estimate its size in the dim light, measured at
least fifteen inches in diameter. While I was yet
examining the instrument, and asking myself
whether it was not the work of some self-taught
optician, a bell rang sharply.

"That's for you," said my guide, with, a
malicious grin. " Yonder's his room."

He pointed to a low black door at the opposite
side of the hall. I crossed over, rapped
somewhat loudly, and went in, without waiting
for an invitation. A huge, white-haired old man
rose from a table covered with books and papers,
and confronted me sternly.

"Who are you?" said he. "How came you
here? What do you want?"

"James Murray, barrister-at-law. On foot
across the moor. Meat, drink, and sleep."

He bent his bushy brows into a portentous
frown.

"Mine is not a house of entertainment," he
said, haughtily. "Jacob, how dared you admit
this stranger?"

"I didn't admit him," grumbled the old man.
"He followed me over the muir, and shouldered
his way in before me. I'm no match for six foot
two."

"And pray, sir, by what right have you forced
an entrance into my house?"

"The same by which I should have clung to
your boat, if I were drowning. The right of
self-preservation."

"Self-preservation?"

"There's an inch of snow on the ground
already," I replied, briefly; "and it would be
deep enough to cover my body before daybreak."

He strode to the window, pulled aside a
heavy black curtain, and looked out.

"It is true," he said. "You can stay, if you
choose, till morning. Jacob, serve the supper."

With this he waved me to a seat,
resumed his own, and became at once absorbed in
the studies from which I had disturbed him.

I placed my gun in a corner, drew a chair to
the hearth, and examined my quarters at leisure.
Smaller and less incongruous in its arrangements
than the hall, this room contained, nevertheless,
much to awaken my curiosity. The floor was
carpetless. The whitewashed walls were in parts
scrawled over with strange diagrams, and in
others covered with shelves crowded with
philosophical instruments, the uses of many of which
were unknown to me. On one side of the
fire-place, stood a bookcase filled with dingy folios;
on the other, a small organ, fantastically
decorated with painted carvings of mediaeval saints
and devils. Through the half-opened door of a
cupboard at the further end of the room, I saw
a long array of geological specimens, surgical
preparations, crucibles, retorts, and jars of
chemicals; while on the mantelshelf beside me,
amid a number of small objects, stood a model
of the solar system, a small galvanic battery,
and a microscope. Every chair had its burden.
Every corner was heaped high with books.
The very floor was littered over with maps,
casts, papers, tracings, and learned lumber of
all conceivable kinds.

I stared about me with an amazement
increased by every fresh object upon which
my eyes chanced to rest. So strange a room I
had never seen; yet seemed it stranger still, to
find such a room in a lone farm-house amid those
wild and solitary moors! Over and over again,
I looked from my host to his surroundings,
and from his surroundings back to my host,
asking myself who and what he could be? His
head was singularly fine; but it was more the
head of a poet than of a philosopher. Broad in
the temples, prominent over the eyes, and
clothed with a rough profusion of perfectly
white hair, it had all the ideality and much of
the ruggedness that characterises the head of
Louis von Beethoven. There were the same
deep lines about the mouth, and the same stern
furrows in the brow. There was the same
concentration of expression. While I was yet
observing him, the door opened, and Jacob
brought in the supper. His master then closed
his book, rose, and with more courtesy of manner
than he had yet shown, invited me to the table.

A dish of ham and eggs, a loaf of brown
bread, and a bottle of admirable sherry, were
placed before me.

"I have but the homeliest farm-house fare
to offer you, sir," said my entertainer. "Your
appetite, I trust, will make up for the
deficiencies of our larder."

I had already fallen upon the viands, and now
protested, with the enthusiasm of a starving
sportsman, that I had never eaten anything so
delicious.

He bowed stiffly, and sat down to his own
supper, which consisted, primitively, of a jug
of milk and a basin of porridge. We ate
in silence, and, when we had done, Jacob
removed the tray. I then drew my chair back
to the fireside. My host, somewhat to my
surprise, did the same, and turning abruptly
towards me, said:

"Sir, I have lived here in strict retirement
for three-and-twenty years. During that time,
I have not seen as many strange faces, and I have
not read a single newspaper. You are the first
stranger who has crossed my threshold for more
than four years. Will you favour me with a few
words of information respecting that outer world
from which I have parted company so long?"

"Pray interrogate me," I replied. "I am
heartily at your service."

He bent his head in acknowledgment; leaned
forward, with his elbows resting on his knees
and his chin supported in the palms of his
hands; stared fixedly into the fire; and
proceeded to question me.

His inquiries related chiefly to scientific
matters, with the later progress of which, as
applied to the practical purposes of life, he was
almost wholly unacquainted. No student of
science myself, I replied as well as my slight
information permitted; but the task was far
from easy, and I was much relieved when,
passing from interrogation to discussion, he
began pouring forth his own conclusions upon
the facts which I had been attempting to place