The Moving Finger

The boy sat with his back to a rock, his knees drawn up and clasped within fingers nervously interlocked. His eyes were fixed upon the great stretch of landscape below, shadowy now, and indistinct, like a rolling plain of patchwork woven by mysterious fingers. Gray mists were floating over the meadows and low-lying lands. Away in the distance they marked the circuitous course of the river, which only an hour ago had shone like a belt of silver in the light of the setting sun. Twilight had fallen with unexpected swiftness. Here and there a light flashed from the isolated farmhouses. On the darkening horizon, a warm glow was reflected in the clouds from the distant town.

The boy, when he had settled down to his vigil, had been alone. From over the brow of the hill, however, had come a few minutes ago a man, dressed in loose shooting clothes, and with a gun under his arm. He came to a standstill by the side of the boy, and stood there watching him for several moments, with a certain faintly amused curiosity shining out of his somewhat supercilious gray eyes. The newcomer was obviously a person of breeding and culture--the sort of person who assumes without question the title of "Gentleman." The boy wore ready-made clothes and hobnailed boots. They remained within a few feet of one another for several moments, without speech.

"My young friend," the newcomer said at last, "you will be late for your tea, or whatever name is given to your evening meal. Did you not hear the bell? It rang nearly half-an-hour ago."

The boy moved his head slightly, but made no attempt to rise.

"It does not matter. I am not hungry."

The newcomer leaned his gun against the rock, and drawing a pipe from the pocket of his shooting-coat, commenced leisurely to fill it. Every now and then he glanced at the boy, who seemed once more to have become unconscious of his presence. He struck a match and lit the tobacco, stooping down for a moment to escape the slight evening breeze. Then he threw the match away, and lounged against the lichen-covered fragment of stone.

"I wonder," he remarked, "why, when you have the whole day in which to come and look at this magnificent view, you should choose to come just at the hour when it has practically been swallowed up."

The boy lifted his head for the first time. His face was a little long, his features irregular but not displeasing, his deep-set eyes seemed unnaturally bright. His cheeks were sunken, his forehead unusually prominent. The whole effect of his personality was a little curious. If he had no claims to be considered good-looking, his face was at least a striking one.

[Illustration: He came to a standstill by the side of the boy.]

"I come at this hour," he said slowly, "because the view does not attract me so much at any other time. It is only when the twilight falls that one can see--properly."

The newcomer took his pipe from his mouth.

"You must have marvelous eyesight, my young friend," he remarked. "To me everything seems blurred and uncertain."

"You don't understand!" said the boy impatiently. "I do not come here to see the things that anyone can see at any hour of the day. There is nothing satisfying in that. I come here to look down and see the things which do not really exist. It is easy enough when one is alone," he added, a little pointedly.

The newcomer laughed softly--there was more banter than humor in his mirth.

"So my company displeases you," he remarked. "Do you know that I have the right to tell you to get up, and never to pass through that gate again?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"One place is as good as another," he said.

The man smoked in silence for several moments. Then he withdrew the pipe from his teeth and sighed gently.