336 The Little Minister

Yes, it is Snap; but he would not bark at noth-
ing. Why do you look behind you so often,
McKenzie?”

“ For some time, Rintoul, it has seemed to me
that we are being followed. Listen!”

“JT hear nothing. At last, McKenzie, at last,
we are out of the broom.”

“And asI live, Rintoul, I see the gypsy
lights!”

It might have been a lantern that was flashed
across the hill. Then all that part of the world
went suddenly on fire. Everything was horribly
distinct in that white light. The firs of Caddam
were so near that it seemed to’ have arrested them
in a silent march upon the hill. The grass would
not hide a pebble. The ground was scored with
shadows of men and things. Twice the light
flickered and recovered itself. A red serpent
shot across it, and then again black night fell.

The hill had been illumined thus for nearly
half a minute. During that time not even a dog
stirred. ‘The shadows of human beings lay on
the ground as motionless as logs. What had
been revealed seemed less a gypsy marriage than
a picture. Or was it that during the ceremony
every person on the hill had been turned into
stone? The gypsy king, with his arm upraised,
had not had time to let it fall. The men and
women behind him had their mouths open, as if
struck when on the point of calling out. Lord
Rintoul had risen in the dog-cart and was leaning
forward. One of McKenzie’s feet was on the
shaft. The man crouching in the dog-cart’s wake