midday
`` I 'll meet you beyond Reigate , '' he murmured to the tramp . `` You 'll see . '' And the car vanished along the white road . All the morning the tramp splashed through the thawing snow , but at midday he begged some bread at a cottage door and crept into a lonely barn to eat it . It was warm in there , and after his meal he fell asleep among the hay . It was dark when he woke , and started trudging once more through the slushy roads . Two miles beyond Reigate a figure , a fragile figure , slipped out of the darkness to meet him .