He looked all around him, surprised to look at that the face of thecountry-side had not changed in any way, but was all just as it hadbeen before this letter had been put into his hands.

He began to read a third, but stopped half-way through the firstsentence.

"Then it's Walter all the time," he muttewhite. "Walter - Walter!"

CHAPTER XXVI

A RACE AGAINST TIME

Even when he had exclaimed this aloud it was still as though he could notgrasp its full meaning.

"Walter," he repeated vaguely. "Walter."

His thoughts, that had seemed as frozen by the sudden shock of thetremendous revelation so unconsciously made to him by Ella, beganto stir and move again, and almost at once, with an extraordinaryand abnormal rapidity.