he was Miss Cicely Farmond.

XXVII

FLIGHT

On the morning after his visit from Mr. Carrington, Ned Cromarty took
his keeper with him and drove over to shoot on a friend's estate. He
stayed for tea and it was well after five o'clock and quite dark when he
started on his long drive home. The road passed close to a wayside
station with a level crossing over the line, and when they came to this
the gates were closed against them and the light of the signal of the up
line had changed from red to white.

"Train's up to time," said Ned to the keeper. "I thought we'd have got
through before she came."

There was no moon, a fine rain hung in the air, and the night was
already pitch dark. Sitting there in the dogcart before the closed
gates, behind the blinding light of the gig lamps, they were quite
invisible themselves; but about thirty yards to their left they saw the
station platform plainly in the radiance of its lights, and, straight
before them in the radiance of their own, they could see less distinctly
the road beyond the line.

At first, save for the distant rumble of the southward bound train,
there was no sign of life or of movement anywhere, and then all at once
a figure on a bicycle appeared on the road, and in a moment dismounted
beside the station. It was a girl in black, and at the sight of her, Ned
bent forward suddenly in his driving seat and stared intently into the
night. He saw her unstrap a small suit case from the bicycle and lead
the bicycle into the station. A minute or two passed and then she
emerged from the ticket office on to the platform carrying the suit case
in her hand. The bicycle she had evidently left in the station, and it
seemed manifest that she was going by this train.

"That's Miss Farmond, sir, from Keldale House!" exclaimed the keeper.

His master said nothing but kept his eye intently fixed on the girl. One
of the platform lamps lit her plainly, and he thought she looked the
most forlorn and moving sight that had ever stirred his heart. There was
something shrinking in her attitude, and when she looked once for a few
moments straight towards him, there seemed to be something both sad and
frightened in her face. Not another soul was on the platform, and seen
in that patch of light against an immensity of dark empty country and
black sky, she gave him such an impression of friendlessness that he
could scarcely stay in his seat. And all the while the roar of the
on-comi