“Well, are you coming with us? Aleck has had a big tip from home, and wants to spend it.”
“Yes; do come, Vane.”
“No, not to-day,” cried the lad, and he turned off and walked away sharply to avoid being tempted into staying before he had seen Distin, and “had it out,” as he termed it.
“Hi! Weathercock!” shouted Macey, “better stop. I’ve invented something—want your advice.”
“Not to be gammoned,” shouted back Vane; and he went off at a sharp trot, leaped a stile and went on across the fields, his only aim being to get away from his companions, but as soon as he was out of sight, he hesitated, stopped, and then went sharply off to his left.
“I’ll follow Distie,” he muttered. “The moor’s a good place for a row. He can shout at me there, and get in a passion. Then he’ll cool down, and we shall be all right again—and a good job too,” he added. “It is so stupid for two fellows studying together to be bad friends.”
By making a few short cuts, and getting over and through hedges, Vane managed to take a bee-line for the moor, and upon reaching it, he had a good look round, but there was no sign of Distin.
“He may be lying down somewhere,” thought Vane, as he strode on, making his way across the moor in the direction of the wood, but still there was no sign of Distin, even after roaming about for an hour, at times scanning the surface of the long wild steep, at others following the line of drooping trees at the chalk-bank edge, but for the most part forgetting all about the object of his search, as his attention was taken up by the flowers and plants around. There was, too, so much to think about in the scene at home, that afternoon, and as he recalled it all, Vane set his teeth, and asked himself whether the time was not coming when he must set aside boyish things, and begin to think seriously of his future as a man.
He went on and on, so used to the moor that it seemed as if his legs required no guidance, but left his brain at liberty to think of other things than the course he was taking, while he wondered how long it would be before he left Greythorpe, and whether he should have to go to London or some one of the big manufacturing towns.
There was Mr Deering, too, ready to take up a good deal of his thought. And now it seemed cruel that this man should have come amongst them to disturb the current of a serene and peaceful life.