earlier 
 how things were going ; and she blamed herself 
 more than Lois or even Jos. For she knew, now, 
 what the nurses thank Heaven could not know, 
 that Jos was responsible for all they had. ju->t been 
 through. If Derek did not know, he ought to be 
 told ; and she found the telling unexpectedly diffi- 
 cult. Plain spoken though she was, she had her 
 reticences. And she was fond of Derek ; fonder than 
 ever, these days. He was so plainly a gentleman 
 all through ; she could not bear to shock or hurt his 
 finer feelings. 
 
 Presumably he agreed with her last remark ; but 
 he said nothing. In respect of confidences or 
 intimate talk, one had to go all the way with Derek 
 Blount. 
 
 " Say, Derry," she plunged at last. " Did you 
 never get thinking how far things might have gone 
 between her an,' Jos Agar ? " 
 
 " Agar ? " He frowned sharply and she saw the 
 question startled him. 
 
 ' That was my meaning when I said better so. 
 And she never let on ? " 
 
 He shook his head. " Probably she was afraid 
 poor darling ! The cowardly brute ! I've found her 
 straight in other ways." 
 
 " And you didn't never suspect ? " she pressed 
 him, the ice being broken. 
 
 " N-no. Well " he corrected himself, " fact is 
 ... I did think about it before ... in the spring.
 
 380 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 I wondered you weren't more careful with her. 
 But since we married, I haven't given it a thought." 
 
 It was her turn to be surprised now. " You 
 wondered about it before ? And yet you married 
 her ! Though it's plain to see, you aren't gone on 
 her never have been ! " 
 
 Derek winced. "Is it so plain ? " he asked, 
 evading the point. 
 
 " 'Tis to me anyways ; though I thought different 
 once. When you might have had her, you held 
 off ; and when thar was good excuse for any man 
 letting her go, you nipped in an' married her. I 
 never could make head nor tail of it." 
 
 " And you never will,V he said very quietly. 
 " It's our own affair. I'd rather not talk of it, 
 if you don't mind. Have you said anything to 
 Lois ? " 
 
 " Sakes no ! She's bin in no state for talk." 
 
 " Well, if she doesn't realize things let her be. 
 If I'm not worrying, I won't have her worrying on 
 my account. She's done too much of that 
 already." 
 
 Again Mrs. Macrae looked at him steadily, 
 pondering . . . 
 
 Then : "I knew right away you was the straight 
 goods, Derek," she said with her large smile. " But 
 I never reckoned you was as straight an' simple 
 hearted as that amounts to. Guess she's bin in luck, 
 has Lois " 
 
 " Oh, dry up, please," he said, in a pained voice. 
 " I've done what I could for her which was little
 
 INTO THE DEEP 381 
 
 enough. And now she's half killed herself for my 
 benefit." 
 
 ,Mrs. Macrae nodded and rose from her chair. 
 ' You've acted like a man and you can bet she knew 
 it. She's pulled through her trouble ; but I reckon 
 it's not very much more you'll be able to do for her, 
 after this. I must be getting back, case she might 
 wake. You look in later." 
 
 When she had gone Derek sat down and opened 
 Mark's letter. . . . 
 
 He had scarcely finished reading it when Mrs. 
 Macrae was back at the door. This time she 
 entered without ceremony : her news in her startled 
 eyes. 
 
 " Derek she's gone as quiet, as quiet. Just 
 slipped away in her sleep while we were talking." 
 
 Derek said nothing : but the dazed look of pain 
 in his eyes went to her motherly heart. 
 
 " \Yill you come, my dear ? No fear we'll disturb 
 her now. After all ^so best, poor lamb ! " 
 
 He had not thought her strong voice could achieve 
 so soft a tone. It vibrated through him, almost 
 upsetting his control. But he rose and followed 
 her without a word. On the threshold she glanced 
 at his face that was set and strained ; then she slipped 
 away and left them alone. 
 
 Lois lay like a child asleep, one cheek resting on 
 the pillow, one thick red-gold plait over her shoulder ; 
 her still face delicately tinted like a waxen trans- 
 parency. It seemed to him incredible that she would 
 never wake again. And the irony that had tinged
 
 382 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 their whole brief relation, persisted even to the end. 
 For Lois, dead, stirred him, moved him more 
 profoundly than Lois, alive had ever done, for all 
 her clinging devotion. 
 
 His own words came back to him : " She's half 
 killed herself for my benefit." They fell short of 
 the truth. This one thing, in her short aimless life, 
 she had done thoroughly : and it was done for him. 
 But that he knew she had simply forestalled the 
 inevitable, he could scarcely have endured the 
 thought. 
 
 Suddenly, while he stood there, her voice sounded 
 clearly somewhere in his brain : " Kiss my eyes to 
 sleep, Deny." Stooping, he kissed them each in 
 turn that her last sleep might be unaffrighted with 
 dreams. His own eyes were heavy with tears ; and 
 one of them fell on her forehead. Very gently he 
 wiped it away. Then he laid his hand upon her 
 bright hair ; held it there a moment in a silent 
 benediction and went out 
 
 Mrs. Macrae stayed with him till everything was 
 over ; and he was thankful exceedingly for her 
 presence to ease his very real sense of loss and 
 emptiness. For all her blunt, outspoken ways, her 
 touch never jarred ; and she mothered him, in his 
 dazed and silent distress, as his own mother had 
 never done in all her days. 
 
 For nearly four months, his life had moved in a 
 restricted circle with Lois for its central point : 
 her health, her fancies, her insistent need of him.
 
 INTO THE DEEP 383 
 
 Only now that she was gone, did he realise how 
 complete that concentration had been ; and the 
 readjustment of heart and brain took time. He 
 begged Mrs. Macrae to do whatever she pleased with 
 the furniture and all the pretty useless trifles in which 
 Lois had taken such delight. The mere sight of 
 them hurt him more than he could have believed. 
 And he spoke more than once of their last serious 
 talk together ; of his fear that something he had 
 done or left undone had been responsible for every- 
 thing. 
 
 " I did my level best," he assured Mrs. Macrae, 
 " to convince her that it was all right that 
 she needn't worry. But we men are such clumsy 
 creatures " 
 
 And Mrs. Macrae, in return, did her level best to 
 ease his mind on the subject. 
 
 Their brief sojourn together, in the valley of the 
 shadow, was an experience neither would easily 
 forget ; and in the course of it, their latent friendship 
 became an abiding reality. . 
 
 Gradually, completely, Derek's whole nature 
 righted itself. Old allegiances claimed him. He was 
 his own man again 
 
 Early in December came news from Lady Forsyth 
 that Mark had been restored to them wounded and 
 broken, but alive : and it needed only that to awaken 
 him altogether. Straightway he cabled to his fat lu-r : 
 " Free to join up. Propose returning by Japan and 
 Bombay if you approve." And very soon the answer
 
 384 STRANGE ROADS 
 
 sped back to him : " Delighted to see you. 
 
 AVONLEIGH." 
 
 A week later, he stood, at last, on the deck of an 
 ocean liner watching, with very mixed emotions, 
 the ghostly glory of Mount Baker gleam and grow 
 misty and fade into nothingness, like the vision of a 
 dream. 
 
 Parkstone, 
 May iqij-May 1918. 
 
 END OF BOOK THREE 
 
 AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 The present volume although it completes the 
 opening phases of Derek Blount's story is really the 
 first half of one big book, which paper scarcity and 
 control have obliged the Publisher to issue in form 
 of two closely consecutive books. The second one 
 will appear as early in 1919 as circumstances permit, 
 and will be entitled " The Strong Hours." 
 
 If, in certain respects, this volume suggests a 
 sense of incompleteness, I would ask my readers 
 to remember that the two books were one in concep- 
 tion and execution ; and were only divided on ac- 
 count of present exigencies, to which novelists, 
 like the rest of the world, must cheerfully submit. 
 
 M. D. 
 
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