THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
fore a comfortable-looking shooting-box among pine trees, and he ushered me in-doors. He took me first to a bedroom and flung half a dozen of his suits before me, for my own had been pretty well reduced to rags. I selected a loose blue serge, which differed most conspicuously from my own garments, and borrowed a linen collar. Then he haled me to the dining-room, where the remnants of a meal stood on the table, and announced that I had just five minutes to feed. "You can take a snack in your pocket, and we'll have supper when we get back, I've got to be at the Masonic Hall at eight o'clock or my agent will comb my hair."
I had a cup of coffee and some cold ham while he yarned away on the hearth-rug.
"You find me in the deuce of a mess, Mr.——; by the by you haven't told me your name. Twisden? Any relation of old Tommy Twisden of the Sixtieth? No. Well, you see I'm Liberal candidate for this part of
the world, and I had a meeting on to-night at Brattleburn—that's my chief town, and an
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