Page 353 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

since his last visit. As each man passed this ordeal he sa-
luted, and clanked, with wide-spread legs, to the place in
the double line. Mr. Meekin, though not a patron of field
sports, found something in the scene that reminded him of
a blacksmith picking up horses’ feet to examine the sound-
ness of their shoes.
‘Upon my word,’ he said to himself, with a momentary
pang of genuine compassion, ‘it is a dreadful way to treat
human beings. I don’t wonder at that wretched creature
groaning under it. But, bless me, it is near one o’clock, and
I promised to lunch with Major Vickers at two. How time
flies, to be sure!’

For the Term of His Natural Life