ich led to the first ridge
of the moors outside the town, "I haven't seen you today--you've heard
of this Stoner affair?"

"Mr. Northrop told me this afternoon," she replied. "What do you think
about it?"

Brereton walked on a little way without replying. He was asking a
serious question of himself. Should he tell all he knew to Avice
Harborough?

CHAPTER XIX

A TALL MAN IN GREY CLOTHES

That question remained unanswered, and Brereton remained silent, until
he and Avice had reached the top of the path and had come out on the
edge of the wide stretch of moorland above the little town. He paused
for a moment and looked back on the roofs and gables of Highmarket,
shining and glittering in the moonlight; the girl paused too, wondering
at his silence. And with a curious abruptness he suddenly turned, laid a
hand on her arm, and gave it a firm, quick pressure.

"Look here!" he said. "I'm going to trust you. I'm going to say to you
what I haven't said to a soul in that town!--not even to Tallington,
who's a man of the law, nor to Bent, who's my old friend. I want to say
something to somebody whom I can trust. I can trust you!"

"Thank you," she answered quietly. "I--I think I understand. And you'll
understand, too, won't you, when I say--you can!"

"That's all right," he said, cheerfully. "Of course! Now we understand
each other. Come on, then--you know the way--act as guide, and I'll tell
you as we go along."

Avice turned off into what appeared to be no more than a sheep-track
across the heather. Within a few minutes they were not only quite alone,
but out of sight of any human habitation. It seemed to Brereton that
they were suddenly shut into a world of their own, as utterly apart from
the little world they had just left as one star is from another. But
even as he thought this he saw, far away across the rising and falling
of the heather-clad undulations, the moving lights of a train that was
speeding southward along the coast-line from Norcaster, and presently
the long scream of a whistle from its engine came on the light breeze
that blew inland from the hidden sea, and the sight and sound recalled
him to the stern realities of life.

"Listen, then, carefully," he began. "And bear in mind that I'm putting
what I believe to be safety of other men in your hands. It's this
way...."

Avice Harborough listened in absolute silence as Brereton told her his
carefully arranged story. They walked slowly acros