Then I rode back for home.
When I came in sight of the lock, there I saw a man standing
alone, sharp in the moonlight. As I came nearer I recognised the
same man, Major Boyce. There were no lights in the lock-keeper's
cottage. He and his wife had gone to bed long before. I was so
interested that I forgot what I was doing and ran into the hedge
so that I nearly came down. There was the noise of the scrape and
drag of the machine which must have sounded very loud in the
stillness. It startled him, for he looked all round, but he didn't
see me, for I was under the hedge. Then suddenly he started
running. He ran as if the devil was after him. I saw him squash
down his Trilby hat so that it was shapeless. Then he disappeared
along the path. I thought this a queer proceeding. Why should he
have taken to his heels? I thought I should like to see him again.
If he kept to the towing-path, his shortest way home, he was bound
to go along the Chestnut Avenue, where, as you know, the road and
the path again come together. On a bicycle it was easy to get
there before him. I sat down on a bench and waited. Presently he
comes, walking fast, his hat still squashed in all over his ears.
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