CHAPTER X.
THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW.
I woke with a heavy heart the next morning, for I knew that Jim would be home before long, and that it would be a day of trouble.

But how much trouble that day was to bring, or how far it would alter the lives of us, was more than I had ever thought in my darkest moments.

But let me tell you it all, just in the order that it happened.
I had to get up early that morning; for it was just the first flush of the lambing, and my father and I were out on the moors as soon as it was fairly light.

As I came out into the passage a wind struck upon my face, and there was the house door wide open, and the grey light drawing another door upon the inner wall.

And when I looked again there was Edie's room open also, and de Lapp's too; and I saw in a flash what that giving of presents meant upon the evening before.