amidst
groves and plantations, the moonlight shone on the roofs and gables of
half-hidden houses. Over everything hung a deep silence.

"A wild and lonely scene!" she said.

Neale raised his stick again and began to point.

"All this in front of us is called Ellersdeane Hollow," he remarked.
"It's not just one depression, you see--it's a tract of unenclosed land.
It's dangerous to cross, except by the paths--it's honeycombed all over
with disused lead-mines--some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth.
All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped
out down there and got a fire. That old ruin, up on the crag there, is
called Ellersdeane Tower--one of Lord Ellersdeane's ancestors built it
for an observatory--this path'll lead us right beneath it."

"Is this the path he would have taken if he'd gone to Ellersdeane on
Saturday night?" asked Betty.

"Precisely--straight ahead, past the Tower," answered Neale. "And there
is Ellersdeane itself, right away in the distance, amongst its trees.
There!--where the moonlight catches it. Now let your eye follow that far
line of wood, over the tops of the trees about Ellersdeane village--do
you see where the moonlight shines on another high roof? That's Gabriel
Chestermarke's place--the Warren."

"So--he and Lord Ellersdeane are neighbours!" remarked Betty.

"Neighbours at a distance of a mile--and who do no more than nod to each
other," answered Neale. "Lord Ellersdeane and Mr. Horbury were what you
might call friends, but I don't believe his lordship ever spoke ten
words with either of the Chestermarkes until this morning. I tell you
the Chestermarkes are regular hermits!--when they're at home or about
Scarnham, anyhow. Now let's go as far as the Tower--you can see all over
the country from that point."

Betty followed her guide down a narrow path which led in and out through
the undulations of the Hollow until it reached the foot of the
promontory on which stood the old ruin that made such a prominent
landmark. Seen at close quarters Ellersdeane Tower was a place of much
greater size and proportion than it had appeared from the edge of the
wood, and the path to its base was steep and rocky. And here the
loneliness in which she and Neale had so far walked came to an end--on
the edge of the promontory, outlined against the moonlit sky, two men
stood, talking in low tones.

CHAPTER VII

THE TRAVELLING TINKER

Neale's eye caught the gl