d.

Nerved now for his task, he started off afresh, walking vigorously and
well, keeping as near as he could due east, and passing village after
village, and then a town, and at last seating himself among the ferns
upon a shady bank to dine on bread and cheese and a draught of water
from a trickling spring.

There was no pleasure in the eating; it was from stern necessity, and he
ate with a determination to carry out the plan he had in view--to give
himself support for the task which lay ahead and kept him with rugged
brow, dreamy and thoughtful, as he tramped along till night, when he
entered a large village, and, after a search, found a tiny inn, where he
was accommodated with supper and a bed.

The next day passed in much the same way, with the past seeming to
belong to a far-off time, and the future looming up cold and cheerless,
but more and more real as the hours went by. He had calculated that he
would reach his destination that evening; but, journeying as he did,
asking guidance of none, he missed his way, and walked back many miles
along a lower lane which ran parallel to the one by which he had come.
Consequently, he had to sleep another night upon the road.

"It does not matter," he said to himself in a stern, hopeless way; and,
with the past farther back than ever, he started early the next morning,
tramping through the chalky dust slowly now, for he did not want to get
to his destination yet; and, as he walked, he noted the farms and cherry
orchards he passed upon the road, but in a dull, uninterested manner,
and, bending his head low, he tramped on again.

The fear of being followed and taken back had quite gone. No one knew
him, and his aspect was not one which would take the notice of the
police whom he met from time to time.

"They don't know that I killed my cousin," he said bitterly; but he
pulled himself up short--That belonged to the past!

It was early in the afternoon that he crossed the stone bridge and went
steadily on through the streets of the dingy town, with signs here and
there of the maritime character of the place, and others which
interested him more, though in a saddened way. From time to time he
caught sight of specks of the Queen's scarlet, which resolved themselves
into military jackets, cut across by pipe-clayed belts. Then there was
the blue of an artilleryman, with its yellow braid; more scarlet, that
of an engineer; and soon after the blackish-green of a rifleman.

F