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Sensory Transduction
Sensory Transduction
Second edition

Gordon L. Fain
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Ophthalmology and
of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of California Los Angeles, USA

1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Gordon L. Fain 2020
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2003
Second Edition published in 2020
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
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above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019941498
ISBN 978–0–19–883502–8 (hbk.)
ISBN 978–0–19–883503–5 (pbk.)
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198835028.001.0001
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
To Tim and Nick, who are better.

παῦροι γάρ τοι παῖδες ὁμοῖοι πατρὶ πέλονται,

οἱ πλέονες κακίους, παῦροι δέ τε πατρὸς ἀρείους.
Odyssey. II: 276–277
 Acknowledgments (First edition)
This book could not have been written without the
help of many friends and colleagues. I am particu-
larly grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for
inviting me to spend 4 weeks at their Study and
Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, where I wrote
the first four chapters of the book, and to Shelly
Segal and Giana Celli, who made my visit there
so enjoyable and productive. Much of the rest of
the book was written during two-quarters of leave
from teaching granted to me by my department and
its then chair, Alan Grinnell. I also express my
thanks to the staff of the library at UCLA, who
helped me to locate obscure references in books
and journals occasionally through interlibrary
loan, and to the staff of the Balfour Zoology Library
and the library of the Physiological Laboratory in
Cambridge, England where I wrote most of
Chapter 10. Alan Grinnell read the entire manuscript
for me, and individual chapters were read by Michael
Bennett, David Corey, Peter Gillespie, Roger Hardie,
Sue Kinnamon, John Lisman, Hugh Matthews, John
Wood, and Frank Zufall. I am deeply appreciative of
all the assistance and encouragement I received from
Andy Sinauer and his colleagues, and in particular
from Kathleen Emerson, whose many suggestions
and corrections greatly improved the book. Finally,
my greatest debt is to my wife Margery, who did all
the illustrations for the book, and whose patient
support has made possible not only this book but
almost everything else I have done during our long
and happy collaboration.
vii
 Acknowledgments (Second edition)
I am extremely grateful to Ellen Lumpkin, David
Corey, Jonathan Ashmore, Johannes Reisert, Emily
Liman, Roger Hardie, and Michael Do, who took
the time to read parts of the text and provided many
helpful comments and corrections. My thanks are
also due to Julie Musk who edited the text for OUP
and made many helpful suggestions, and to the
Helen Riaboff Whiteley Center at the Friday Harbor
Laboratory, where the final work on the text and fig-
ures was done. My greatest debt is again to my wife
Margery, who did all of the illustrations and was my
ever-present help and counselor. This book could
not have been written without her.
ix
 C H A PT ER 1
The senses
Everything we know about the world comes to us
through our senses. We experience the world as we
do because our organs of sight, hearing, and smell
are constructed in a certain way. We could not see
color unless we had more than one kind of visual
pigment, perceive pitch unless the peak of the
traveling wave of the basilar membrane varied with
position in the cochlea, or smell different odors
unless the nose contained a very large number of
olfactory receptor molecules of different selectivity.
No biologist would say as Plato did that “the eyes
and the ears and the other senses are full of deceit”
(Phaedo, 83A), that perception is an unreliable path-
way to true knowledge (Theaetetus, 186C–187A). We
could not as a species have survived the hurly-burly
of natural selection unless our senses had been and
still are fundamentally faithful reporters of the
world around us.
Because of the importance of our sense organs in
everyday life and the enormous pleasure we derive
especially from sight and sound, humans have
always been curious how sensation occurs. The
ancient Greeks speculated extensively about the
nature of the sense organs and were occasionally
quite perceptive. Aristotle recognized the five pri-
mary senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and
taste (de Anima, Book 3). Plato (Timaeus 45B–D)
wrongly supposed that the eye emits a kind of fire
akin to daylight, which meets a similar fire coming
from objects in the world around us. As these fires
met, their motion was thought to be communicated
to the soul. Aristotle argued against this notion,
though he himself gave no clear idea how he thought
Sensory Transduction. Second Edition. Gordon L. Fain, Oxford University Press (2020). © Gordon L. Fain 2020.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198835028.001.0001
vision did occur (Johansen, 1997). On the other
hand, he recognized the fundamental importance of
moisture in olfaction (see for example de Sensu, V; de
Anima, VII). Moisture must be important, Aristotle
reasoned, since fish can smell. How did he know?
He doesn’t say, and we have to suppose that he or
his students had seen fish swimming toward bait.
But since the sensation comes to the fish through
water rather than through the air, why didn’t Aris-
totle say that fish taste? What Aristotle could not
have known is that fish, in addition to taste recep-
tors in their oral cavity, have an olfactory organ that
has a structure and function very much like our
nose. The importance of moisture in olfaction is
now absolutely clear: even in terrestrial animals,
molecules must pass through the watery mucus of
the nose before they can bind to and be detected by
olfactory receptor cells.
Some of the most remarkable statements about
sensation made by Greek and Roman authors are to
be found in the first-century bc De Rerum Natura of
Lucretius, who based much of his poem on the teach-
ings of the Greek Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus.
Lucretius claimed that the distinctiveness of different
tastes and odors lies in the shapes of the tiny “seeds”
or particles given off to the air or into the mouth by
objects tasted or smelled. He thought sweet-tasting
substances had smooth round particles, and bitter
substances had hooked or barbed particles. He also
thought that for both taste and smell the shape of the
particles must somehow correspond to apertures
within the nose or palate, so that sweet tastes are per-
ceived when smooth particles enter correspondingly
1
2 S E N S O RY T R A N S D U C T I O N
smooth apertures. To account for the variety of taste
and odor, he postulated a variety of apertures, some
large, some small, some round, and others square or
with many angles. This explanation is not too differ-
ent from our present understanding that scents and
many tastes are produced by molecules having dif-
ferent shapes and binding to receptor molecules with
appropriately matched binding sites.
Early studies of the anatomy of the
sense organs
Although Aristotle and other Greek men of learning
certainly performed dissection on animals (Lloyd,
1975), the first systematic anatomical investigations
of the human body were undertaken in Alexandria
under the reign of the Ptolemies, during the first half
of the third century bc (Longrigg, 1988). Herophilus
of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos, taking advan-
tage of a temporary relaxation of religious scruple,
first began the dissection of human bodies, and it is to
these men that we owe the discovery and first descrip-
tion of the sensory and motor nerves (Solmsen, 1961;
Staden, 1989). Much of their work has been pre-
served—not in their own writings but in the books of
Galen written four centuries later. Galen himself also
carried out animal dissection (Duckworth et al., 2010),
though perhaps not human dissection. Since he
lacked even a magnifying glass, his descriptions of
the structure of sense organs are rather crude. He
understood that hearing is caused by air striking
against the ear but seemed not to have noticed the
tiny bones of the middle ear and missed altogether
the role of the ear drum in transmitting vibrations
into the cochlea. He named the principal parts of
the eye, probably using terminology borrowed from
Herophilus and Erasistratus, and these are the names
we still use: sclera, choroid, crystalline lens. As a med-
ical doctor, he knew that if the lens is not perfectly
clear and transparent, vision is largely obstructed. He
therefore supposed that the lens was the organ of
photodetection, containing a “visual spirit” or πνευ̃μα
that passes down the optic nerve into the brain. The
optic nerve as a consequence was supposed to be
completely hollow, the only hollow nerve in the body.
Galen’s books were probably filled with diagrams,
though none has survived. The earliest schema of a
sense organ we have is not from Galen himself but
rather from a ninth-century ad translation of Galen
into the Arab language Syriac. This translation was
made by Humain Ibn Is-Hâq, who was born in
Mesopotamia, studied medicine, and became an
associate of the court physician of the caliph of
Baghdad. The drawing in Figure 1.1A is from an
English translation of Humain’s manuscript (Mey-
erhoff, 1928). This schema of the eye had an enor-
mous influence, not only on Arab medicine and
science but also on the anatomists of the Renais-
sance, who continued to show the lens in the center
of the eye. With a little effort, they should have been
able to do the dissection more carefully, preserving
the position of the lens in its proper place toward the
front. What changed everything was the discovery
of the laws of optical refraction and Kepler’s solu-
tion of the optics of the eye. Kepler explained how
images are formed and assigned the primary role in
visual detection to the retina instead of to the lens
(see Wade, 1998). Once the function of the lens was
understood, it became possible for anatomists to do
a proper dissection and find the various parts of the
eye in their proper places. This is an example of Lis-
man’s Law: you have to believe it in order to see it.
The cross-section of the eye in Figure 1.1B was made
by Descartes (1637/1987), who not only put the lens
closer to its actual position but also identified the cil-
iary muscle and understood its role in changing the
shape of the lens during accommodation.
The development of the compound microscope
and improved methods for slicing and fixing tissue
led to an explosion of information during the nine-
teenth century about the tissues of the body, includ-
ing the sense organs (there are useful reviews of
older literature in Polyak, 1941; von Békésy, 1960).
The most important studies were surely those of
the great Spanish neuroanatomist Ramón y Cajal
(1911/1998). His clear drawings provided a wealth
of information about the shapes of sensory recep-
tors and other cells in sensory organs (Figure 1.2).
The physiology of sensation
These anatomical discoveries helped stimulate the
first useful experimentation on the function of the
sense organs. The structure of the ear and the role of
the ear drum and bones of the middle ear were
understood by the middle of the nineteenth century,
and Helmholtz (1877/1954) postulated that sound
 THE SENSES 3

(A) (B)

Figure 1.1 Structure of the eye. (A) Diagram of the eye from a ninth-century AD translation of Galen into Syriac by Humain Ibn Is-Hâq, in turn
translated into English. (B) More anatomically correct diagram of cross-section of the eye made by René Descartes. ABCB, Cornea and sclera; EF, iris
(in actual fact closer to the lens than shown in Descartes’ diagram); K, aqueous humor; L, lens; EN, zonule fibers; M, vitreous humor; GHI, retina;
H, optic nerve head; O, ocular muscles; and Z, optic nerve. (A from Meyerhoff, 1928; B from Descartes, 1637/1987.)

(A) (B)

Figure 1.2 Sensory cells from the work of Ramón y Cajal. (A) Bipolar sensory neurons from mammalian olfactory mucosa. a, Axon; b, peripheral
process; c, sensory dendrites; d, axon; n, nucleus. (B) Section of retina of an adult dog. A, Outer plexiform (synaptic) layer; B, inner plexiform
(synaptic) layer; a, cone fiber; b, rod cell body and fiber; c, rod bipolar cell with vertical dendrites; d, cone bipolar cell with vertical dendrites;
e, cone bipolar cell with flattened dendrites; f, giant bipolar cell with flattened dendrites; g, special cells stained very rarely (perhaps inter-plexiform
cells); h, diffuse amacrine cell; i, ascendant nerve fibers (probably processes of cell not well stained); j, centrifugal fibers coming from central
nervous system; m, nerve fiber (probably again of poorly stained cell); n, ganglion cell. (A and B from Cajal, 1893/1973.)
4 S E N S O RY T R A N S D U C T I O N

displaces these structures and causes the basilar
membrane in turn to vibrate, with different tones
producing vibration in different places. It was,
however, von Békésy’s actual observations of the
movements of the basilar membrane that provided
the first experimental evidence for the mechanism
of auditory sensation in the mammalian ear (see
Chapter 6 and von Békésy, 1960).
The visual pigments of the eye were also first dis-
covered in the nineteenth century (an excellent sum-
mary of this early work can be found in Brindley,
1960), and Kühne showed that the molecule rhodop-
sin, or sehpurpur as he called it, changes color
(bleaches) when exposed to light. These observations
eventually led to the discovery by George Wald and
colleagues that it is not the protein component of
rhodopsin that absorbs light but rather a relative of
vitamin A called 11-cis retinal, which is covalently
bound to the protein (see Chapter 9 and Wald, 1968).
Some of the first electrical recordings of the
responses of sensory receptors were made by E. D.
Adrian, who dissected away the axons of single
touch receptors from the skin and placed them over
a wire electrode to record action potentials (Adrian,
1928, 1931, 1947). A typical result from Adrian’s
experiments is illustrated in Figure 1.3A. Pressure
applied to the skin causes the frequency of action
potential firing to increase (upper trace). Pricking
the skin (lower trace) is also an effective stimulus
but evokes action potentials in more than one kind
of mechanoreceptor (note the different amplitudes
of the spikes recorded by the electrode). Adrian con-
cluded that action potentials from these receptor
cells are communicated to the brain and form the
basis of our sensation of touch. Using a similar tech-
nique, Hartline recorded action-potential discharges
from the compound eye of the horseshoe crab Lim-
ulus (Hartline and Graham, 1932) and showed (Fig-
ure 1.3B) that the frequency of action potential firing
depended both on the intensity and duration of the
light stimulation (Hartline, 1934). These were the
first single-cell responses recorded from an eye,
though we now know that they were not produced
by the photoreceptors themselves but rather by a
cell called the eccentric cell, which receives direct
synaptic input from the photoreceptors.

(A)

0.1s
(B)

Figure 1.3 Early electrical recordings of sensory responses. (A) Action potentials recorded from single axons dissected from the cutaneous nerve
of a frog. (B) Action potentials from the lateral eye of the horseshoe crab Limulus. Each trace gives the response to a different light intensity, which
was systematically increased by an additional factor of ten from dimmest (bottom) to brightest (top). (A from Adrian, 1947; B from Hartline and
Graham, 1932.)

The method of dissection of single nerve fibers is
difficult and tedious and was soon replaced by
recording with fine metal microelectrodes. These
electrodes are made from tungsten or platinum
wire exposed and sometimes gold-plated at the tip
but insulated along the rest of the length with glass
or plastic resin. These metal electrodes can be inserted
directly into the tissue to record the small extracel-
lular currents produced by action potentials of sin-
gle cells. Metal-electrode recording from the nerve
coming from the ear established many of the basic
properties of auditory responses, such as their time
course and dependence on the frequency of the
sound (see Kiang, 1965; Evans, 1975). The record-
ings in Figure 1.4 were collected from a single axon
from the ear and show action potentials as a func-
tion of sound intensity on the ordinate, with the
10
–10
–20
Relative tone signal level (dB)
–30
–40
–50
–60
–70
–80
0 2
Figure 1.4 Extracellular spike recordings from a single axon from the guinea pig ear. Frequency (pitch) of sound was systematically swept
from low to high for a range of different sound intensities. Frequency is plotted on abscissa and intensity is plotted on ordinate in a log scale
of decibels (dB). An increase of 20 dB is equivalent to a 100-fold increase in intensity. (From Evans, 1972.)
THE SENSES 5
frequency (pitch) of the sound on the abscissa. As
the sound was made progressively weaker, the range
of frequencies to which the axon responded became
progressively more restricted. The nerve fiber showed
greatest sensitivity to a tone near 10 kilohertz (kH),
since at this frequency (called the characteristic fre-
quency) a response could still be recorded even when
the sound was made very weak indeed. Recordings
of this kind showed that different axons in the audi-
tory nerve have different characteristic frequencies,
spanning the entire range of perceptible sound. The
axons are therefore labeled lines, each carrying infor-
mation about a different range of sound frequen-
cies. These experiments showed that the ear must
have some way of responding to sounds of different
frequencies, so that the different auditory receptors
can be tuned each to its own characteristic frequency.
4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Tone frequency (kHz)
6 S E N S O RY T R A N S D U C T I O N
The first extensive study with metal microelec-
trodes from olfactory receptors produced a com-
pletely different result (Gesteland et al., 1965). There
seemed to be no consistent pattern to the responses,
with many receptors responding to the same chem-
icals, sometimes with excitation, sometimes with
inhibition. Later recordings confirmed some but not
all of these conclusions. They showed that vertebrate
olfactory receptors all appear to respond with excita-
tion, producing an increase in spike frequency to
stimulation with an odor. Single cells do nevertheless
appear to be able to respond to a wide variety of
odors. Thus olfactory receptors seem not to be labeled
lines, at least not in the way originally supposed. I
return to this matter in Chapter 7, after I have described
the mechanism of olfactory transduction in detail.
These early recordings indicated that receptor cells
signal the arrival of sensory stimuli by producing a
change in electrical activity. What is the nature of
this electrical signal? Is it produced by some change
in the cell membrane potential? If so, what is the
mechanism that converts the sensory stimulus into
an electrical response?
A powerful tool for the investigation of these
questions became available with the invention of
the intracellular microelectrode in the late 1940s
(A)
20 mV
1s
Figure 1.5 Intracellular recordings from sensory receptors. Bars above recordings show timing and duration of light flashes. (A) Depolarizing
voltage response from photoreceptor of Limulus ventral eye. (B) Hyperpolarizing voltage response from photoreceptor (cone) of a fish. This is the
first published recording of the response of a vertebrate photoreceptor. (A from Millecchia and Mauro, 1969b; B after Tomita, 1965.)
(Ling and Gerard, 1949). An intracellular microelec-
trode is made from a piece of glass tubing typically
1 mm in diameter. The tubing is melted and pulled
to a fine point, in early studies by pulling the glass
by hand over a Bunsen burner, but later by placing
the glass in a mechanical device that heats the mid-
dle of the tubing and pulls at either end to form two
electrodes, each with a fine glass tip. The bore of the
electrodes is then filled with a concentrated salt
solution such as 3M KCl.
The first intracellular recordings from sensory
receptors were made by Hartline and collaborators,
again from the compound eye of the horseshoe crab
Limulus (Hartline et al., 1952). Figure 1.5A is from
the later study of Millecchia and Mauro (1969b),
also from Limulus. Light produces a positive-going
change in membrane potential, called a depolariza-
tion. Similar depolarizing responses were recorded
from many other types of sensory receptors, includ-
ing mechanoreceptors (Eyzaguirre and Kuffler,
1955; Loewenstein and Altamirano-Orrego, 1958)
and chemoreceptors of the nose (Getchell, 1977). It
came therefore as a great surprise when Tomita and
collaborators first showed that the response of a ver-
tebrate photoreceptor to light is a negative-going
hyperpolarization (Figure 1.5B and Tomita, 1965).
(B)
1 mV
0.5 s

Cracking the problem: molecular
physiology
Although the important observations of neuroanat-
omists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
and the first extracellular and intracellular record-
ings from receptor cells provided many clues about
the early steps in sensory processing, they told us
very little about transduction; that is, about the way
the electrical signal is generated by light or odor or
sound. The physical stimulus received by the sense
organ is somehow translated into a change in mem-
brane potential, which is then transmitted into the
central nervous system (CNS). The nature of this
process remained for a very long time a complete
mystery. This puzzle has now been substantially
solved for most of the senses in a variety of organ-
isms, providing a fairly clear picture of how sensory
signals are produced. These striking advances were
greatly facilitated by many years of patient biochem-
ical and electrophysiological investigation, but they
were then rather suddenly accelerated by the discov-
ery of the technique of patch-clamp recording and of
methods for cloning proteins and expressing their
activity.
The invention of the patch electrode by Neher and
Sakmann (1976) first made possible direct recordings
from the molecules responsible for the electrical
activity of nerve cells (see Sakmann and Neher, 1995).
A patch electrode is made from fine glass tubing
like an intracellular electrode, but the tip of a patch
pipette is made very smooth, either by a specialized
pipette puller (Brown and Flaming, 1977) or by pol-
ishing the end of the pipette with heat under a
microscope. The pipette is then pressed against the
soma of a cell and slight suction is applied, usually
by mouth (Figure 1.6A). The glass of the pipette
may then adhere to the cell membrane to form a
very tight seal, sometimes called a gigaseal, with a
resistance often of the order of 10 gigaohms (1010 Ω)
or greater. The very high resistance of this seal
reduces the electrical noise of the recording and
makes it possible to distinguish the opening and
closing of single channels in the membrane within
the orifice of the pipette (Figure 1.6B). Single-chan-
nel responses first of acetylcholine receptors (Neher
and Sakmann, 1976) and then of the Na+ channels of
axons (Sigworth and Neher, 1980) were studied
THE SENSES 7
(A)
(B)
3 pA
50 ms
Figure 1.6 Patch-clamp recording from single channels. (A) The tip
of a patch pipette is pushed against the cell body of a cell and slight
suction is applied to form a seal. (B) Single-channel currents recorded
from muscle acetylcholine receptors. The pipette contained 0.3 μM
acetylcholine. Downward deflections indicate channel opening. At
least two channels were present in this membrane patch. (B from
Trautmann, 1982.)
with patch-clamp recording. In a very short time,
recordings were obtained from many of the princi-
pal kinds of channel molecules of the cells of the
nervous system, including those of sensory recep-
tor cells.
Recordings made with patch electrodes sealed to
the surface of the plasma membrane as in Figure 1.6
are called on-cell or cell-attached recordings. The
extracellular surface of the membrane is exposed to
the solution inside the pipette, and the intracellular
surface is exposed to the cytosol. If the pipette is
sealed in this way and then gently lifted off the cell,
the plasma membrane often remains attached to the
pipette, forming an excised or inside-out recording
(Figure 1.7), so-called because the inside surface of
the membrane now faces the outside bathing solu-
tion. Inside-out recording makes possible the study
of channels that are opened or closed by the binding
of some intracellular substance to the cytoplasmic
side of a channel protein, such as Ca2+, cyclic nucleo-
tides, and other putative second messengers. As we
8 S E N S O RY T R A N S D U C T I O N
shall see, inside-out recording provided crucial evi-
dence establishing the identity of the intracellular
second messengers mediating vertebrate visual
(Fesenko et al., 1985) and olfactory (Nakamura and
Gold, 1987a) transduction.
If, on the other hand, a pipette is sealed onto a cell
and additional pressure or a brief voltage pulse is
applied, the membrane within the pipette can often
be made to break, establishing a direct connection
between the inside of the pipette and the inside of
the cell. This method of recording is called whole-
cell (Figure 1.7, left middle) and is useful for intro-
ducing small-molecular-weight molecules from the
pipette into the cell. The whole-cell mode of patch
clamp is also extensively used to voltage clamp
On-cell
Whole-cell
Figure 1.7 Different configurations of recording with patch-pipette technique. On-cell, whole-cell, inside-out, and outside-out recording
techniques as described in the text.
small cells. I describe the method of voltage clamp-
ing in more detail in Chapter 3. Whole-cell record-
ing has revolutionized cellular physiology, greatly
facilitating the study of electrical responses of a
variety of neurons such as pyramidal cells in the
cortex and granule cells in the cerebellum, as well as
many types of sensory receptor cells, including
photoreceptors, auditory hair cells, and the chemo-
sensory receptor cells of the nose and tongue.
A pipette in the whole-cell mode can also be lifted
off the cell. As Figure 1.7 shows (lower right), the
membrane will often then flip around and reseal,
leaving a small patch of excised membrane whose
outside surface faces the outside solution. This is
called an outside-out recording. The outside-out
Inside-out
Outside-out

mode of the patch-clamp technique has been espe-
cially useful for studying ligand-gated channels like
those at synapses. These channels have an extracel-
lular binding site for a small-molecular-weight trans-
mitter molecule. A putative transmitter can be
added to the bathing solution, and its effect on chan-
nel opening can be examined directly.
The revolution of molecular biology
The search for the mechanism of transduction was
also greatly facilitated by the development of the
techniques of molecular biology. Many of the most
important molecules of sensory cells are integral
membrane proteins, including the sensory receptor
proteins of the nose and tongue, as well as enzymes
of second-messenger cascades and the channels
that ultimately produce electrical responses. These
proteins are firmly embedded in the plasma mem-
brane and difficult to extract and study. In the 1960s
and early 1970s, the first attempts were made to isolate
these important molecules from neurons and sen-
Isolation of protein
{
Partial sequence:
NH2 Tyr Phe Ser Val
Either prepare
synthetic
(degenerate)
oligonucleotide
probes to screen
genomic DNA
library
Figure 1.8 Cloning a gene from partial sequence of a protein. Method of cloning used for many of the first proteins whose genes were cloned
from the nervous system. The method begins with isolation of partial sequence of a protein, which is then used to prepare oligonucleotides for
screening tissue DNA libraries.
THE SENSES 9
sory cells and to sequence and study them. In a few
favorable cases, it was possible to extract enough of
a protein in this way to obtain its complete amino
acid sequence (for example rhodopsin, see Arta-
monov et al., 1983; Hargrave et al., 1983; Hargrave,
2001). In most cases, however, only a very small
amount of protein could be extracted—too little to
be studied in detail, but enough in many cases to
allow the gene of the protein to be cloned.
Many membrane protein genes were first cloned
in a similar fashion (Figure 1.8). A small amount of
the protein was first extracted and purified, gener-
ally with chromatography or electrophoresis. It was
then digested with a protease, and a few small-molec-
ular-weight peptides were isolated and sequenced.
From these peptides, synthetic nucleotide sequences
were synthesized and used to screen a library of
clones, made from tissue of the animal from which
the protein was originally extracted. Alternatively,
an antibody was made to an isolated peptide and
used to screen an expression library. From the DNA
sequence of the clone, it was possible to infer the
Or make antibodies
against the
peptide to screen
an expression
library
T
A
C Bacterial
T expression
T
C library
T
C
C DNA
G library Replica plate
T
G
Nitrocellulose
Clone contains filter replica
cDNA for all or part
of the gene Antibody binding identifies
plaques corresponding to
colonies producing protein
10 S E N S O RY T R A N S D U C T I O N
amino acid sequence of the protein. It has also been
possible to identify families of related proteins
within an organism and from organism to organ-
ism, by examining complete genomic sequences.
We now have complete sequences of the genomes
of many model organisms such as the fruit fly Dros-
ophila, the mouse, and the zebrafish, as well as of
hundreds of other species, from sponges to Homo
sapiens.
Ultimately, the identification of a DNA sequence
as that of a functional protein rests upon the dem-
onstration that the DNA in question can direct the
synthesis of a molecule with biological activity. This
task can be done by expressing the protein. The DNA
of the identified clone can be used to make comple-
mentary RNA (cRNA), which is then inserted, for
example, into an oocyte of the frog Xenopus (Figure
1.9A). The oocyte can then be used for voltage-clamp
studies of the expressed protein. Alternatively, and
now more commonly, the DNA from the clone can
be incorporated directly into the DNA of a cultured
cell by a process called transfection (Figure 1.9B).
DNA packaged into a plasmid or viral vector can be
introduced into the cell by a variety of methods, for
example by exposing a cell to lipid vesicles contain-
ing the DNA, or by giving high-voltage pulses of
electricity to pierce holes in the cell membrane. The
DNA can then become incorporated into the gen-
ome of the cell, and the cells are cultured to select
those expressing the DNA of interest. If properly
linked to promoters or other regulatory elements, the
DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is in turn trans-
lated into protein. A stable population of cells may
be produced in this way expressing the protein of
interest. Transfection is often more convenient than
RNA expression in oocytes, because cultured cell
lines provide an excellent starting point for produ-
cing large quantities of expressed protein for struc-
tural or other studies, as well as a convenient
preparation for patch-clamp recording.
From the amino acid sequences of the proteins we
had our first clues about the structure of the mol-
ecules. Many of the most important proteins mediat-
ing sensory transduction are integral membrane
proteins with extensive sequences lying within the
hydrophobic interior of the lipid bilayer. From the
sequence alone, reasonable guesses can be made
about which amino acids lie within the membrane
and which are more likely to face the cytoplasmic
or extracellular solution (Figure 1.10). Some amino
acids (such as valine and isoleucine) are hydropho-
bic and much more likely to be surrounded by lipid
or other protein, whereas others (such as aspartate
and lysine) are hydrophilic or even charged and much
more likely to be surrounded by water. By a process
known as hydropathy analysis, the sequence of
amino acids can be used to make inferences about
how the protein folds, indicating the parts of the
sequence that are integrated into the membrane and
those that are exposed to the intracellular or extra-
cellular solution. Antibodies to specific sequences
can then be used to localize parts of the protein on
one side of the membrane or the other. Sequences
can be identified as substrates for glycosylation or
phosphorylation, or can be shown actually to be
glycosylated or phosphorylated. These identifica-
tions are often helpful in indicating regions that are
intracellular or extracellular, because glycosylases
and protein kinases only add sugar groups or phos-
phates at sites accessible to one side of the mem-
brane or the other.
Finally, membrane proteins either isolated or
expressed as in Figure 1.9 can be used to form crys-
tals suitable for X-ray crystallography, from which
the complete three-dimensional structure of the pro-
tein can be determined. Membrane proteins are in
general more difficult to crystallize than soluble pro-
teins, but with continued effort crystals were obtained
at about the same time for ion channels and G-protein
receptors (Doyle et al., 1998; Palczewski et al., 2000).
These methods have given us extensive information
about mechanisms of ion movement through potas-
sium (Jiang et al., 2003b; Long et al., 2005a, 2005b,
2007) and sodium (Payandeh et al., 2011; Catterall,
2012; McCusker et al., 2012) channels, as well as
protein conformation changes producing activation
in rhodopsin (Deupi et al., 2012) and other G-protein
receptors (see Erlandson et al., 2018).
Structures of near atomic resolution can also be
obtained by a newer method called cryogenic elec-
tron microscopy (cryo-EM). The protein of interest
is expressed in either bacteria or a cell line, and it is
then isolated and distributed onto an EM grid. The
grid is plunged into liquid ethane and then into
liquid nitrogen, to freeze the sample rapidly so as to
prevent the formation of ice crystals. The regularities
 THE SENSES 11

(A)

RNA
Vm

im

Vc

(B)
cDNA

Transfect,
select, and im
culture

Vc

Figure 1.9 Common methods of gene expression for recording electrical activity of ion channels and other membrane proteins. (A) Injection into
a Xenopus oocyte, which can then be studied by voltage clamping. (B) Transfection. DNA incorporated into a plasmid or viral vector is introduced
into the cell by electroporation, Ca2+ shock, or direct injection in the nucleus (as shown). The cell line may then be used for patch-clamp recording.
Vm, Membrane potential; Vc , command potential; R, feedback resistance of patch amplifier; im, membrane current.

of the structure of the frozen particles can then be
used to determine the structure of the protein.
Large proteins, proteins in solution, and proteins
with significant structural heterogeneity can now
be visualized with this method.
The techniques of molecular biology can also pro-
vide essential information about the function of
sensory proteins. Experiments of this kind have
been especially informative for receptors that use
second-messenger cascades, such as those in the eye
and nose. The cloning, for example, of the genes of
the family of receptor proteins mediating olfactory
transduction in the nose (Buck and Axel, 1991) has
led to remarkable insight into the organization and
mechanism of transduction in this tissue, which I
describe in considerable detail in Chapter 7. Similar
Another random document with
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of it, enemies—not you, yourself, I well knew that—enemies would be
bitter quick to say I was doing it from no honour and respect to you, but to
suit my own convenience, because Susan was off. So I held away, because I
saw that you'd be put in a false position, with your inclination—so I hope—
on one side, and your proper woman's pride on the other. And now I see
what a quandary it was, and how I've let you in for these painful adventures
—all from too much nice feeling, seemingly."

"You can make a case, of course, but——"

"Let me finish. I ban't here to argue, Melinda. We've known each other a
good long time now and it have been the bright ray in a troublous life, your
friendship for me. We looked at things from the same point of view, and
took high opinions, and laughed when we ought to laugh, and was serious
in due season. And good men are scarce and good women far scarcer. And
there never was and never will be a better woman than you. And it would
be a second spring to me to have such a one at my right hand. I want you,
not for this or that accident of life as have fallen upon me; but I want you
just the same as I have wanted you any time these ten years. I couldn't
speak till your father was gone, and I couldn't speak after, and in solemn
truth, being a man of pretty nice feelings, I couldn't speak an hour before
this instant moment. So you must sweep such trifles out of your mind and
come to the question with no bias, but just your honest feelings to me and
your memory of the past. So there it lies, my dear."

Mrs. Honeysett hesitated a few moments before replying—not because

she was in any doubt as to her answer, but from a native sense that all must
be done decently and in order.

Joe made the best of the situation and probably, had Melinda's attitude
to him remained unchanged, a look back into memory, as he suggested,
might have won the day for Mr. Stockman. She was conscious that a year
ago she would have pardoned his errors of egotism. She even suspected
that, as things were, they did not really lie at the root of the matter. But the
root of the matter extended into new ground. Here, however, she could not
pursue it. She only told herself that she would never marry Mr. Stockman
now; and while sharing his opinion, that her little grievances were really
unimportant and not worthy of being offered as a reason for refusal, she
only considered how, without them, she might gracefully decline. She let
her tongue go and trusted to chance. Then she suddenly saw a way and took
it.

"Us have had a very fine friendship indeed, Joe," she admitted, "and, in
my humble opinion, it would be a terrible mistake to spoil it this way. For
say what you may, friendship ain't love and love ain't friendship; and I do
feel, betwixt me and you, it might be a sad pity to lose the substance for the
shadow."

"You talk as if love would end friendship, instead of double it,

Melinda," he answered; but he was quick-minded and he knew the woman
meant to decline him. The thought immeasurably troubled Mr. Stockman,
for he had assumed success to be certain. He had, indeed, already proceeded
far beyond this point and planned his future with Melinda. He argued now
and made a very strenuous effort to prove that there is no friendship like
that of married people. He argued, also, that such an understanding as had
obtained between him and Melinda since his wife's death was sufficient
foundation for a very perfect and distinguished union.

She admitted that it might be so, but declined the experiment. She held
that love too often endangered and weakened friendship, even if it did not
actually destroy it; and she told him frankly, but with all consideration, that
her friendship and admiration for him did not tend in that direction.

"I'm very much addicted to you, Joe, and you've been a big figure in my
life for years, and will so continue I hope; but marriage with you don't draw
me. You've been like an elder brother to me, and I hope you'll see your way
to remain like that. But 'twould spoil all if we went into marriage. And, in a
word, I couldn't do it, because my feelings don't respond."

"This is a very painful shock to me," he answered. "Somehow, such was

you to me and, as I thought, me to you, that I felt the step could only be a
matter of time; and what's more, Melinda, you never did nothing to make
me feel otherwise—quite the contrary in fact. I don't say you—however,
we'll not go into that side. You know what I mean."
 "I do; and we will go into it, Joe, and have done with it. If you think I
encouraged you——"

"What do you think?"

"Never—God's my judge! I was very proud of being your friend, and I

got plenty of wisdom and good advice from you; and you often took a hint
from me also. But nothing tender ever passed between us—never."

"That depends on what you call tenderness. To the seeing eye and
feeling heart there may be a world of tenderness in a glance, Melinda, or in
a silence, or in a handshake. I did most honestly believe you felt more than
friendship for me, just as I have long felt more than friendship for you. And
I showed as much, by a lot of touches that a quick woman like you couldn't
have mistook. No, no, Melinda, that won't do. You knew."

"I'll take the blame, then, if you think I ought."

"Don't talk of blame. Consider if you ain't making a mistake. You're

simply wasted single, and here's a tidy sort of man offering; and all his is
yours, from the hour you say 'yes.' Weigh it. I know only too well what I'll
lose if you don't come to me. In fairness, then, you did ought to consider if
you don't lose pretty heavy too."

"Of course, of course. To lose your friendship would be a very great

disaster for me, Joe. It's been a steadfast and lasting thing, and I should feel
a cruel lot was gone if that was gone. But if it is to be a choice—— No;
leave it as 'tis between us, my dear man. Let's be friends and forget this. I'll
get 'e a cup of tea."

"As to friends, you don't quite see what you're doing yet, I'm afraid.
You'm acting in an astonishing way that throws down the past, Melinda, and
makes you like the rough and tumble of women—them with no fixed views
and opinions, as don't know their own mind—if they've got minds to know.
I'll be off instanter, Melindy, and leave you in hope that you'll think this
thing out and find you're on the edge of a terrible mistake. I never thought
I'd misunderstood you like this. Indeed, if I had fancied there was a doubt, I
should have probably been too proud to offer at all."
 He rose and prepared to depart.

Mrs. Honeysett, glad that he remained calm, was also thankful that he
should go.

"I'll never lose sight of you in my mind, or in my prayers," she said.

"I came in full sail," he answered; "now I go off like a ship without a
mast, or a rudder. It'll puzzle me to my dying day how you could be so
harsh."

He left her in deep dejection, which warmed to anger before he had

reached home. He convinced himself that Melinda had played him false.
For years there had been an implicit understanding in his mind that he had
but to put forth his hand to take. And he had been tender and abounded in
the little "touches" he mentioned. These Melinda had perfectly
comprehended and even appreciated. Nay, she had repaid them in kind. The
effect of her refusal was bad. Mr. Stockman saw his stable world reeling
about him. He had barely recovered from the shock of Susan's engagement
and now, after carefully rebuilding his future environment and allowing
himself to dwell philosophically on the bright side of it, he found all in
ruins and further necessity for fresh plans.

And that same evening, after supper, when Thomas Palk and Susan had
crept out for a walk, Lawrence Maynard came to the master of Falcon Farm
and gave notice.

"There's no hurry," he said. "I'm at your service, master, so long as you

want me; but I've made up my mind to leave England in the autumn and see
a bit of the world before it's too late. I think to go by Michaelmas, or a bit
after—to Australia very like—and take up land."

To Maynard's amazement Joe turned upon him with something almost

of fury. His cowman knew not of Joe's earlier reverse and all that he had
that day been called to endure.

"What—what are you telling me? You going too? You ungrateful devil!
You thankless, selfish toad! What have I done—what on God's earth have I
done—to be turned down and flouted and tormented at every step of my life
in this way? A man whose every act and thought be kindness for other
people; and now every man's hand be against me! Persecution I call it; and
you—you, who have had to thank me for far more than goes between
master and man; you, as I have offered friendship to, and trusted and treated
more like a son than a servant! You ought to be shamed to the marrow in
your bones to think to leave me—an old, careworn, ill-used wretch with one
foot in the grave and all the world turning its back on him."

"Don't—don't!" said Lawrence. "Don't take on like that. There's no

hurry for a few months. I've been very proud and grateful for all you've
done for me, Mr. Stockman."

"Get out of my sight," answered the other. "There's no honesty, nor

honour, nor plain dealing left in man or woman, so far as I can see. It's a
hell of a world, and I wish a good few people as I could name, yourself
included, had never come into it. My lines have fallen in shameful places,
and if I wasn't too old, I'd shake the dust off my shoes against Buckland and
everybody in it."

Then Maynard retreated and left Joe panting heavily and staring into the
kitchen fire.

He had gone to bed when Susan returned, and she and Tom and
Maynard mumbled in low voices for an hour while the latter described his
experience. To Stockman's daughter this outburst signified far more than it
did to either of the men, for she guessed upon what business her father had
been employed that afternoon, and now knew that a terrible disappointment
must have overtaken him. She wept half the night on his account and
mourned not a little on her own; for Joe's failure must inevitably increase
her personal difficulties and double the future problems of Thomas and
herself.
 CHAPTER XXXII

JANE AND JERRY

Under the first grey of dawn, Maynard posted a letter in the empty
wrens' nest and then proceeded down the hill to Lower Town. He was on an
errand from Falcon Farm to Mr. Chaffe, and then he would proceed to a
farm on the moor, about the purchase of two heifers. For Stockman had
long since found that Lawrence knew as much concerning cattle as himself.
The present arrangements had been made before the cowman gave notice,
and his latest letter to Dinah chronicled the fact that he had done so. He
answered also her last note. The letter-box worked well and many
communications had been exchanged. Dinah's were full of love and ardour.
Her plans amused him. They shared one determination; to take nothing with
them. They would sail from Plymouth for Australia presently and they
would be married at Sydney as soon as possible after landing. Maynard's
money was more than enough and their passages would be state-aided.
Preliminaries were complete and there remained only to fix their place of
meeting and date of sailing. Then they would simultaneously disappear.

Mr. Chaffe was already in his workshop when Maynard appeared.

"Early birds both!" said he. "I know what you've come about, however.
Joe wants me to look into his stables, where the dry rot have got, and see
how much must come out and be made good."

"That's right, Mr. Chaffe."

"I've been waiting and expecting it since Palk made the sad discovery.
But no doubt your master has his mind pretty full of greater things."

"He has, I'm afraid. And it's making him fall short of his usual sense
here and there."

"A man full of sense, however."

 "So I've always found him, and full of human kindness also. I've a lot to
thank him for—a very good friend to me. But a few days agone I gave
notice, because I'm going farther afield before I'm too old, and he took it
very bad indeed."

"My! You going too? Where?"

"To Australia. I want to see a bit of life and start fresh."

"And Joe didn't like it?"

"No; but he'll easily find a new cowman. There's nothing to get so
savage about that I can see."

"He'd come to look at you as part of his show. No doubt, falling on his
other troubles—— But he knows where to look for comfort I should hope.
After all, it's but a passing thing. I always say that we who live in a Vale
ought to know what a vale means. Life's gone a thought too flowing and
easy with Joe. This is all meant to make him think of Beyond."

"Thought of the next world don't make trouble anything less than
trouble."

"It ought then."

"Look after this world and the next will look after itself, Mr. Chaffe."

"A very dangerous opinion, Maynard, and I'm sorry you think so. It
shows a weakness in you. That ain't the Christian standpoint and you know
it."

"Your views are behind the times perhaps."

"Far from it: they're ahead of the times. It's the still, small voice ain't
heard in these days. The world knows its noisiest men, not its greatest; and
so it don't know its Saviour—not even yet."

"Life's life, Mr. Chaffe, and what you hold runs counter to life. It's no
sense preaching earthly misery to humans, because they're built to hate
misery and seek happiness."

"I don't preach misery. I only preach that happiness must be looked for
in the next world, not this one. It don't belong here and never will."

Maynard shook his head.

"I've thought of these things and I see your Church standing between
man and a lot of lawful happiness. Let the Church help to clear up the cruel
mess in this world."

"Then join the brotherhood of God and do your share."

"Only the brotherhood of man can do it. Justice ain't the possession of
you Church people alone. And while you demand such a lot of injustice,
you'll only lose your friends. Take marriage. You won't let marriage be a
human thing, nor yet divorce. You let marriage be a trap for people—easy
to get in, impossible to get out—then you've got the face to say it's God's
will—the God of love and mercy!"

"I'm sorry to hear you talk in this wicked way, and I know where you
learnt such bad learning," answered Arthur. "But Enoch Withycombe
wouldn't say those things now, Maynard. He's in the Light now, and it
would make him a very sad man to hear you."

"I didn't get my opinions from him. I only keep my eyes open and see
how life goes; and I know there's hundreds and hundreds of poor people
living in misery to-day, because you say God brought 'em together, instead
of the Devil."

"We'll talk about this another time. I must try to open your eyes if I can.
You stand on very dangerous ground and your little bit o' learning's like a
Jack o' Lantern—it'll land you in a bog if you don't watch it. John Bamsey's
much the same, only his doubts take him in another direction. The mischief
with you young men is that you think your own twopenny-halfpenny
opinions matter; and in his case, he lets a small thing like his own
experience poison his life and spoil his Christian outlook."
 "Your own experience isn't a small thing," argued Lawrence, but the
carpenter declared personal experience a very trumpery matter.

"Only the weak mind will let the things that happen to it influence
conscience and the knowledge of right and wrong," he said. "Our faith is
founded on a Rock, remember, and our bad luck and earthly frets and cares
did only ought to make us cling the stouter to that Rock."

They talked but did not convince each other. Then Lawrence went his
way, leaving in the mind of Mr. Chaffe considerable uneasiness. In the
carpenter's knowledge there were not a few who professed similar opinions,
and it greatly saddened him to see the younger generation slipping away
from the faith of its fathers. He held that no sound democracy was possible
without religion, and to hear young men say that religion had no more to do
with democracy than football, was a serious grief to him.

Meantime there had happened behind Lawrence Maynard's back a thing

of much import. Though the hour was still early, two people entered the
lane through the woods some fifty minutes after he had descended it, and
their arrival synchronised at the region of the ivy bank and the wrens' nest.
A few seconds more would have seen Jerry Withycombe past the spot, on
his way to work in the valley; but chance so willed it that, as he rounded a
bend on his way, he saw beneath him, but still far distant, a woman's sun-
bonnet, and he recognised its faded blue. She with whom his melancholy
thoughts were concerned was evidently approaching, and the fact that she
should be out so early, and on the way she knew he must be travelling to his
work, created sudden, deep emotion in the woodman. His quarrel with Jane
bulked larger in his eyes than in hers. She continued to be obdurate about a
trifle, from no opinion that the trifle really mattered, but because it gave her
a sense of freedom and a loophole if she so desired. She continued to be
really fond of Jerry, and it wanted no great change of mind to bring them
together. Indeed she proposed ere long to make it up. And now it seemed as
though she were about to do so, and had put herself to trouble and risen
early to meet him on his way.

A few moments, however, brought large disappointment for the man. At

sight of the sun-bonnet, he had backed and waited to watch. Now he
quickly perceived the approaching figure was not Jane's slim shape, but
Dinah's ampler proportions. He was cast down from a great hope and
scowled at the innocent Dinah. Then a ray of light shot his darkness, for it
occurred to him that Dinah might be a messenger of good tidings. At any
rate the sun-bonnet was Jane's—picked up haphazard no doubt, when Dinah
set forth.

He waited and watched a few moments before proceeding, then marked

Dinah stop and do a strange thing. She had not come to seek him it seemed
after all; but something she sought and something she found.

In truth the lover of Lawrence was there to leave a letter. She did not
expect one and was the more delighted to find the note left an hour before.
Jerry saw her peep about, to be sure she was alone, then go to the green
bank, insert her hand and bring out a small white object from the ivy. She
stood and evidently read a letter. Still he held back, in great wonder at this
scene. Dinah next produced something from her own pocket, opened it and
appeared to write. She was adding a few words to the note that she had
brought. She then put it in the nest and was quickly gone again down the
hill.

Jerry waited till Dinah had disappeared; then, having marked the spot
where she stood, he shouldered his frail and proceeded. Already he had a
suspicion of the truth and presently made cautious search under the ivy-
curtain. Nothing rewarded him until he found the old nest and a piece of
paper therein. It was folded closely but conveyed no information on the
outside. He held it in his hand a few moments and his mind worked in a
selfish direction. Here was an item of tremendous interest to one person. He
did not doubt that the letter was intended for a man, and felt very sure the
fact proved his own sweetheart's assurance: that Dinah was secretly
engaged, if not married. His thoughts were with Jane, and it seemed to him
that chance had now thrown him an admirable opportunity to win her back.
For such a secret as this would be meat and drink to her. Nor need it hurt
Dinah. Jerry had not the slightest desire to hurt anybody; but he felt that his
information might be well worth Jane's forgiveness; and if Dinah were
indeed courting a local man, no harm could befall either her, or him, by the
fact of their secret escaping. There might be a good joke in it: that anything
to distress and confound the secret lovers could spring from his discovery
he did not guess.

To him, then, this post office of Dinah and an unknown appeared a great
and delightful find, capable of doing him a very good turn. It meant a
triumph for Jane—a sort of triumph she would appreciate; but it also meant
a bargain that should recover Jane's friendship before completion.

To find the unknown man would be easy now; indeed Jerry guessed that
he had only to open the letter to learn it; but that was not an action possible
to him. He restored the folded paper to its place, marked the spot very
carefully and was content to leave the rest to Jane. She would have to see
him, and that for the moment she declined to do; but he proposed to himself
a visit after his day's work and doubted not that, if he pressed it forcibly
enough, she might consent. Failing that, he would have to proceed single-
handed with his inquiry. He felt sure enough that Jane had all along been
right in her conviction that Maynard was the man, and he already
anticipated her triumph if this should prove to be so.

That night he called at Green Hayes and it was Dinah who answered his
knock. Jerry felt uncomfortable, but salved his conscience and invited her
friendship.

She, knowing very well why he was come, left him and returned to the
kitchen.

"Jerry wants to see you half a minute, Jane," she said. "He won't keep
you, but he's got something to say as you must hear. It's a wonderful thing,
he says, and will interest you a lot."

Jane, however, showed no immediate inclination to respond.

"Like his cheek," she said. "Didn't I tell the know-naught fool that when
I wanted him I'd let him know?"

"Well, he wants you. And he's bursting with news seemingly. He begged
me very earnest to ask you to see him."
 "Perhaps his patience is out," said Mrs. Bamsey. "Perhaps he's come to
give you up, Jane."

"No," she said. "I ban't feared of that. I only want him to see sense over
a little matter here and there. If we are to be married in the autumn, he's got
to understand about a few things."

Jane's secrets were secrets no longer. Her dream of a shop at Ashburton

was now common knowledge.

"Go to him then. You've kept it up long enough if you really want him,"
said her mother.

"What should he have to tell me, except he's come round to my views?"
asked Jane.

"Perhaps he has," replied Dinah.

Jane rose, dropped a story book and went out. There was a mumble of
voices. Then Dinah and Faith heard her go down the garden path with Jerry.

"Thank goodness that's over," said Dinah. "Now you'll have peace, Mrs.
Bamsey."

"I don't know," answered the elder. "They're not really well suited. Jane
did ought to have taken a town man."

"She'll break him in to bricks and mortar after a bit," prophesied Dinah.
"They love each other properly enough."

"If that was so, there'd be no talk of breaking in," said Jane's mother.

Meantime Jerry had spoken.

"It's very kind of you to see me," he said, "and you won't regret it. I've
got a great piece of news for you, and it's a triumph for you, Jane, and if
you agree to come round and make it up and be same as you was, I'll tell
you."
 "What's the great news you'd be likely to hear?"

"I didn't hear it: I found it out. And it'll be a lot more to you than me for
that matter."

They talked like children.

"Very well then I'll hear it."

"And be friends?"

"I'll be friends, if it's such great news as you say."

"No; that means you'll go back on it after. You must be friends. And
we'll regard it still open about the shop. And you needn't fear my news ain't
great. 'Tis a triumph for you, and everybody will say so."

Jane's triumphs were few. She considered. She had not the faintest idea
of the matter in his mind, yet was glad to be close to him again and hear his
voice.

"All right then," she said. "The shop can wait."

"Will you come out for an hour? Then you shall see something, as well
as hear tell about it."

She turned, picked up the sun-bonnet that Dinah had donned in the
morning, and followed him.

He made her kiss him and then they went up the hill as he told his story
in every particular.

"And why for I've fetched you out," he said, "is because you shall see it
with your own eyes."

She was deeply interested.

"And 'tis greatly to your credit," declared Jerry, "for you've seen through
it from the first, like the clever one you are. 'Tis a feather in your cap, Jane."
 "It fits in very suent," she answered, "because Maynard's given warning
and be off presently; and if 'tis him, then no doubt they'll be off together.
And God knows that won't trouble me."

"Why all this secret business?" asked Jerry. "There's no law against 'em
marrying if they want to. What be they shamed of?"

"Can't you see that? The man who's after Dinah must know all about the
past and how she served John. He's feared of John. My brother's took this
like any proud man would. He's not going to have his name dragged in the
dirt and take his wicked wrongs lying down."

Jerry was concerned.

"You don't mean to tell me this is any business of John's? Surely to God
he's got sense enough to——?"

"You can leave John," she said, to calm his anxiety. "I'm not one to
make trouble I'm sure. I'm only telling you. The chap after Dinah is afeared
of John, and that's why they're keeping it close hid. What other reason can
they have?"

"Then I do beg you'll respect their secret plans so far," urged Jerry. "I'm
not telling you this for any mischief against anybody. I only wanted for you
to have the pleasure of finding yourself in the right; and I thought 'twould
be a bit of fun to let everybody know of it, and surprise Dinah and him and
have a laugh at 'em—all friendly and well meaning. But if you tell me
Johnny still means to be evil disposed to anybody as looks at Dinah, then
the case is altered, for that means trouble."

But Jane was not prepared to lose the salt of the adventure for Jerry, or
anybody. She kept her intentions secret, however.

"John's not a fool. I didn't mean that he'd do anything. What could he
do? I only meant that the man, whoever he is, feels frightened of him. Of
course there's no reason why he should be. Only a coward would be. So he's
fair game anyway."
 "If 'tis to be a laughing matter, I'll go on—not else," vowed Jerry; but
she assured him that nothing but laughter would end the incident in any
case.

They climbed the hill and he picked up his marks; then bade Jane light
matches while he hunted for the nest. It was quickly found; she put her hand
in and drew out Dinah's letter deposited that morning.

"He haven't come for it yet," said Jerry. "So us had better be moving, for
he might be on his way this minute."

But Jane delayed and held the letter in her hand.

"If he only comes by night, we shall never find out who it is," she
answered. "And you've been a very clever chap indeed, Jerry; and the rest
you can leave with me. And don't you fear no trouble—of course not."

There was an obvious desire in her mind; but she guessed what Jerry
would think of it and so kept it hidden and returned the letter to the nest.

"Well, you're a great wonder to find this out," she said, "and I'll keep my
word and be friends. Don't you whisper a word to a soul yet. Leave it to
me."

"No, no—this is your bit of fun," he declared. "They'll puzzle like fury
to know how it slipped out, and us'll all roar with laughter at 'em I expect."

Indeed, he laughed in anticipation.

"Hush!" she said. "The man may be on his way now. I'll see you Sunday
afternoon. And I'll find out for sure who the chap is by then, if I've got to
hide and watch for him."

Jerry was overjoyed and embraced her.

"Sunday, then, and thank God we'm all right again, and us must never
fall out no more, Jane; and I shall always feel kindly to these people,
whether or no, because they've done this good deed for us."
 Then they parted, each promising the other to keep a sharp look out on
any passer-by. Jerry went his way in the best possible spirits and Jane
started to run down the hill. But she did not run far and after her lover was
out of the way, she stole back. She had kept his box of matches and now did
a thing Jerry had probably forbidden. Not perhaps that his objection might
have stopped her, but Jane's mind moved swiftly. Before all else it was
desirable to find out the man, and she felt that nobody but a fool would
waste time in detective operations while so simple an expedient as opening
a letter offered. She had observed that Dinah's missive was merely folded,
not sealed, and now she returned to the nest, found it and satisfied herself.
Jane's honesty reached a point that amply soothed conscience. She had no
intention to read the letter: that she would have held an improper action; but
if the first words indicated the recipient, as she doubted not they would,
then a great deal of time and trouble might be saved.

Jane opened the letter, having first listened that no approaching footfall
broke the silence. Then she struck another match, read the words, "My
darling Man," and hesitated. The match went out and she stood with the
letter in her hand. Experience told her, from her own occasional
communications to Jerry, that one might begin with an endearing but vague
term and yet, at some later point in one's communication, mention the loved
object by name. Dinah's large, free handwriting was easily seen and Jane
considered that it would be possible to skim the letter, without really
reading it, on the chance of finding the information she desired. This astute
reasoning was rewarded, for, on the second sheet, as her eyes flickered
along the lines, the name "Lawrence" very clearly appeared. Then she
stopped, dropped her match, folded the letter carefully, restored it to its
place and was gone.

"There's only one 'Lawrence' in these parts," thought Jane. Her

reflections were now entirely with her brother. She did not echo Jerry's
wish, that the matter should end in laughter, and clever though Jane was in
some directions, there was a streak of malevolent idiocy about her in others.
She now cherished a vague opinion that the man ought to suffer for his
secret love-making. She despised him for a coward and rejoiced to think
that John might do something drastic in the matter. That Maynard should be
called upon to suffer seemed entirely reasonable to Jane; while as far as
Dinah was concerned, she panted with delight that her little schemes were
now to be made as public as the bird's-nest she had trusted with them. She
hated Dinah and had always done so. Anything therefore that could make
Dinah miserable must commend itself to Jane.

"And she shall know who she's got to thank, too," reflected the maiden;
"there wouldn't be much in it for me if she didn't hear who'd found her out."

Full of these unamiable intentions Jerry's sweetheart returned home and

announced that she and her lover were reconciled.

"Thank the Lord for that, then," cried Dinah. "And don't you give him a
chance to quarrel again. 'Tis good time lost, Jane."

"You mind your own love affairs," answered the other tartly. "Us all
know you've got 'em; but be too shamed of 'em, seemingly, to make 'em
public."

With this crushing response Jane retired while Dinah stared after her.

"Don't mind the girl," said Faith Bamsey. "You be such a woman of
mystery since you went off about your affairs, that you mustn't quarrel with
people if they fling their words at you."

"I don't want to quarrel with anybody, Mrs. Bamsey," answered Dinah.

CHAPTER XXXIII

JOE HEARS THE SECRET

Susan and Thomas were returning from church, where they had sat
solemnly together and heard their banns called for the first time of asking.
Mr. Stockman, informed that this would happen, declined to go; indeed of
late he had worshipped but seldom, permitting personal trials to check his
devotions. The betrothed pair discussed Susan's father on the way home and
Palk held it an impropriety that Mr. Stockman should not have been present.

"Out of respect to you, he did ought to have been there," he said; "and
it's a very oneasy thing; because the next we shall hear may be that he won't
come to the wedding neither."

"He's a regular Job for the minute—first one thing took and then
another, till I dare say he feels the Lord have turned from him," murmured
Susan.

"Not at all. Naught have overtook him that ain't well inside the common
lot. Look at the items—firstly, his daughter gets engaged to be married to
his hossman—a thing that ought to rejoice him instead of cast him down;
secondly, his cowman gives notice—a thing that may happen to any farmer;
and thirdly, yonder woman won't take him."

Thomas pointed where, fifty yards ahead of them, Melinda and her
brother were walking home from church.

Soosie-Toosie nodded mournfully.

"There's no doubt. And that's a very harsh blow for father anyway. He'd
always counted he could fall back on Melinda, like you put by a nest egg
for the rainy day. And I'm a good bit disappointed in that quarter—quite as
much as father in fact. But you mustn't whisper it, Tom; because of course
the world ain't supposed to know father offered and got turned down."

"Other people won't pretend if we do," answered Mr. Palk. "He blew the
trumpet about it himself, and everybody well understands that Mrs.
Honeysett refused him."

"I'd give a fortune to know why," answered Joe's daughter. "Some day
I'll ax her, I shouldn't wonder. Meantime I'd very much like to talk to her on
another subject; and that's us."

"We must go on our appointed way. We don't want no outside opinions."

 They overtook Melinda, and while Thomas talked with Jerry, the
women fell back and Susan spoke of private affairs. She explained her
gathering difficulties and Melinda listened with a good deal of sympathy.

"'Tis very undignified of your father, Susan—more like a naughty,

disappointed child, than a man with fame for sense. I allow for him,
because a good few things have happened to shake him; yet, so far as you
and Mr. Palk are concerned, it did ought to be all joy and gladness."

"So it ought; but far from it," answered the other. "Father's got to such a
pass now that when I tell him I'm wishful to name the day, he dares me to
do so."

"Very wilful and unkind, and something ought to be done about it,"
declared Mrs. Honeysett. "I've been thinking a good deal on Joe lately, as I
dare say you can guess; and no doubt you know very well why he came to
see me a fortnight agone, Soosie. But I don't forget the past and I don't want
to lose his friendship, nor yet yours. And I've thought a lot about you and
him."

They lagged and mumbled together for some time; but it was clear that
Melinda's views commended themselves much to Susan, and when they
joined Jerry and Thomas at the turn to Mrs. Honeysett's house, Joe
Stockman's daughter thanked her friend gratefully for some inspiring
suggestions.

She talked without ceasing to Tom all the way home, and he listened
and nodded and declared there might be a good deal in it.

"'Tis a great thought," he said, "and if you feel kind to it, then I might.
Us'll see—'tis a rod to hold over the man, because it be full time for your
father to find out where he stands."

"'Tis a sort of bargain of course," admitted Susan; "but you wouldn't call
it a one-sided bargain."

"Not at all. It lets him out so as he can save his face before the folk. And
it shows him what good-tempered creatures you and me are."
 Thomas thought it might be possible to speak at the end of that day.

"I'll ax him to have a spot out of my bottle to-night," he said, "and if he

condescends so far as to do so, then I'll open on him—not otherwise."

Mr. Palk was disappointed, however, for during the evening there came
in John Bamsey to supper.

He appeared to be in a good temper and hid the object of his visit until
after the meal was ended. He spoke chiefly of his own work on the river,
and then of his father. Mr. Bamsey had sunk to be the mere husk of a man
and his son frankly hoped that he might soon pass away.

"To know he was dead wouldn't be half so wisht as to see him alive like
this," he said.

John was tactful with regard to Susan and Thomas. Indeed, he

congratulated them out of earshot of Cousin Joe, and hoped it would be all
right. To Maynard he was civil and no more.

Then, when opportunity came to do so, unheard by anybody else, he

asked Mr. Stockman to walk out and smoke a pipe as he had something
private to tell him. Joe was bored, for no affairs but his own interested him
at this moment; but he obliged the younger, and through a warm, thundery
night they strolled upon the Beacon. For a time the elder uttered general
grievances and when he mentioned Lawrence Maynard, John struck in.

"That's why I wanted to get you away from them. There's a bit of news
about Maynard; but perhaps you know it. And when it's out, he's got to
reckon with me."

"Maynard's a very disappointing chap," declared the farmer. "Never did

I like a man better, and never did I treat a man better, and I'm quite
reasonable in that quarter when I say this is no ordinary case of a hand
giving notice. He's outside his right to do any such thing with me; for I've
been as good as a father to him for very near two years, and he well knew I
never counted upon his going, and he's got no justice or honesty in him to
do so."