gan to fish as the light thickened; but he only cast once or
twice and then decided to wait half an hour. He grounded his rod and
brought a brier pipe and a pouch of tobacco from his pocket. The
things of day were turning to slumber; but still there persisted a
clinking sound, uttered monotonously from time to time, which the
sportsman supposed to be a bird. It came from behind the great
acclivities that ran opposite his place by the pools. Brendon
suddenly perceived that it was no natural noise but arose from some
human activity. It was, in fact, the musical note of a mason's
trowel, and when presently it ceased, he was annoyed to hear heavy
footsteps in the quarry--a labourer he guessed.

No labourer appeared, however. A big, broad man approached him, clad
in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers and a red waistcoat with
gaudy brass buttons. He had entered at the lower mouth of the
quarries and was proceeding to the northern exit, whence the little
streamlet that fed the pools came through a narrow pass.

The stranger stopped as he saw Brendon, straddled his great legs,
took a cigar from his mouth and spoke.

"Ah! You've found 'em, then?"

"Found what?" asked the detective.

"Found these trout. I come here for a swim sometimes. I've wondered
why I never saw a rod in this hole. There are a dozen half pounders
there and possibly some bigger ones."

It was Mark's instinctive way to study all fellow creatures with
whom he came in contact. He had an iron memory for faces. He looked
up now and observed the rather remarkable features of the man before
him. His scrutiny was swift and sure; yet had he guessed the
tremendous significance of his glance, or with proleptic vision seen
what this being was to mean during the years of his immediate
future, it is certain that he would have intensified his inspection
and extended the brief limits of their interview.

He saw a pair of broad shoulders and a thick neck over which hung a
square, hard jaw and a determined chin. Then came a big mouth and
the largest pair of mustaches Brendon remembered to have observed on
any countenance. They were almost grotesque; but the stranger was
evidently proud of them, for he twirled them from time to time and
brought the points up to his ears. They were of a foxy red, and
beneath them flashed large, white teeth when the big man talked in
rather grating tones. He suggested one on very good terms with
himself--a being of passionate temperament