A tech sometimes sends 'em scooting." Mr.Chivers leaped quickly to the ground, turned, waved his hand again, and disappeared down the grade.
But Collinson was no longer alone.

Hitherto his characteristic reveries had been of the past,--reminiscences in which there was only recollection, no imagination, and very little hope.

Under the spell of Chivers's words his fancy seemed to expand; he began to think of his wife as she might be now,--perhaps ill, despairing, wandering hopelessly, even ragged and footsore, or--believing HIM dead--relapsing into the resigned patience that had been his own; but always a new Sadie, whom he had never seen or known before.

A faint dread, the lightest of misgivings (perhaps coming from his very ignorance), for the first time touched his steadfast heart, and sent a chill through it.

He shouldered his weapon, and walked briskly towards the edge of the thick-set woods.