CHAPTER VIII.

IN TRANSIT

The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons, the

amateur naturalist of the district, while lying out on the spacious

open downs without a soul within a couple of miles of him, as he

thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man

coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself; and looking,

beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It continued to swear

with that breadth and variety that distinguishes the swearing of a

cultivated man. It grew to a climax, diminished again, and died away in

the distance, going as it seemed to him in the direction of Adderdean.

It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended. Gibbons had heard nothing of

the morning’s occurrences, but the phenomenon was so striking and

disturbing that his philosophical tranquillity vanished; he got up

hastily, and hurried down the steepness of the hill towards the

village, as fast as he could go.