He looked up, as if surprised at her precipitate entrance, but
the shadow of anxiety had passed from his face, leaving it even,
as she fancied, a little brighter and clearer than usual.

"What was it? Who was it?" she asked.

"Who?" he repeated, with the surprise still all on his side.

"The man we saw coming toward the house."

He seemed honestly to reflect. "The man? Why, I thought I saw
Peters; I dashed after him to say a word about the stable-drains,
but he had disappeared before I could get down."

"Disappeared? Why, he seemed to be walking so slowly when we saw
him."

Boyne shrugged his shoulders. "So I thought; but he must have
got up steam in the interval. What do you say to our trying a
scramble up Meldon Steep before sunset?"

That was all. At the time the occurrence had been less than
nothing, had, indeed, been immediately obliterated by the magic
of their first vision from Meldon Steep, a height which they had
dreamed of climbing ever since they had first seen its bare spine
heaving itself above the low roof of Lyng. Doubtless it was the
mere fact of the other incident's having occurred on the very day
of their ascent to Meldon that had kept it stored away in the
unconscious fold of association from which it now emerged; for in