"Not a gentle shepherdess fair, with tously locks and grubby hands and face, though she has a dog by her side," he said to himself. "Looks like a lady--at a distance. Phyllis and Corydon, eh? No," he added, after an alteration of the glass; "long white hair and grey beard, and-- hullo! old chap's got a candle-box. Botanist or some other -ist. Hang it, he's after minerals for a pound, and the lady--in white? Humph, it can't be the `White Virgin' who gave the name to the mine. Let's--Hands off, old gentleman, or keep your own side. Hah! there goes the dog: after a rabbit, perhaps." Clive Reed was ready to ask himself directly after, why he should stand there taking so much interest in these two figures, so distant that even with the help of the glass he could not distinguish their features. But watch them he did till they disappeared round a shoulder of the hill. "Tourists--cheap trippers, I suppose," said the young man, replacing the glass in its sling case. "I wonder where they have come from?" and then with a half laugh, as he took out a cigarette-case and lit up, "I wonder why I take so much interest in them?" "Answer simple," he continued, with a half laugh; "because they are the only living creatures in sight. Man is a gregarious beast, and likes to greg. I feel ready to go after them and talk. Hallo! here we are! Master Sturgess and two men with a stout ladder, coils of rope, and--if he hasn't brought a crowbar and a lanthorn, woe." He shaded his eyes again to watch a party of three men toiling up a slope, half a mile away, and began to descend from his coign of vantage to reach the pathway at the entrance to the gap, seeing as he did that he would not arrive there long before the others. A glance at his watch showed him that it was still only ten o'clock, for he had started on his mountain tramp at daybreak, and as he walked and slid downward, he calculated that he would have time after the mine examination to make for one of the villages in the neighbourhood of Matlock to pass the night, so as to see as much of the country as he could. "Morning, Sturgess; you got my letter then?" "Oh, yes, sir, yesterday morning," said the man, as Reed nodded at his two sturdy followers--rough-looking men of the mining stamp, both of whom acknowledged his salute with a half-sneering smile. "Brought two different chaps this time. Got enough tackle?" "Oh, yes, sir; ropes, hammer, spikes, and crowbar." "Lanthorn?" "Oh, yes, sir. Shouldn't come on a job like this without a light." "Then come along."