ow that the range was found, produced results
above the average in accuracy, and Major Tremayne's good-humour
increased.

"Five running plump into the redoubt! That's what we can do when we
try," he said to Grimbal, while the amateur awarded his meed of praise
and admiration.

Anon the business was at an end; the battery limbered up; the guns, each
drawn by six stout horses, disappeared with many a jolt over the uneven
ground, as the soldiers clinked and clashed away to their camp on the
high land above Okehamptou.

Under the raw smell of burnt powder Major Tremayne took leave of Grimbal
and the rest; each man went his way; and John, pursuing a bridle-path
through the marshes of the Taw, proceeded slowly to his appointment.

An unexpected spring retarded Grimbal's progress and made a considerable
detour necessary. At length, however, he approached Oke Tor, marked the
tremendous havoc of the firing, and noted a great grey splash upon the
granite, where one shell had abraded its weathered face.

John Grimbal dismounted, tied up his horse, then climbed to the top of
the Tor, and searched for an approaching pedestrian. Nobody was visible
save one man only; amounted soldier riding round to strike the red
warning flags posted widely about the ranges. Grimbal descended and
approached the southern side, there to sit on the fine intermingled turf
and moss and smoke a cigar until his man should arrive. But rounding the
point of the low cliff, he found that Hicks was already there.

Clement, his hat off, reclined upon his back with his face lifted to the
sky. Where his head rested, the wild thyme grew, and one great, black
bumble-bee boomed at a deaf ear as it clumsily struggled in the purple
blossoms. He lay almost naturally, but some distortion of his neck and a
film upon his open eyes proclaimed that the man neither woke nor slept.

His lonely death was on this wise. Standing at the edge of the highest
point of Oke Tor, with his back to the distant guns, he had crowned the
artillerymen's target, himself invisible. At that moment firing began,
and the first shell, suddenly shrieking scarcely twenty yards above his
head, had caused Hicks to start and turn abruptly. With this action he
lost his balance; then a projection of the granite struck his back as he
fell and brought him heavily to the earth upon his head.

Now the sun, creeping westerly, already threw a ruddiness over the Moor,
and this warm light touching the dead