summer-house.

There was light enough within to help me in selecting the Union flag
from the half-dozen within the locker. I was about to stow the red
ensign in its place when I bethought me that, day being so near, I
might as well bend a flag upon the flagstaff halliards and half-mast
it.

So, with the Union flag under one arm, I carried out the red ensign,
bent it carefully, still in a roll, and hoisted it to the truck.
In half-masting a flag, you first hoist it in a bundle to the
masthead, break it out there, and thence lower it to the position at
which you make fast.

I felt the flag's toggle jam chock-a-block against the truck of the
staff, and gave a tug, shaking out the flag to the still morning
breeze. A second later something thudded on the turf close at my
feet.

I stared at it; but the halliards were in my hand, and before picking
it up I must wait and make them fast on the cleat. Still I stared at
it, there where it lay on the dim turf.

And still I stared at it. Either I was dreaming yet, or this--this
thing that had fallen from heaven--was the oilskin bag that had
wrapped Captain Coffin's chart.

I stooped to pick it up. At that instant the side-gate rattled, and
with a start I faced, in the half light--Captain Branscome.

CHAPTER XV.

CAPTAIN BRANSCOME'S CONFESSION--THE MAN IN THE LANE.

He opened the gate and came across the turf to me. I observed that
his hand trembled on his walking-cane, and that he dragged his
injured leg with a worse limp than usual; also--but the uncertain
light may have had something to do with this--his face seemed of one
colour with the grey dust that powdered his shoes.

"Good morning, Harry!"

"Good morning, sir," I answered, crushing the oilskin into my pocket
and waiting for his explanation.

"You are surprised to see me? The fact is, I have something to tell
you, and could not rest easy till it was off my mind. I have
travelled here by Russell's waggon,[1] but have trudged a good part
of the way, as you see." He glanced down at his shoes. "The pace
was too slow for my impatience. I could get no sleep. Though it
brought me here no faster, I had to vent my energies in walking."
His sentences followed one another by jerks, in a nervous flurry.
"You are surprised to see me?" he repeated.

"Why, as to that, sir, partly I am and partly I am not. It took me
aback just now to see you standing there by the gate; and," said I
more boldly, "it puz