He would find out if any crocodiles had been seen about here lately, and if they had not, he would bring out his gun and . . . suddenly Mark was turned inside out by terror, for not twenty yards away there was without any possibility of self-deception a wild beast something between an ant-eater and a laughing hyena that with nose to the ground was evidently pursuing him, and what was worse was between him and home.  There flashed through Mark’s mind the memories of what other hunters had done in such situations, what ruses they had adopted if unarmed, what method of defence if armed; but in the very instant of the panoramic flash Mark did what countless uncelebrated hunters must have done, he ran in the opposition direction from his enemy.  In this case it meant jumping over the stream, crocodile or not, and tearing his away through snowberries and brambles until he emerged on the moors at the bottom of the valley.

It was not until he had put half a dozen small streams between himself and the unknown beast that Mark paused to look round.  Behind him the valley was lost in a green curve; before him another curve shut out the ultimate view.  On his left the slope of the valley rose to the sky in tiers of blazing yellow gorse; to his right he could see the thickets through which he had emerged upon this verdant solitude.  But beyond the thickets there was no sign of the Vicarage.  There was not a living thing in sight; there was nothing except the song of larks high up and imperceptible against the steady morning sun that shed a benign warmth upon the world, and particularly upon the back of Mark’s neck when he decided that his safest course was to walk in the direction of the valley’s gradual widening and to put as many more streams as he could between him and the beast.  Having once wetted himself to the knees, he began to take a pleasure in splashing through the vivid wet greenery.  He wondered what he should behold at the next curve of the valley; without knowing it he began to walk more slowly, for the beauty of the day was drowsing his fears; the spell of earth was upon him.  He walked more slowly, because he was passing through a bed of forget-me-nots, and he could not bear to blind one of those myriad blue eyes.  He chose most carefully the destination of each step, and walking thus he did not notice that the valley would curve no more, but was opening at last.  He looked up in a sudden consciousness of added space, and there serene as the sky above was spread the sea.  Yesterday from the train Mark had had what was actually his first view of the sea; but the rain had taken all the colour out of it, and he had been thrilled rather by the word than by the fact.  Now the word was nothing, the fact was everything.  There it was within reach of him, blue as the pictures always made it.  The streams of the valley had gathered into one, and Mark caring no more what happened to the forget-me-nots ran along the bank.  This morning when the stream reached the shore it broke into twenty