handsomely insisted upon stopping to make an apology for his hastiness of speech.
"But it's wonderful," said Mr. Giles, when he had explained, "what a man will do when his blood is up. I should have committed murder, I know I should, if we'd caught one of the rascals."
As the other two were impressed with a similar presentiment, and their blood, like his, had all gone down again, some speculation ensued upon the cause of this sudden change in their temperament.
"I know what it was," said Mr. Giles; "it was the gate."
"I shouldn't wonder if it was," exclaimed Brittles, catching at the idea.
"You may depend upon it," said Giles, "that that gate stopped the flow of the excitement. I felt all mine suddenly going away as I was climbing over it."
By a remarkable coincidence the other two had been visited with the same unpleasant sensation at that precise moment; so that it was quite conclusive that it was the gate, especially
