But what if the knowledge of twenty years were crowded into one night? Gordon felt that that had been the case with him. He understood so much now; for instance, the fancy which had fleetingly occurred to him that they both had been brought into the isolation of that valley to work out a predestined purpose. He understood that purpose, could explain it, and would demonstrate his explanation to the other's ignorance tomorrow. A gradual fading of colour from the sky made him correct himself. "To-day," he murmured, with something of quiet exultation in his voice. Only he must spare Kate; no suspicion must be allowed to connect her with the solution of his problem. "I feel that I can rely on you whatever comes," she had written. Well, he must prove to her that she was right--some way or another. The sound of movement in the interior of the house brought him back to the present and hinted the advantage of rest. So Gordon went to bed and slept dreamlessly until the sun stood high above the shoulder of Great End. CHAPTER VIII As Gordon was breakfasting next morning, the door was thrown open and Hawke strolled in from the lane. "Well, have you got over your fatigue yet?" he asked, with a show of cordiality. "Quite, thanks!" Gordon let a moment or two slip before he found his tongue. For his new knowledge, acting vividly upon a somewhat morbid imagination, had not merely changed his conceptions of Hawke's character, but, with them, also his very impressions of his appearance. He had been unconsciously developing the man's features and body to express the qualities which he now attributed to him, moulding them, as it were, by the model of his own thoughts. So that, at the first, when Hawke stood before him in the flesh, clearly lit by the sunlight, which was pouring in through the open doorway, he hardly recognised his enemy. The very colloquialism of his speech seemed incongruous and out of place. "You slept soundly?" asked Hawke. There was a shade of anxiety in the question appreciable by his observer, and a faint symptom of a sneer about the lips when the answer was received. "Like a humming-top." "You are going over to Eskdale, aren't you?" Gordon resumed. "I shall if I have time." "You have changed your plans?" The query was put with a sudden alacrity. "More or less. Lawson arrived at the Inn this morning from Drigg." "Lawson?" "I don't fancy you know him, but he was a friend of Arkwright's." "And is he going to stay here?" The anxiety was upon Gordon's side now. Everything depended on the answer. For the presence of this interloper, even for a day, would render the accomplishment of his purpose impossible. "No! He is on his way to Buttermere. I am going with him part of the distance, and we mean to spend an hour or so on the Pillar Rock. If I have time I shall work round to Eskdale afterwards." "It will mean a long day."