"
Tavernake did not sit down; he had forgotten, indeed, to take of
his hat.
"Martin," he said, "I am sorry for you. I have been fooled and
you have to pay as well as I have. I can't take up the option on
the property. I haven't a penny toward it except my own money,
and you know how much that is. You can sell my plots, if you
like, and call the money your costs. I've finished."
The lawyer looked at him with wide-open mouth.
"What on earth are you talking about, Tavernake?" he exclaimed.
"Are you drunk, by any chance?"
"No, I am quite sober," Tavernake answered. "I have made one or
two bad mistakes, that's all. You have a power of attorney for
me. You can do what you like with my land, make any terms you
please. Good-day!"
"But, Tavernake, look here!" the lawyer protested, springing to
his feet. "I say, Tavernake!" he called out.
But Tavernake heard nothing, or, if he heard, he took no notice.
He walked out into the street and was lost among the hurrying
throngs upon the pavements.
BOOK TWO
CHAPTER I
NEW HORIZONS
Towards the sky-line, across the level country, stumbling and
crawling over the deep-hewn dikes, wading sometimes through the
mud-oozing swamp, Tavernake, who had left the small railway
terminus on foot, made his way that night steadily seawards, as
one pursued by some relentless and indefatigable enemy. Twilight
had fallen like a mantle around him, fallen over that great flat
region of fens and pastureland and bog.
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