At St. Austell a carrier offered me a lift, and
brought me to Liskeard. Thence I walked forward again, and in the
late afternoon came in sight of Minden Cottage.
"I recognized it at once from Harry's description, and at first
I was minded to walk up and knock boldly at the front door.
But remembering also the lad's account of the garden and how the
Major would spend the best part of his day there--and partly, I
fancy, being nervous and uncertain with what form of words to present
myself--I pulled up at the angle of the house, where the lane comes
up alongside the garden wall to join the road, and halted, to collect
myself and study my bearings.
"The time was about twenty minutes after five, and the light pretty
good. But the lane is pretty well overgrown, as you know. I looked
down and along it, and it appeared to end in a tangle or brambles.
I turned my attention to the house, and was studying it through my
glasses, taking stock of its windows and chimneys, and generally
(as you might say) reckoning it up, along with the extent of its
garden, when, happening to take another glance down the lane, to run
a measure of the garden wall--or perhaps a movement caught my eye--
I saw a man step across the path between the brambles, out of the
garden, as you might say, and into the plantation opposite.
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