Lonesome Road

Rachel shook her head.

“No. Father wanted me to try, so I tried, and I’ve gone on trying, but it doesn’t seem to be any use.”

“Well, I liked Master So

Rachel got up. Cosmo had been proposing to her at intervals ever since she grew up. It was a habit, and she had come to take it as no more than his rather tiresome way of expressing cousinly affection. But just at this moment to feel that a proposal from Cosmo was lurking among the watercolors which he would certainly insist on showing her either tonight or in the very near future was really the very, very last straw. And Na

“It’s a mistake to go on when people don’t want you to, Na

“Oh, Miss Rachel, it’s early yet.”

Mrs. Capper knew when she had gone too far. Her tone was a propitiatory one. It promised, “Sit down and talk, and I won’t say another word about Mr. Cosmo.” But Rachel shook her head.

“No, I must go. I’ve got someone arriving by the five-thirty-they’ll be up at the house before I am now.”

“The clock’s fast, Miss Rachel. Did you hear about Mr. Tollage digging out his hedge, and the adders that was in it? Gave me the creeps it did to hear about them.” She kept hold of Rachel’s hand and talked fast to beguile her into staying. “I said to Ellen, ‘I don’t thank Mr. Tollage for nothing, turning all them snakes out to find new lodgings. I’m not letting any,’ I said. ‘And you keep a sharp look out that they don’t come worming themselves in.’ And what do you think she told me she’d seen with her own eyes? You’d never credit it, but those young rascals of boys was selling adders a pe

Rachel got her hand away, but she was no longer in a hurry to go. Her knees felt weak. She managed enough voice to say,

“What boys? Who bought the snakes?”

“They were strangers to Ellen. All they said was a lady in a green scarf had bought the two live adders, shrimping net and all. She gave them a good half-crown too. That was a fu

“Yes,” said Rachel. She wondered if her voice sounded as strange to Na

Mrs. Capper shook her head with its neatly plaited hair and its little lace cap.

“Because what would anyone want a pair of live adders for?”

“I can’t think,” said Rachel. “Goodnight, Na

Chapter Fifteen

Rachel stood in the dark by the gate of Mrs. Capper’s cottage and tried to pull herself together. Cherry had gone away that morning in a bright green scarf-a flaring emerald scarf which even in the dusk might catch a child’s eye and be remembered. But anyone could have a green scarf. Caroline had one-jade green, very bright-too bright. Mabel had given it to her for her birthday only a week ago.

A trembling took Rachel-a sick trembling. Not Caroline. No, no, no-not Caroline! There are things you can’t believe.

She stood quite still. The air was very cold. The trembling passed. She got out her torch and switched it on. The beam was so faint that it hardly showed her the gate against which she leaned. She could scarcely believe her eyes, for the battery was a new one put in that morning. She hesitated as to whether she would take the cliff path after all, or whether it would be safer to go the long way round by the road. But the road was a very long way round, the cliff path safe enough for anyone who knew it. Her eyes had already accustomed themselves sufficiently to the darkness for her to be able to distinguish the outline of the cottage against the sky, and the lighter surface of the road.

She put out the torch, walked a little way, and found that she could see well enough. It was quite easy to make out the path, and that was all that really mattered. There was just one place where it ran for about twenty yards right on the edge of the cliff with a long drop to the beach. She thought she would save the torch and use it there. This was the one dangerous spot, for the low parapet which guarded it was under reconstruction, most of it having collapsed in the heavy storms of a month ago.

She had just switched the torch on, and was finding it more confusing than helpful, when she thought she heard a footstep behind her. She stood still to listen, the torch swinging in her hand, making a dancing pattern on the path. There was both relief and warmth at her heart. Twice out of the last three times that she had been to see Na

She walked a few paces and stood at the edge of the path looking out over the sea. It was a high tide and far in, but only the very highest tide with a winter gale behind it ever reached the foot of the cliffs. Black ridges of rock ran down into black water. There were scarcely visible, darker shadows in a general gloom, but she knew that they were there. Over them and over the cliff the wind blew cold. It had voice enough to drown the sound of the oncoming footsteps. There had been a lull, and there would be a lull again. She waited for it and listened, looking out over the water.