d aside while the old man threw back the earth. It fell from
the spade in hollow thuds.

Sim crouched beside a stone, and looked on with frightened eyes.

The sods were replaced; there was a mound the more in the little
churchyard of Askham, and that was the end. The clerk shouldered his
spade and prepared to lock the gate.

It was then they were aware that there came from over their heads a
sound like the murmuring of a brook under the leaves of June; like the
breaking of deep waters at a weir; like the rolling of foam-capped
wavelets against an echoing rock. Look up! Every leafless bough of
yonder lofty elder-tree is thick with birds. Listen! A moment, and
their song has ceased; they have risen on the wing; they are gone like
a cloud Of black rain through the white feathery air. Then silence
everywhere.

Was it God's sign and symbol--God's message to the soul of this
stricken man? God's truce?

Who shall say it was not!

"A load is lifted off my heart," said Ralph. He was thinking of the
terrible night he had spent on the fells. And indeed there was the
light of another look in his face. His father had sepulture. God had
shown him this mercy as a sign that what he purposed to do ought to be
done. Such was Ralph's reading of the accidental finding of the horse.

They bade good morning to the old man and left him. Then they walked
to the angle of the roads where the guidepost stood. The arms were
covered with the snow, and Ralph climbed on to the stone wall behind
and brushed their letters clear.

"To Kendal." That pointed in the direction from whence they came.

"To Gaskarth."

"That's our road," said Sim.

"No," said Ralph; "_this_ is it--'To Penrith and Carlisle.'"

What chance remained now to Robbie?

CHAPTER XXXIV. FATE THAT IMPEDES, FALL BACK.

A few minutes after the coach arrived at Mardale, Robbie was toiling
along in the darkness over an unfamiliar road. That tiresome old
headache was coming back to him, and he lifted a handful of snow now
and again to cool his aching forehead.

It was a weary, weary tramp, such as only young, strong limbs, and a
stout heart could have sustained. Villages were passed, but they lay
as quiet as the people that slumbered in them. Five hours had gone by
before Robbie encountered a living soul.

As daylight dawned the snow ceased to fall, and when Robbie had
reached Askham the late sun had risen. He was now beginning to feel
the need of food, and steppi