The whole place was like a mad, sweet-scented dream to one just come from the unfeatured ocean, and with a memory only of grim Scots cities and dour Scots hills.

I felt as if I had come into a large and generous land, and I thanked God that I was but twenty-three.
But as I was mooning along there came a sudden interruption on my dreams.

I was beyond the houses, in a path which ran among tobacco-sheds and little gardens, with the river lapping a stone's-throw off.

Down a side alley I caught a glimpse of a figure that seemed familiar.
'Twas that of a tall, hulking man, moving quickly among the tobacco plants, with something stealthy in his air.

The broad, bowed shoulders and the lean head brought back to me the rainy moorlands about the Cauldstaneslap and the mad fellow whose prison I had shared.