you walking alone, may I ask?"

"Yes," he said, straightening himself; "but we'd been talking it over at
the office. There's been a lot of talk at the office lately about these
things. The fellows there said one steers by the Pole Star, and I looked
it up in the celestial atlas, but once out of doors everything gets so
mixed."

"Don't talk to me about the Pole Star," interrupted Helen, who was
becoming interested. "I know its little ways. It goes round and round,
and you go round after it."

"Well, I lost it entirely. First of all the street lamps, then the
trees, and towards morning it got cloudy."

Tibby, who preferred his comedy undiluted, slipped from the room. He
knew that this fellow would never attain to poetry, and did not want to
hear him trying.

Margaret and Helen remained. Their brother influenced them more than
they knew; in his absence they were stirred to enthusiasm more easily.

"Where did you start from?" cried Margaret. "Do tell us more."

"I took the Underground to Wimbledon. As I came out of the office I said
to myself, 'I must have a walk once in a way. If I don't take this walk
now, I shall never take it.' I had a bit of dinner at Wimbledon, and
then--"

"But not good country there, is it?"

"It was gas-lamps for hours. Still, I had all the night, and being out
was the great thing. I did get into woods, too, presently."

"Yes, go on," said Helen.

"You've no idea how difficult uneven ground is when it's dark."

"Did you actually go off the roads?"

"Oh yes. I always meant to go off the roads, but the worst of it is that
it's more difficult to find one's way.

"Mr. Bast, you're a born adventurer," laughed Margaret. "No professional
athlete would have attempted what you've done. It's a wonder your walk
didn't end in a broken neck. Whatever did your wife say?"

"Professional athletes never move without lanterns and compasses," said
Helen. "Besides, they can't walk. It tires them. Go on."

"I felt like R. L. S. You probably remember how in Virginibus."

"Yes, but the wood. This 'ere wood. How did you get out of it?"

"I managed one wood, and found a road the other side which went a good
bit uphill. I rather fancy it was those North Downs, for the road went
off into grass, and I got into another wood. That was awful, with gorse
bushes. I did wish I'd never come, but suddenly it got light--just while
I seemed going under one tree. Then I found a road down to a station,
and took the