Pike pointed to the narrow path in the wood, leading to the high-road. "I filled him up with the belief that the way beyond this bridge up to Hartledon was private, and he might be taken up for trespassing if he attempted to follow it; so he went off that way to watch the front. If the fellow hasn't a writ in his pocket, or something worse, call me a simpleton. You are all right, sir, as long as he takes you for Lord Hartledon." But there was little chance the fellow could long take him for Lord Hartledon, and Percival Elster felt himself attacked with a shiver. He knew it to be worse than a writ; it was an arrest. An arrest is not a pleasant affair for any one; but a strong opinion--a certainty--seized upon Val's mind that this would bring forth Dr. Ashton's veto of separation from Anne. "I thank you for what you have done," frankly spoke Mr. Elster. "It's nothing, sir. He'll be dodging about after his prey; but I'll dodge about too, and thwart his game if I can, though I have to swear that Lord Hartledon's not himself. What's an oath, more or less, to me?" "Where have I seen you before?" asked Val. "Hard to say," returned Pike. "I have knocked about in many parts in my time." "Are you from this neighbourhood?" "Never was in these parts at all till a year or so ago. It's not two years yet." "What are you doing here?" "What I can. A bit of work when I can get it given to me. I went tramping the country after I left the regiment--" "Then you have been a soldier?" interrupted Mr. Elster. "Yes, sir. In tramping the country I came upon this place: I crept into a shed, and was there for some days; rheumatism took hold of me, and I couldn't move. It was something to find I had a roof of any sort over my head, and was let lie in it unmolested: and when I got better I stayed on." "And have adopted it as your own, putting a window and a chimney into it! But do you know that Lord Hartledon may not choose to retain you as a tenant?" "If Lord Hartledon should think of ousting me, I would ask Mr. Elster to intercede, in requital for the good turn I've done him this day," was the bold answer. Mr. Elster laughed. "What is your name?" "Tom Pike." "I hear a great deal said of you, Pike, that's not pleasant; that you are a poacher, and a--" "Let them that say so prove it," interrupted Pike, his dark brows contracting. "But how do you manage to live?" "That's my business, and not Calne's. At any rate, Mr. Elster, I don't steal." "I heard a worse hint dropped of you than any I have mentioned," continued Val, after a pause. "Tell it out, sir. Let's have the whole catalogue at once." "That the night my brother, Mr. Elster, was shot, you were out with the poachers."