CHAPTER XXI

Graham, riding solitary through the redwood canyons among the hills that overlooked the ranch center, was getting acquainted with Selim, the eleven-hundred-pound, coal-black gelding which Dick had furnished him in place of the lighter Altadena. As he rode along, learning the good nature, the roguishness and the dependableness of the animal, Graham hummed the words of the "Gypsy Trail" and allowed them to lead his thoughts. Quite carelessly, foolishly, thinking of bucolic lovers carving their initials on forest trees, he broke a spray of laurel and another of redwood. He had to stand in the stirrups to pluck a long- stemmed, five-fingered fern with which to bind the sprays into a cross. When the patteran was fashioned, he tossed it on the trail before him and noted that Selim passed over without treading upon it. Glancing back, Graham watched it to the next turn of the trail. A good omen, was his thought, that it had not been trampled.

More five-fingered ferns to be had for the reaching, more branches of redwood and laurel brushing his face as he rode, invited him to continue the manufacture of patterans, which he dropped as he fashioned them. An hour later, at the head of the canyon, where he knew the trail over the divide was difficult and stiff, he debated his course and turned back.

Selim warned him by nickering. Came an answering nicker from close at hand. The trail was wide and easy, and Graham put his mount into a fox trot, swung a wide bend, and overtook Paula on the Fawn. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. What is the horse's name?
2. Who's riding him?
3. Where?
4. What music is running through his mind?
5. What brushed his face?
6. From what tree?
7. What did he make as he rode?
8. What did he do with it?
9. Where?
10. How did the horse react?
11. Was that a bad sign?
12. What was it?
13. What did he keep doing?
14. For how long?
15. What did the horse do then?
16. Of what?
17. What replied?
18. From whom?
19. Who was there?
20. What was her horse's name?
21. What did Graham do when he saw them?
22. How was the path?
Answer: 1. Selim
2. Graham
3. through the redwood canyons
4. Gypsy Trail"
5. branches
6. redwood
7. a cross
8. he tossed it
9. on the trail
10. Selim passed over without treading upon it
11. No
12. A good omen
13. the manufacture of patterans
14. An hour
15. warned him
16. the trail
17. an answering nicker
18. close at hand
19. Paula
20. Fawn
21. put his mount into a fox trot
22. wide and easy

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

IN WHICH GLUMM TAKES TO HUNTING ON THE MOUNTAINS FOR CONSOLATION, AND FINDS IT UNEXPECTEDLY, WHILE ALRIC PROVES HIMSELF A HERO.

"I go to the fells to-day," said Glumm to Alric one morning, as the latter opened the door of Glummstede and entered the hall.

"I go also," said Alric, leaning a stout spear which he carried against the wall, and sitting down on a stool beside the fire to watch Glumm as he equipped himself for the chase.

"Art ready, then? for the day is late," said Glumm.

"All busked," replied the boy.--"I say, Glumm, is that a new spear thou hast got?"

"Aye; I took it from a Swedish viking the last fight I had off the coast. We had a tough job of it, and left one or two stout men behind to glut the birds of Odin, but we brought away much booty. This was part of it," he added, buckling on a long hunting-knife, which was stuck in a richly ornamented sheath, "and that silver tankard too, besides the red mantle that my mother wears, and a few other things--but my comrades got the most of it."

"I wish I had been there, Glumm," said Alric.

"If Hilda were here, lad, she would say it is wrong to wish to fight."

"Hilda has strange thoughts," observed the boy.

"So has Erling," remarked his companion.

"And so has Ada," said Alric, with a sly glance.

Glumm looked up quickly. "What knowest _thou_ about Ada?" said he. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who was Glumm talking to?
2. Where did he tell him he was going?
3. and when was he going there?
4. Was Alric going to go also?
5. What was Alric carrying?
6. and where did he lean it?
7. Did Alric sit down?
8. Where did he sit?
9. and what was the stool next to?
10. Did Glumm have a new spear?
11. Who had he gotten it from?
12. during what?
13. Where was the fight?
14. What was the long knife in?
15. what else did he get from the fight?
Answer: 1. Alric
2. fells
3. to-day
4. yes
5. spear
6. the wall
7. yes
8. on a stool
9. the fire
10. yes
11. viking
12. the last fight
13. off the coast
14. sheath
15. silver tankard

CHAPTER VI.

A RECTORIAL ELECTION.

It took some little time before his son, who was half-choked with laughter, could explain to the energetic doctor that the gentleman upon whom he was perched was not a dangerous lunatic, but, on the contrary, a very harmless and innocent member of society. When at last it was made clear to him, the doctor released his prisoner and was profuse in his apologies.

"This is my father, Garraway," said Dimsdale. "I hardly expected him so early."

"I must offer you a thousand apologies, sir. The fact is that I am rather short-sighted, and had no time to put my glasses on. It seemed to me to be a most dangerous scuffle."

"Don't mention it, sir," said Garraway, with great good humour.

"And you, Tom, you rogue, is this the way you spend your mornings? I expected to find you deep in your books. I told your landlady that I hardly liked to come up for fear of disturbing you at your work. You go up for your first professional in a few weeks, I understand?"

"That will be all right, dad," said his son demurely. "Garraway and I usually take a little exercise of this sort as a preliminary to the labours of the day. Try this armchair and have a cigarette."

The doctor's eye fell upon the medical works and the disarticulated skull, and his ill-humour departed.

"You have your tools close at hand, I see," he remarked.

"Yes, dad, all ready."

"Those bones bring back old memories to me. I am rusty in my anatomy, but I dare say I could stump you yet. Let me see now. What are the different foramina of the sphenoid bone, and what structures pass through them? Eh?" What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who had the doctor restrained?
2. who is Garraway's son?
3. Did the doctor apologize to anyone?
4. to whom?
5. was Garraway angry?
6. What was Tom expected to be doing?
7. Why did he not like to visit?
8. what is in a few weeks?
9. What does the doctor spy that puts him in a bette mood?
10. anything else?
Answer:
1. Garraway
2. Dimsdale
3. yes
4. Garraway
5. no
6. deep in his books
7. fear of disturbing him
8. his first professional
9. the disarticulated skull
10. the medical works