Richard Trevor looked hard in his friend's face for a moment, and then they walked on side by side; for at a turn of the lane they met the young keeper, who had so suddenly changed the aspect of the encounter on the course. "Ah, Humphrey!" said Trevor, "I'm glad I've met you. I'll have a walk round the preserves." The young keeper touched his hat, changed the double gun from one shoulder of his well-worn velveteen coat to the other, whistled to a setter, and led the way to a stone stile. "Another curious case of similarity of feature," said Trevor, laughing. "Well, no--I'll give in now," said Pratt; "but I say, Dick, old fellow, ought coincidences like this to occur out of novels?" "Never mind that," said Trevor, "the keeper here, who used to be my playmate as a boy, was as much astonished as I was--weren't you, Humphrey?" "Well, sir," said the young man, "when I see you th' other morning, I couldn't believe my eyes like, that the gentleman who'd pummelled that fellow was the one I'd come up to London to meet. I saw you, too, sir," he said, touching his hat to Pratt. "Yes, my man," said Pratt, "and felt my toe. I'm sorry to find you did, for you've blown up one of the most beautiful propositions I ever made in my life." "Well, now then," said Trevor, "I'll see about matters with you, Lloyd; but, by the way, you had better be Humphrey, on account of your father." "Yes, sir; Humphrey, please, sir," said the young man. "Well, now then, as we go on," said Trevor, "if it don't bore you, Pratt, we'll have a talk about farm matters." "Won't bore me," said Pratt; "I'm going in for the country gentleman while I stay." "Well, then, Humphrey, how are the crops!" "Well, sir," said Humphrey. "Ah, Juno! what are you sniffing after there?" This to the young dog, which seemed to have been born with a mission to push its head up rabbit burrows too small for the passage. "Well, sir, begging your pardon, but that dog's took more looking after than e'er a one I ever had." "All right, go on," said Trevor, following the man across a broad, rock-sided ditch, with a little brook at the bottom. "Well, sir," said the keeper, "the corn is--" "Here, I say, hold hard a minute! This isn't Pall Mall, Trevor," shouted Pratt. "How the deuce am I to get over that place?" "Jump, man," cried Trevor, laughing and looking back. "That's nothing to some of our ditches." Pratt looked at the ditch, then down at his little legs, and then blew out his cheeks. "Risk it," he said, laconically; and, stepping back a few yards, he took a run, jumped, came short, and had to scramble up the bank, a little disarranged, but smiling and triumphant. "All right," he said, "go on." "Corn is, on the whole, a fair crop, sir," said Humphrey. "And barley?" "Plenty of that too, sir. But I've a deal of trouble with trespassers, sir." "How's that?" said Trevor, looking round at the bright, rugged hill and dale, with trees all aglow with the touch of autumn's hand.