"No, I am sorry to say! I have to get home over there" (he nodded indefinitely to the right), "and I feel as you do, that it is quite enough for my legs to do before bedtime."

The other had by this time finished the mead in the mug, after which, shaking hands heartily at the door, and wishing each other well, they 10 went their several ways.

In the meantime the company of pursuers had reached the end of the hog's-back elevation which dominated this part of the down. They had decided on no particular plan of action; and, finding that the man of the baleful trade was no longer in their company, they seemed quite unable to form any such plan now. They descended in 20 all directions down the hill, and straightway several of the party fell into the snare set by Nature for all misguided midnight ramblers over this part of the cretaceous formation. The "lanchets," or flint slopes, which belted the escarpment at intervals of a dozen yards, took the less cautious ones unawares, and losing their footing on the rubbly steep they slid sharply 30 downwards, the lanterns rolling from their hands to the bottom, and there lying on their sides till the horn was scorched through.

When they had again gathered themselves together, the shepherd, as the man who knew the country best, took the lead, and guided them round these treacherous inclines. The lanterns, which seemed rather to dazzle 40 their eyes and warn the fugitive than to assist them in the exploration, were extinguished, due silence was observed; and in this more rational order they plunged into the vale. It was a grassy, briery, moist defile, affording some shelter to any person who had

24. cretaceous, the name of an ancient period of the earth's history in which a certain rock formation took place. 29. rubbly, covered with loose, rolling stones.

sought it; but the party perambulated it in vain, and ascended on the other side. Here they wandered apart, and after an interval closed together again 50 to report progress. At the second time of closing in they found themselves near a lonely ash, the single tree on this part of the coomb, probably sown there by a passing bird some fifty years before. And here, standing a little to one side of the trunk, as motionless as the trunk itself, appeared the man they were in quest of, his outline being well defined 60 against the sky beyond. The band noiselessly drew up and faced him.

"Your money or your life!" said the constable sternly to the still figure.

"No, no," whispered John Pitcher. "Tisn't our side ought to say that. That's the doctrine of vagabonds like him, and we be on the side of the law."

"Well, well," replied the constable impatiently; "I must say something, 70 mustn't I? and if you had all the weight o' this undertaking upon your mind, perhaps you'd say the wrong thing too!-Prisoner at the bar, surrender, in the name of the Fatherthe Crown, I mane!"

The man under the tree seemed now to notice them for the first time, and, giving them no opportunity whatever for exhibiting their courage, he strolled so slowly toward them, He was, indeed, the little man, the third stranger; but his trepidation had in a great measure gone.

"Well, travelers," he said, "did I hear ye speak to me?"

"You did; you've got to come and be our prisoner at once!" said the constable. "We arrest 'ee on the charge of not biding in Casterbridge 90 jail in a decent, proper manner to be hung tomorrow morning. Neighbors, do your duty, and seize the culpet!"

On hearing the charge, the man seemed enlightened, and, saying not

another word, resigned himself with preternatural civility to the searchparty, who, with their staves in their hands, surrounded him on all sides, and marched him back toward the shepherd's cottage.

It was eleven o'clock by the time they arrived. The light shining from the open door, a sound of men's voices 10 within, proclaimed to them as they approached the house that some new events had arisen in their absence. On entering they discovered the shepherd's living room to be invaded by two officers from Casterbridge jail, and a well-known magistrate who lived at the nearest country-seat, intelligence of the escape having become generally circulated.

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"Gentlemen," said the constable, "I have brought back your man-not without risk and danger; but everyone must do his duty! He is inside this circle of able-bodied persons, who have lent me useful aid, considering their ignorance of Crown work. Men, bring forward your prisoner!" And the third stranger was led to the light.

"Who is this?" said one of the 30 officials." The man," said the constable.

"Certainly not," said the turnkey; and the first corroborated his statement.

"But how can it be otherwise?" asked the constable. "Or why was he so terrified at sight o' the singing instrument of the law who sat there?" Here he related the strange behavior of the third stranger on entering the 40 house during the hangman's song.

"Can't understand it," said the officer coolly. "All I know is that it is not the condemned man. He's quite a different character from this one; a gauntish fellow, with dark hair and eyes, rather good-looking, and with a musical bass voice that if you heard it once you'd never mistake as long as you lived."

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"Why, souls-'twas the man in the 50 chimney-corner!" "Hey what?" said the magistrate, coming forward after inquiring particulars from the shepherd in the background. "Haven't you got the man after all?"

"Well, sir," said the constable, "he's the man we were in search of, that's true; and yet he's not the man we were in search of. For the man we were in search of was not the man we 60 wanted, sir, if you understand my everyday way; for 'twas the man in the chimney-corner!"

"A pretty kettle of fish altogether!" said the magistrate. "You had better start for the other man at once."

The prisoner now spoke for the first time. The mention of the man in the chimney-corner seemed to have moved him as nothing else could do. 70 "Sir," he said, stepping forward to the magistrate, "take no more trouble about me. The time is come when I may as well speak. I have done nothing; my crime is that the condemned man is my brother. Early this afternoon I left home at Shottsford to tramp it all the way to Casterbridge jail to bid him farewell. I was benighted, and called here to rest so and ask the way. When I opened the door I saw before me the very man, my brother, that I thought to see in the condemned cell at Casterbridge. He was in this chimneycorner; and jammed close to him, so that he could not have got out if he had tried, was the executioner who'd come to take his life, singing a song about it and not knowing that it was 90 his victim who was close by, joining in to

save appearances. My brother looked a glance of agony at me, and I knew he meant, 'Don't reveal what you see; my life depends on it.' I was so terror-struck that I could hardly stand, and, not knowing what I did, I turned and hurried away."

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Thomas Hardy (1840- ) is famous for a long series of novels presenting impressive pictures of life in southwestern England. So closely associated are these stories with their surroundings that this part of the land is often spoken of as the "Hardy country." Of recent years he has devoted his talents to the composition of verse. "The Three Strangers" story was first published in 1883. It now appears in a collection of Hardy's best short stories, entitled Wessex Tales.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. Does the story open in an interesting manner? Why does the author give so careful a description of the locality? What details give good ideas of the permanence of things in England? How is contrast utilized in the opening of the story? Show that the introduction moves from the general to the particular. Describe the indecision in the mind of the hostess over the kind of entertainment to provide. How were her plans observed?

2. Why is the word pastoral used to describe the dwelling? How does Hardy change the point of view? At what place in the material? At what time in the events? What does "snuffing candles" mean? Why was it done?

3. When the first traveler enters, does he seem to you like a traveler or a fugitive? Does the author make you think either, or both? How does he prevent his hostess from asking him too many questions? How do the remarks about his smoking arouse your suspiIcions? Why do we not see the second and third strangers outside the house, but meet them only as they enter? Why did the first stranger pick up the poker when the second knocked? Point out clearly the difference in behavior of the two strangers at the fireside.

4. How does the drinking stranger outwit Mrs. Fennel? Then how does she get the better of him? Why so much concern about the trades of these strangers? Why did the first stranger say he was a wheelright? Is it natural for people to ask questions like those in this story? Do you like the introduction of the song? Why is this a better way of giving the second stranger's trade than having him tell it? Why did the first stranger join in the chorus? Did you see any such reason at the time, or perceive it among the later events? Why did Hardy have the two strangers clink cups and drink to each other? Why does the author make the third knock timid and hesitating? What did you

think when the third stranger turned and fled from the house? Did the author intend that you should think that? Why did the first stranger resume his smoking? What do you suppose he most feared when he saw the third stranger? Why does he agree with the opinion of the man who first fled from them? Did the report of the gun come at just the proper time? 5. Why is sinister applied to the hangman? Explain the following: constable's staff; the lion and the unicorn; several ways; man of the baleful ways; horn lantern; preternatural; patriarchal. Has the story any humorous relief? Where?

6. By what two expedients does the author empty the room? Why did he then bring the two strangers back for a conversation? Why the handshake? Do you know what the constable started to say when he ordered the prisoner to surrender "in the name of the Father"? Why was the third stranger relieved at the explanation given by the constable for his arrest? By what detail was the real fugitive identified?

7. Give all the devices by which time is gained for the real prisoner to make his escape certain. Do you share the people's sympathy for him? Why? What is hinted about their actions?

8. Where might the story have ended? Is any part unnecessary? Is it likely that the story did outlast the characters? Does this correspond with the history of story telling?

Theme Topics. 1. Write the song the hangman composed relating this experience. 2. Write the fugitive's letter to his brother assuring him of his safety. 3. Relate a chance meeting between the constable and the fugitive before the latter had left the district. 4. Recount the incident of the sheep stealing. 5. Report on capital punishment in England before 1825. 6. Arrange class discussions on such topics as the following: (a) No offender should suffer capital punishment. (b) Criminals are too well treated in modern times. (c) The purpose of convictions is prevention of crime, not punishment. (d) Motives, not the act itself, determine the guilt of a person charged with crime. (e) The jury system should be abandoned.

Library Reading. Other stories in Wessex Tales; "The Treasure of Franchard," Stevenson (in The Merry Men); "Roads of Destiny," O. Henry (in Roads of Destiny); "Willow Walk" Lewis (in Best Short Stories of 1918); these belong to the "rambling tale" type of story, illustrated by "The Three Strangers."

The (so-called) Vallambrosa Apartment House is not an apartment house. It is composed of two old-fashioned, brownstone-front residences welded into one.

The parlor floor of one side is gay with the wraps and headgear of a modiste; the other is lugubrious with the sophistical promises and grisly display of a painless dentist. You 10 may have a room there for two dollars a week or you may have one for twenty dollars. Among the Vallambrosa's roomers are stenographers, musicians, brokers, shop-girls, spacerate writers, art students, wire-tappers, and other people who lean far over the banister-rail when the doorbell rings.

This treatise shall have to do with 20 but two of the Vallambrosiansthough meaning no disrespect to the others.

At six o'clock one afternoon Hetty Pepper came back to her third-floor rear $3.50 room in the Vallambrosa with her nose and chin more sharply pointed than usual. To be discharged from the department store where you have been working four years, and 30 with only fifteen cents in your purse, does have a tendency to make your features appear more finely chiseled.

And now for Hetty's thumb-nail biography, while she climbs the two flights of stairs.

She walked into the Biggest Store one morning four years before with seventy-five other girls, applying for

Reprinted by permission from Options by O. Henry. Copyright by Harper and Brothers.

14. space-rate writer, a writer paid according to the space his article fills in print. 15. wire-tapper, swindler, i.e., one who pretends to intercept, by tapping the wires, advance telegraphic news or betting.

a job behind the waist department counter. The phalanx of wage-earners 40 formed a bewildering scene of beauty, carrying a total mass of blond hair sufficient to have justified the horseback gallops of a hundred Lady Godivas.

The capable, cool-eyed, impersonal, young, bald-headed man whose task it was to engage six of the contestants, was aware of a feeling of suffocation as if he were drowning in a sea of frangi- 50 panni, while white clouds, handembroidered, floated about him. And then a sail hove in sight. Hetty Pepper, homely of countenance, with small, contemptuous, green eyes and chocolate-colored hair, dressed in a suit of plain burlap and a commonsense hat, stood before him with every one of her twenty-nine years of life unmistakably in sight.

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"You're on!" shouted the baldheaded young man, and was saved. And that is how Hetty came to be employed in the Biggest Store. The story of her rise to an eight-dollar-aweek salary is the combined stories of Hercules, Joan of Arc, Una, Job, and Little-Red-Riding-Hood. You shall not learn from me the salary that was paid her as a beginner. There is 70 a sentiment growing about such things, and I want no millionaire storeproprietors climbing the fire-escape of my tenement-house to throw dynamite bombs into my skylight boudoir.

44. Lady Godiva, an English noblewoman of the eleventh century, famed for her long, beautiful hair. 50. frangipanni, a strong perfume. 67. Joan of Arc (14121431), a French martyr. (For her story, see any encyclopedia.) Una, "a lovely ladie," the personification of Truth, in Spenser's Faerie Queene. She suffered imprisonment in behalf of her ideals. Job, the patient hero of the book of Job.