Cognitive Reasoning for Compliant

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Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics 127

Daniel Sebastian Leidner

Cognitive
Reasoning for
Compliant Robot
Manipulation
Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
Series editors
Prof. Bruno Siciliano
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica
e Tecnologie dell’Informazione
Università degli Studi di Napoli
Federico II
Via Claudio 21, 80125 Napoli
Italy
E-mail: siciliano@unina.it
127
Prof. Oussama Khatib
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-9010
USA
E-mail: khatib@cs.stanford.edu
Editorial Advisory Board

Nancy Amato, Texas A & M, USA

Oliver Brock, TU Berlin, Germany
Herman Bruyninckx, KU Leuven, Belgium
Wolfram Burgard, University Freiburg, Germany
Raja Chatila, ISIR—UPMC & CNRS, France
Francois Chaumette, INRIA Rennes—Bretagne Atlantique, France
Wan Kyun Chung, POSTECH, Korea
Peter Corke, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Paolo Dario, Scuola S. Anna Pisa, Italy
Alessandro De Luca, Sapienza University Rome, Italy
Rüdiger Dillmann, University Karlsruhe, Germany
Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley, USA
John Hollerbach, University Utah, USA
Lydia E. Kavraki, Rice University, USA
Vijay Kumar, University Pennsylvania, USA
Bradley J. Nelson, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Frank Chongwoo Park, Seoul National University, Korea
S. E. Salcudean, University British Columbia, Canada
Roland Siegwart, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Gaurav S. Sukhatme, University Southern California, USA

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5208

Daniel Sebastian Leidner

Cognitive Reasoning
for Compliant Robot
Manipulation

123
Daniel Sebastian Leidner
Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Wessling, Germany

ISSN 1610-7438 ISSN 1610-742X (electronic)

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
ISBN 978-3-030-04857-0 ISBN 978-3-030-04858-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04858-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962373

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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To my brother Björn
Foreword

Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. From a

largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into human envi-
ronments and vigorously engaged in its new challenges. Interacting with, assisting,
serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch
people and their lives.
Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has
produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse
research areas and scientific disciplines, such as biomechanics, haptics, neuro-
sciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others.
In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source
of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of
disciplines that the most striking advances happen.
The Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is devoted to bringing to the
research community the latest advances in the robotics field on the basis of their
significance and quality. Through a wide and timely dissemination of critical
research developments in robotics, our objective with this series is to promote more
exchanges and collaborations among the researchers in the community and con-
tribute to further advancements in this rapidly growing field.
The monograph by Daniel Sebastian Leidner is based on the author’s doctoral
thesis. It conjugates the two research worlds of artificial intelligence and robotics in
one original work on cognitive reasoning for compliant robot manipulation.
Representation, planning, execution, and interpretation of constrained manipulation
tasks naturally lead to the concept of intelligent physical compliance. These
methodological issues are keenly discussed along with supporting practical issues,
clearly demonstrating the potential of cognition-enabled service robots.

vii
viii Foreword

Rich of examples developed by means of extensive experimentation on a

humanoid robotic platform both on ground and in a space context, this volume was
the winner of the 2018 Georges Giralt PhD Award for the best doctoral thesis in
Europe. A very fine addition to the STAR series!

Naples, Italy Bruno Siciliano

October 2018 STAR Editor
Preface

This manuscript is the result of six years of research conducted between 2011 and
2017 at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center
(DLR). The findings were elaborated in cooperation with the Institute for Artificial
Intelligence at the University of Bremen. This exceptional alliance between two
of the world’s leading research facilities on artificial intelligence and robotics
enabled me to realize this work.
Accordingly, I would first like to express my utmost gratitude to my supervisors,
Prof. Michael Beetz and Prof. Alin Albu-Schäffer, for the opportunity to live out
this relationship under their guidance. In addition, I would like to thank Christoph
Borst for his trust in my qualities as a robotics researcher that allowed me to work in
one of the most inspiring environments. My special thanks go to Florian Schmidt,
who introduced me to the world of robotics and continually supported me during
my research. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr. Alexander Dietrich, which
whom I collaborated in several publications leading to a better understanding of the
interconnections between high-level reasoning and low-level control. Thanks to
Georg Bartels, for the interesting and fruitful discussions during our research stays,
which resulted in many valuable ideas. Thanks to my former students, Peter
Birkenkampf and Wissam Bejjani, for their support.
My deep gratitude goes to the entire support team of Rollin’ Justin for the
maintenance of the robot, which are Thomas Gumpert, Werner Friedl, Martin
Heumos, Robert Burger, Alexander Beyer, and Dr. Jörg Butterfass.
Special thanks go to the METERON SUPVIS Justin team, who helped to push
the robot to the limits, resulting in an excellent experiment. In particular, I would
like to thank Dr. Neal Y. Lii, Peter Birkenkampf, Ralph Bayer, and Benedikt
Pleintinger.
Moreover, I would like to thank the people proofreading this book: Dr. Neal Y.
Lii, Dr. Alexander Dietrich, Dr. Maxime Chalon, and Dr. Freek Stulp.

ix
x Preface

Thanks to my parents Birgit and Lothar, who supported me during my entire life,
always believing in my strengths. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Hanna for
her love. Without her patience and her support while raising our newborn son Leon
Maximilian, I would have been unable to finish this work.

Munich, Germany Daniel Sebastian Leidner

May 2017
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 A Survey on Everyday Compliant Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 The Concept of Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.1 Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3.2 Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.3 Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.4 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.6 Publication Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1 Physical Compliance in AI and Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2 The Humanoid Service Robot Rollin’ Justin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3 Motion Planning and Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Symbolic Planning and Logic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.5 Knowledge Representation and Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3 Classifying Compliant Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1 Manipulation Taxonomies in Robotics Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.1 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.2 Investigating Applicable Taxonomies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2 The Compliant Manipulation Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.1 Classification Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.2 Example Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.2.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

xi
xii Contents

3.3 Classification of Wiping Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3.3.1 Classification Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.3.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4 Representations for Compliant Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.1 Representing Task Knowledge as Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2 Object-Centric Action Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2.1 Action Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.2 Action Templates for Compliant Manipulation . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Representing the Effects of Wiping Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.4 Representing Wiping Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.5 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5 Planning Everyday Manipulation Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1 Symbol Grounding and Semantic Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1.1 Object-Centered Hybrid Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.1.2 Backtracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.1.3 Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.1.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.2 Mobile Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.2.1 Reasoning About Reachability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.2.2 Whole-Body Motion Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.2.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3 Effect-Space Planning of Wiping Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3.1 Reasoning About Cartesian Wiping Motions . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.2 Generating Whole-Body Joint Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3.3 Reachability Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.3.4 Combined Wiping Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.3.5 Effect Prediction and Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.3.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.4 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6 Compliance Parameterization and Task Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.1 Control Strategies for Compliant Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.1.1 Impedance Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.1.2 Hierarchical Whole-Body Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Contents xiii

6.2 Controller Parameterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

6.2.1 Trajectory Design in Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.2.2 Controlling the Contact Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.2.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.3 Execution of Compliant Wiping Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.3.1 Scrubbing a Mug with a Sponge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.3.2 Skimming a Window with a Window Wiper . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.3.3 Collecting Shards with a Broom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.3.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.4 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
7 Semantic Interpretation of Haptic Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7.1 Effect Inference Based on Haptic Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.1.1 Contact Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7.1.2 Effect Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.1.3 Failure Detection and Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.1.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.2 Semantic Analysis with OpenEASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.3 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
7.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
8 Applied Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.1 The METERON SUPVIS Justin Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.2 A Supervised Autonomy UI Based on Action Templates . . . . . . . 169
8.3 Mission Objectives and Scientific Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
9 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9.1 Manuscript Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
9.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9.3 Open Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.4 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
List of Used Symbols and Abbreviations

The used symbols appear in equations or within the description of algorithms. Their
meaning remains thereby consistent throughout the entire manuscript, if not
otherwise stated. The listed pseudocode shall be considered independent of any
concrete implementation, yet it is derived from Python syntax. Assignments of
variables are thereby denoted by the left arrow symbol (e.g.,
0). List attach-
ments are denoted by the concatenation operator, where angle brackets encompass
the element to be attached (e.g., X_ hxend i).
In the following, the most frequent quantities and abbreviations of prominent
importance are listed. They may appear with different subscripts and superscripts,
where a dot donates a total derivative with respect to time t. Scalar quantities are
_ f ext ,
printed as plain letters (e.g., fi, lmax , O). Vectors and matrices are bold (e.g., x,
P). The meaning of the symbols is not further specified at this point, but detailed in
the respective chapters they are introduced.

Symbols

fi Action Template

Tier value for a particular action
d Step size
„ Mean value
r Standard deviation
i; j; k Indices for numbering and iterations
n Node element in a graph
r Reachability index
t Time
x; y Particle coordinates
N; M Numbers (e.g., number of robot joints)
O Object of interest
V Spring potential

xv
xvi List of Used Symbols and Abbreviations

‚ Discretized A* map
¿ Vector of joint torques
u Region of interest
e List of effects
f Vector of (generalized) Cartesian forces
p List of preconditions
q Link-side joint configuration
x Vector of Cartesian coordinates
A List of Action Templates
U List of low-level robot commands
X List of elemental robot operations
C Controller parameter vector
D Positive definite damping matrix
G Geometric state of the environment
J Jacobian matrix
P Particle distribution state
S Symbolic state of the environment
T Transition vector (symbolic or geometric)
Q Configuration space trajectory
X Cartesian trajectory

Abbreviations

act Actual
cmd Command
des Desired
dev Deviation
e.g. Exempli gratia (for example)
eef End effector
ext External
i.e. Id est (that is)
max Maximum
min Minimum
w.r.t. With respect to
AI Artificial intelligence
DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace
Center)
DOF Degree(s) of freedom
ESA European Space Agency
ISS International Space Station
KDE Kernel density estimation
METERON Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operation Network
MST Minimum spanning tree
List of Used Symbols and Abbreviations xvii

OpenRAVE Open Robotics Automation Virtual Environment

PDDL Planning Domain Definition Language
ROI Region of interest
RRT Rapidly Exploring Random Trees
SDG Semantic directed graph
TCP Tool center point
TSP Traveling salesperson
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Artist’s conception of a universal service robot cleaning

a public area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2
Fig. 1.2 The concept of Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4
Fig. 1.3 Examples of wiping actions observed in everyday
environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 7
Fig. 1.4 Failed attempt to collect all shards of a broken mug. A robot
has to be able to detect the effects of its actions and relate them
to previously conducted predictions in order to estimate
the task outcome qualitatively. This requires substantial
reasoning on the contact situation, the applied contact force,
and the compliance parameterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9
Fig. 1.5 Actions relate motions to effects. motions result in effects
and in return, analyzing effects can be used to assess
the performance of motions. Objects properties are used
to parameterize actions and the outcome of an action can
be used to refine object properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 10
Fig. 1.6 The symbol grounding problem visualized at the example
of collecting breadcrumbs by wiping along the surface with
a sponge. The geometric action incorporates the wiping motion
as well as the effect (i.e. the accumulated breadcrumbs). Both
have to be associated with the semantic meaning . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
Fig. 1.7 Whole-body impedance control scheme based on Dietrich
(2015). The redundant robot resolves the deviation of the
spatial virtual equilibrium compliantly while the tool is
in contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 13
Fig. 1.8 The humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin is disturbed during
a wiping task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
Fig. 1.9 Overview of the chapters. The associate research papers
are listed accordingly. Chapters three to six are arranged
w.r.t. the concept of Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . .. 18
Fig. 2.1 Excerpt of the research topics of AI and robotics . . . . . . . . . . .. 27

xix
xx List of Figures

Fig. 2.2 Sensors and actuators of the humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin . . .. 28
Fig. 3.1 An object-centric view is used to derive classification terms.
Each classification term describes an abstract view on the
contact situation between the two reference systems, i. e.
the hand-object system colored in black and the environment
colored in gray. It is thereby not of interest if the tool is guided
by a robotic manipulator (left) or a human hand (right) . . . . . .. 43
Fig. 3.2 Hierarchy of compliant manipulation tasks. For each leaf
of the tree an example action is given. The complexity
increases from top to bottom in number of parameters
to be considered during the reasoning process. Note that
neither hand kinematics, nor the hand posture, nor the contact
between the hand and the grasped object are considered
for classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 44
Fig. 3.3 Example of peg-in-hole insertion as combination of three
actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 48
Fig. 3.4 Matrix classification of wiping tasks according to the tool,
the surface, and the medium, versus the role of the medium.
The tool (grasped by a human hand) is abstracted as a rectangle
capable of all illustrated actions. The motion of the tool is
indicated as a solid arrow. The surface is always shown on
the bottom of the corresponding matrix cell. It might be flat
as illustrated, curved, or of any other shape. The medium is
shown shown in an abstract form in the initial state (solid
circles) and in the goal state after the action is performed
(dashed circles) where dashed arrows indicate the transition
of the medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 50
Fig. 4.1 Representing intelligent physical compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 56
Fig. 4.2 Example ontology for the _window_wiper object class.
The skim action is populated w.r.t. the properties
of the kaercher_wv50_wiper and the properties
of the mockup_window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 58
Fig. 4.3 Classical program for a polishing action with
a KUKA robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 59
Fig. 4.4 The action template for a pick action provided by the generic
_object class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 60
Fig. 4.5 The action template for a skimming action as it is provided
by the abstract _window_wiper class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 64
Fig. 4.6 Change estimation of the particle distribution in contact with
a sponge during wiping. A uniform particle distribution is
assumed in the example at hand. Upon contact with the
sponge, the particle model is updated w.r.t. the properties
of the medium. Here, solid particles are simulated to be
pushed by the sponge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 65
List of Figures xxi

Fig. 4.7 The particle model to represent effects of wiping motions.

On the left, the particles are pushed such that they accumulate
in front of the sponge. On the right, the particles are deleted
as they touch the sponge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
Fig. 4.8 Example of SDGs for the three removal actions. The nodes ni
are visualized by cyan boxes. The edges ni , ni þ 1 are shown
as blue lines. The goal positions are highlighted as green
boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71
Fig. 5.1 Planning intelligent physical compliance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 78
Fig. 5.2 The flow chart for solving manipulation tasks within the object
context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 80
Fig. 5.3 Example parameterization of the geometric process models
of the skim Action Template with different wipers and
windows. The target surface is highlighted in red. The
derived tool trajectories are drawn in blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 81
Fig. 5.4 Alternative parameter sets and geometric backtracking are used
to find a feasible configuration to clean the inner side of a mug
with a sponge. Given the choice made for the first alternative,
the hand is covering the mug, which prevents any sucessful
task completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 83
Fig. 5.5 None of the alternatives explored in Fig. 5.4 are sucessful, such
that symbolic backtracking has to be initialized. The symbolic
planner explores the symbolic state space anew. As a result,
the planner adds a handover action such that the inner side
of the mug can be cleaned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 83
Fig. 5.6 Cross section of the Capability Map for Rollin’ Justin’s
right arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 87
Fig. 5.7 Optimal intersection of the capability map for the right
manipulator and the ROI of a window wiper on the left,
and the optimal intersection for the ROI of a window
on the right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 89
Fig. 5.8 Simulation of whole-body motions to solve the window
wiping task. The robot executes wiping motions from the left
to the right, starting at the top of the window pane. The large
area requires the robot to use its right arm, the torso and
the mobile base to reach the entire window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 91
Fig. 5.9 The workspace trajectory for wiping the window (left)
and the corresponding reachability index r for the end-effector
along the complete trajectory (right) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 92
Fig. 5.10 Illustration of the robotic agent Rollin’ Justin skimming
the windshield of a car and scrubbing the hood
with a sponge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 93
xxii List of Figures

Fig. 5.11 Simulated particle distribution on the target surface

in the chopping board scenario. The initial distribution
of the particles is randomly sampled. This can be assumed
for any barely perceivable medium, such as small
breadcrumbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94
Fig. 5.12 The chopping board defines the target surface and thus
the boundaries for the particle distribution. The visualized
collision sphere matches the size of the sponge in Fig. 4.6.
It is visualized for the graph node positions ni , where
green is valid and red in collision with the environment. . . . . .. 95
Fig. 5.13 The coverage strategies utilized to explore the target surface.
The visualized area corresponds to the obstacle free chopping
board surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
Fig. 5.14 Top view of the developed graph structures for the three
prototypical removal actions absorb, collect, and skim.
The goal nodes are marked in yellow. The goal nodes
for the skim action are located at the top, outside
the boundaries of the plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 97
Fig. 5.15 Visualization of the tool orientation in case of collision
and no reachability. Initially, each node ni is oriented toward
the next node ni þ 1 . The tool rotation is interpolated along
the Cartesian path, i.e. the edge (ni , ni þ 1 ) between this nodes.
If a configuration along this path is in collision (left),
or unreachable (right), the free tool DOF are exploited. . . . . . . . 100
Fig. 5.16 The eSDG collect graph consists of three clusters visualized
by the cyan nodes, connected by purple lines. As the goal
is located on the right (yellow node), the cluster on the left
is resolved first (transparent robot). The A* algorithm
is used to navigate between the clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Fig. 5.17 A combination of a collect action (left) and a skim action
(right) is used to dispense all particles into a trash can (red) . . . 103
Fig. 5.18 Simulation-based effect prediction for the collect action in the
chopping board scenario. The particles contact behavior is
visualized over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Fig. 5.19 Simulation-based effect prediction for the absorb action
in the table scenario. The particles contact behavior
is visualized over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Fig. 5.20 Simulation-based effect prediction for the skim action
in the windshield scenario. The particles contact behavior
is visualized over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Fig. 6.1 Executing Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fig. 6.2 Cartesian impedance control loop (Dietrich 2015) . . . . . . . . . . . 116
List of Figures xxiii

Fig. 6.3 Overview of the cognition-enabled controller concept.

The whole-body controller is parameterized by the reasoning
introduced in Chap. 5. In return, the controller provides
episodic memories to interpret the task outcome
to be detailed in Chap. 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Fig. 6.4 The conceptual parameterization of the control level.
The objects that participate in the action span the parameter set.
The respective object elements that parameterize the control
level are listed on the left, the influenced controller task is
listed in the center, and the execution effects that are
mandatory to fulfill the desired task outcome are listed
on the right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Fig. 6.5 The compliant control strategy can be exploited to simplify
the planning of in-contact motions. The commanded state
for the tool xtool , resulting from the virtual, spatial equilibrium
xdes of the right end-effector, is geometrically unfeasible.
In contact, the parameterization of the robot forces the correct
alignment of the tool (including deformations) to solve
the task (see xact ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Fig. 6.6 The humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin scrubbing a mug
with a sponge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Fig. 6.7 Desired and actual position of the left hand during
scrubbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Fig. 6.8 This plot compares the spatial, virtual equilibrium point xdes
with the actual position of the right hand xact during
the window wiping task. The three axes correspond to the three
dimensions of the window (similar to robot coordinates),
where z is the height and y is the width. The deviation
along the x-axis corresponds to the contact of the wiper
with the window pane. Note that the transit paths
(connecting two contact situations) are removed for clarity . . . . 131
Fig. 6.9 Rollin’ Justin wiping a window. Based on the ROI (red)
and the wiper width the Cartesian task trajectory (blue,
dashed arrows) is computed. The task has been successfully
demonstrated to a public audience at the Hanover Fair 2013 . . . 132
Fig. 6.10 Rollin’ Justin collecting shards of a broken mug. The ROI
(red) is defined by the distribution of the shards which
is here localized manually. Along this region, a cyclic
trajectory has to be executed (blue, dashed arrow) . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Fig. 6.11 Frontal view of the commanded and measured TCP of the
right manipulator. During the contact phase the hands
are both following a tilt motion introduced by the sweeping
broom which reflects the low rotational stiffness around
the brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
xxiv List of Figures

Fig. 7.1 Interpreting Intelligent Physical Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Fig. 7.2 Coupling between the planning approach and the interpretation
of wiping motions. The particle distribution model serves
as the basis for the earlier introduced motion planning
algorithm as well as the haptic effect inference method
discussed in this chapter. The methods complement each
other such that the output of the effect inference can be utilized
to plan recovery motions in case of estimated performance
errors introduced by external disturbances, e. g. collisions
with humans as visualized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Fig. 7.3 Visualization of a recorded collect motion executed
by Rollin’ Justin. The recorded Cartesian wiping motion
of the robotic manipulator, i.e. the TCP of the sponge
it is holding respectively are plotted as black dotted line.
The desired wiping motion in contact is shown
as blue lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Fig. 7.4 Plot of the external force normal to the target surface fext; n
and the corresponding TCP position in z-direction xtcp; z .
The measurements with high contact confidence x0tcp;i
are highlighted by the green bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Fig. 7.5 Left: Closeup view of all measurements with high
contact confidence x0tcp;i (green dots), which are the basis
for the target surface estimation. Right: The estimated
target surface visualized as purple box. All positions
of the TCP within this box xplane; i are considered
in contact. The brighter the green color, the higher
the normalized contact force f 0n; i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Fig. 7.6 Example plots of the probability density function for the
log-likelihood function for different contact situations . . . . . . . . 148
Fig. 7.7 The real collect action with a sponge executed by Rollin’
Justin (middle) compared to the estimated outcome
(bottom). The particle distribution in the bottom row is rotated
clockwise, where the upper left corner corresponds to the left
corner of the chopping board in the top row. Black chippings
of glass are placed to visualize the task performance and assess
the results of the effect inference method. They are not visually
perceived by the robot. Instead a uniform initial distribution
is assumed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Fig. 7.8 A broom is used to collect particles on the floor. The broom
is in general less accurate than the sponge utilized in the
previous example. Some of the chippings are not effected
by the broom (top). The task performance decreases with
the size of the particles as it is observed for the fine grained
sand (bottom) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
List of Figures xxv

Fig. 7.9 Detergent is applied to a glass panel. The robot executes

a skim action with a window wiper and a brush in order
to remove the liquid. The detergent on the glass panel is shown
before (left) and after (right). The model parameters „ and r
are designed to match the effect of the two tools on
the medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Fig. 7.10 Illustration of the two investigated failure scenarios. First,
contact loss due to imprecise localization (left). Second,
contact loss due to external human perturbation (right). . . . . . . . 151
Fig. 7.11 A plot of the contact force fext; n and the TCP position
in z-direction xtcp; z in a failure situation. While the position
stays on certain level, it is notable that the contact force
is of irregular nature. The contact loss is evident in the reduced
number of confident contact situations x0tcp; i (green bars) . . . . . . 152
Fig. 7.12 The recorded Cartesian wiping motion in a failure situation
arising from a tilted table. The green and black path visualizes
the actual measured TCP trajectory. The commanded path
is visualized as blue lines. The few confident contact
measurements are sufficient to estimate the target surface
with the RanSaC algorithm. However, the limited contact
force results in less effective motions, such that the particles
close to the table edge remain unmoved in the simulation . . . . . 152
Fig. 7.13 Failure Scenario I: The tilted table simulates an incorrect
localization leading to partially bad contact situations shown
in the top row. The estimated particle distribution is shown
in the lower row. Similarly to the first example the particle
behavior is simulated w. r. t. the real world telemetry data
recorded during the task execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Fig. 7.14 The plot for the contact force fext; n and the TCP position
in z-direction xtcp; z in the second failure situation. In
comparison to the first failure scenario the contact force
stays leveled. However, in this case the TCP position
deviates significantly. The red bars indicate false positive
contacts introduced due to this perturbation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Fig. 7.15 The Cartesian wiping motion for the second failure situation
where the robot was pushed twice at the end-effector. The real
world measurements of the TCP position are here visualized as
green and red path. The commanded path is visualized as blue
lines. Again, the RanSaC algorithm has enough information
to estimate the target surface, such that the outliers are detected
correctly. Consequently the simulation is omitted and
the particles right below the occurrence of the disturbance
remain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
xxvi List of Figures

Fig. 7.16 Failure Scenario II: The robot is pushed twice at

the end-effector during task execution as it is shown
in the top row. The estimated particle distribution visualized
in the bottom row reflects this disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Fig. 7.17 Top left: KDE for the remaining particle distribution after
the second failure scenario. Top right: The recorded recovery
motion and the final particle distribution. Bottom:
The eventually successful real world execution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Fig. 7.18 The web interface of openEASE visualizing all trajectories
of the sponge where a collision occurred. The yellow
trajectory displays one of several collision events . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Fig. 8.1 Overview of related experiments in the METERON project.
The Haptics experiments validate bilateral haptic teleoperation.
Interact uses a mixture of telepresence and basic high-level
commands to command a mobile robot. In contrast,
the SUPVIS Justin experiment uses a full set of advanced
high-level commands to supervise the actions of a robot . . . . . . 167
Fig. 8.2 The image shows the astronauts Paolo Nespoli and Jack
Fisher during the first experiment session from ISS on August
25, 2017. Paolo Nespoli (in red on the monitor) trained Jack
Fisher (in blue on the monitor) and Randy Bresnik (not shown)
spontaneously in flight. The intuitive interface concept allowed
the additional astronauts to control Rollin’ Justin without prior
experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Fig. 8.3 Navigation view of the supervised autonomy UI. The semantic
map is based on the internal world state of the robot.
It is possible to move toward a freely selectable goal
position (orange marker) or toward a particular object . . . . . . . . 170
Fig. 8.4 The central area of the manipulation view shows the
augmented video stream of the robot. After an object is
selected, a list of possible actions is shown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Fig. 8.5 Applied Intelligent Physical Compliance in the SUPVIS
Justin experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Fig. 8.6 Rollin Justin cleaning the SPU as response to the identified
failure status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
List of Tables

Table 1.1 Main publications related to this manuscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20

Table 2.1 Overview of the actuators of Rollin’ Justin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 29
Table 3.1 Available manipulation taxonomies related to robotics
research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 41
Table 3.2 Manipulation task examples based on the developed
classification terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Table 5.1 Evaluation of the chopping board scenario. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Table 5.2 Evaluation of the table top scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Table 5.3 Evaluation of the windshield scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Table 6.1 Overview of the parameters for the control tasks. Note
that all parameters are instantiated with general-purpose
values. The overall controller parameter vector is defined
as C ¼ ðCcar ; Cjnt ; Csca ; Cmes ; Csav ; Cg Þ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Table 6.2 Table of tool-specific parameters. The Cartesian force
and the Cartesian stiffness parameters are given w.r.t.
the visualized frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

xxvii
List of Listings

Listing 4.1 Exemplary PDDL action definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 58

Listing 4.2 Pick action template: Semantic header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 61
Listing 4.3 Pick action template: Geometric body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 62
Listing 4.4 Pick action template: Knowledge-based definition
of geometric parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 62
Listing 4.5 Pick action template: List of robot operations . . . . . . . . . . . .. 63
Listing 5.1 PDDL definition for a reachable pick action . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 89
Listing 6.1 Symbolic action representation of the mug scrubbing
experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Listing 6.2 Symbolic transition for the mug scrubbing experiment . . . . . . 127
Listing 6.3 Symbolic action representation for the window skimming
experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Listing 6.4 Symbolic transition for the window skimming experiment . . . . 130
Listing 6.5 Symbolic action representation for the collect experiment . . . . 132
Listing 6.6 Symbolic transition for the collect experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Listing 7.1 Prolog query to request and visualize all collision
events from openEASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

xxix
List of Algorithms

Algorithm 5.1 Geometric reasoning procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 81

Algorithm 5.2 Geometric reasoning with integrated geometric
backtracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 84
Algorithm 5.3 Integrated navigation algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 90
Algorithm 5.4 The path following algorithm to resolve SDGs in joint
space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Algorithm 5.5 Extended SDG function, ExtendSDG(C, eSDG). . . . . . . . . 102
Algorithm 8.1 Resolving action parameters and apply filters . . . . . . . . . . . 171

xxxi
Abstract

Physically compliant contact is a major element for many tasks in everyday envi-
ronments. A universal service robot that is utilized to collect leaves in a park, polish
a workpiece, or clean solar panels requires the cognition and manipulation capa-
bilities to facilitate such compliant interaction. Evolution equipped humans with
advanced mental abilities to envision physical contact situations and their resulting
outcome, dexterous motor skills to perform the actions accordingly, as well as a
sense of quality to rate the outcome of the task. In order to achieve human-like
performance, a robot must provide the necessary methods to represent, plan, exe-
cute, and interpret compliant manipulation tasks. This manuscript covers those four
steps of reasoning in the concept of intelligent physical compliance.
The contributions advance the capabilities of service robots by combining arti-
ficial intelligence reasoning methods and control strategies for compliant manipu-
lation. A classification of manipulation tasks is conducted to identify the central
research questions of the addressed topic. Novel representations are derived to
describe the properties of physical interaction. Special attention is given to wiping
tasks which are predominant in everyday environments. It is investigated how
symbolic task descriptions can be translated into meaningful robot commands.
A particle distribution model is used to plan goal-oriented wiping actions and
predict the quality according to the anticipated result. The planned tool motions are
converted into the joint space of the humanoid robot Rollin’ Justin to perform the
tasks in the real world. In order to execute the motions in a physically compliant
fashion, a hierarchical whole-body impedance controller is integrated into the
framework. The controller is automatically parameterized with respect to the
requirements of the particular task. Haptic feedback is utilized to infer contact and
interpret the performance semantically. Finally, the robot is able to compensate for
possible disturbances as it plans additional recovery motions while effectively

xxxiii
xxxiv Abstract

closing the cognitive control loop. Among others, the developed concept is applied
in an actual space robotics mission, in which an astronaut aboard the International
Space Station (ISS) commands Rollin’ Justin to maintain a Martian solar panel farm
in a mock-up environment. This application demonstrates the far-reaching impact
of the proposed approach and the associated opportunities that emerge with the
availability of cognition-enabled service robots.
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 CHAPTER IX.
SOMETHING TO READ.

“And thereby hangs a tale.”

—Othello.

With the first appearance of punkhas, and the first “notice about
ice” most of the people at Mangobad fled away to Simla, Mussoorie,
or Naini-Tal—chiefly to Naini-Tal. Mr. Redmond’s face was an
amusing study (in black) when Belle suggested in her most kittenish
and effusive manner, that “she should share a house with him, as
George could only get two months’ leave, and that it would be great
fun to live together!” but Mr. Redmond grimly declined this unalluring
proposition in a few brief words, and subsequently (purposely) took a
mansion that set the whole length of the lake, and a distance of two
miles, between his abode and Mrs. Holroyd’s cheap, damp, out-of-
the-way little bungalow—for Belle was now nothing if not
economical, and thrifty, to the verge of parsimony, save in the matter
of her personal adornment. Naini-Tal, named after the goddess Naini
(or Nynee), is a lake that lies six thousand feet above the plains, in
the lap of the Himalayas; the surrounding hills rise from the edge of
the water and are covered with houses half hidden among trees.
These houses are reached by narrow paths, in some instances goat
tracks, and the only means of locomotion is either on a pony’s back,
or in a jhampan or dandy, carried on the shoulders of four men. A
jhampan—the gondola of the hills—is something between a chair
and a coffin, and, to an uneducated eye, the first glimpse of Naini-
Tal, with its crowds of people being borne along, suggests the
victims of some frightful colliery or railway accident. But a nearer
inspection shows smartly dressed ladies, reclining in gaily painted
dandies, and borne by jhampannies in gorgeous liveries. Each
memsahib dresses her bearers brilliantly, and racks her brains to
devise some novelty that will distinguish her from the rest of her
neighbours! You can descry her while she is yet afar off. You know
where she is calling, and where she is shopping, when you see her
blazing team squatting outside—with the surreptitious huka—
awaiting her reappearance. Now you meet a green and yellow set,
next a scarlet and blue, after that, an orange and crimson, jostling
others who are all orange. What burlesques of family liveries! What
travesties of monograms emblazoned on the bearers’ broad chests!
Naini-Tal is a pretty place, especially by moonlight, or when the
surrounding hills are reflected in the lake. It is in the shape of a cup,
or a great extinct crater, and you have to climb a thousand feet to get
a view of the line of everlasting snows, commanded, as it were, by
Nunga-Devi, the “Storm Goddess,” standing out sternly against the
steel-blue sky. The only flat space is the Mall round the lake, and the
polo ground. There are lovely walks, if you do not object to stiff
climbing, and once arrived you find yourself, as it were, lost in the
woods, among moss and rocks and overhanging trees with thick
fringes of ferns covering their outspread branches. Here you get a
peep of the lake—there of the distant blue plains. True, these walks
have some drawbacks. They are excessively slippery in damp
weather, and panthers lie in wait for dogs (and are particularly partial
to fox terriers), moreover, greedy leeches accompany the
unsuspecting pedestrian to his, or her, own house. Naini-Tal is gay!
What popular hill station is not? Balls, races—yes, races—regattas,
and picnics; theatricals, tableaux, and concerts all succeed one
another in rapid succession, and when early in May new arrivals
come swarming up from the plains, the hotels are crammed, and
every day half-a-dozen new sets of jhampannies, carrying a new
memsahib, appear on the Mall, and dozens of gallant sahibs come
cantering up from the Brewery, with a syce clinging to their ponies’
tails, who would believe in that terrible story about Friday, the 18th
September, 1880, when, after two days’ torrents of rain, during which
everyone was a prisoner to the house, and cut off from their
neighbours, there was a hollow rumble—then arose a red, dusty
cloud, like fire, and when that cloud had dispersed, and the mist had
lifted, the Assembly Rooms, the Victoria Hotel, and several houses
had been effaced—swept away and engulfed in a moment, and with
them a hundred souls. There are occasional little landslips during the
monsoon. Rocks come thundering down, tons of earth crumble off,
the cart road “goes” annually, but on the whole Naini-Tal is
considered as safe as its neighbours. High up on a hill among rocks
and trees, in a somewhat inaccessible spot, you come across a
board on which is painted, “Captain Holroyd, Royal Musketeers,” and
near it a box for visitors’ cards (which is almost always empty). If you
follow the path, you arrive at a dreary-looking, one-storeyed house,
with no view, and the reputation of being very damp, and of having a
family of needy panthers among the surrounding rocks. If you
penetrated to the drawing-room, the chances are ten to one that you
would find Belle cowering over the fire with a shawl on her shoulders
and “Mossoo” in her lap, and two to one in a bad temper—both
mistress and dog alike victims to ennui. “She was no one up here,”
she grumbled to Betty every time she saw her. “She was a
Collector’s niece, and asked out to big dinners every night, and
taken to picnics up Diopatha and Iopatha, or down to Douglas Dale,
but of course that was partly because Mr. Redmond entertained! She
did not (and so much the better for Naini-Tal). They had got up
theatricals—people that knew nothing about them, that could not act
one little bit, and they had never even consulted her, or asked her to
take a part. Of course that was all jealousy, and pitifully transparent!
They had heard of her acting at Lucknow, and Mangobad, and seen
the account of it in the papers, and were afraid of her cutting them all
out. Her reputation had come up before her (it had indeed), and
George said it was too soon after her mother’s death to go to balls—
George was so peculiar,” and so on, in the same strain for about an
hour. Belle arrayed her jhampannies in the smartest suits in the
station, and excited quite a sensation as she was carried
triumphantly along the Mall. But alas! She had only the clothes now,
and no men to wear them; and without jhampannies a lady is
comparatively a prisoner. As a class, these sturdy, jovial, brown hill
men are most independent; give them wood tickets, their mornings
to themselves, and no late hours, and no heavy passengers—give
them smart suits and caps, and warm blankets, and they will take
you out once or—peradventure at a pinch—twice a day, without
grumbling. But when a lady, be she ever so light, is always calling for
them and harrying them, when she takes them long and steep paths
to pay needless visits, and beats them with her parasol, why they
figuratively snap their fingers at her and go!—and what is worse,
they boycott her in the bazaars. Belle was in a bad plight; she could
only join the giddy throng below at the Assembly Rooms, or round
the lake, and polo ground, when she could obtain coolies at double
fare!
On these days, smartly dressed in what she called second
mourning, she descended and paraded the Mall with Betty, went out
in a wherry with George, had tea and ices at Morrison’s shop and
enjoyed herself considerably, forgetting for the time her woes, her
hateful servants, and her dismal, murky house.
At the opposite end of the lake, in a good situation, you come
upon a fine two-storeyed abode, with Mr. Redmond’s name on the
gate board and Miss Redmond’s box full of cards. He was popular,
despite his eccentricities; everyone knew that if his bark was loud,
his bite was nil; and Betty was much admired as she rode along the
Mall and walked on the “Berm” between rows of discriminating
British subalterns, sitting on the rails arrayed in boating flannels and
gorgeous “blazers.” She was in constant request, as Belle had
complained, but gave up many a pleasant engagement (to boat, to
ride, to play tennis) to climb that weary hill, and to sit with that
querulous, discontented little creature; who imperatively demanded
her visits, and yet when she came, never ceased to scold her
sharply for her dress, her friends, and her airs!

The monsoon broke with a violence peculiar to the Himalayas, the

rains descended, and the floods came foaming down the mountains,
the same mountains and the lake being swallowed up in mist, and all
but the most stout-hearted (and booted) were prisoners to the house.
Belle was alone. She was laid up with fever, and she wrote such a
piteous scrawl, that Betty, in spite of her uncle’s angry expostulation,
consented to go to her, and cheer her up and stay a week! She
evolved some order in that cheerless home, tidied up the drawing-
room, put away Belle’s old “chits” and papers, and scraps, and
“Mossoo’s” bones, coaxed some servants into the empty godowns,
for there was not one on the premises, but a deaf old ayah and a
waterman. Belle enjoyed the transformation and the company of a
bright companion, and was better, and out, and gay. At the end of
the week, George returned from a signalling class at Ranikhet, rode
in quite unexpectedly, and his arrival was an excuse for Betty’s
immediate departure, but Belle in vehement language that almost
bordered on violent words, insisted that her cousin must remain one
day longer, in order to be present at a little dinner party that included
Captain La Touche and a neighbouring married couple. Her popular
cousin was her social trump card; moreover, she looked to her to
make the sweets, and decorate the table.
But when the hour came, although dressed, Belle felt too ill to
appear. She had got her feet wet. She had a cold, and sore throat,
and she was forced to stay in her own room by the fire, and dine in
company with “Mossoo.”
She felt excessively irritable and ill-used, as the sounds of merry
laughing and talking came from the adjoining dining-room; they were
having a very good time, and she—how dull she felt! She had no
amusement, not even a book; she rose and searched about for
something to read. She went, as a last resource, into George’s
dressing-room, but there she could find no food for her mind, save
sundry Manuals of Infantry Drill and of Field Exercises, and half a
dozen red-bound “Royal Warrants.” She was turning disconsolately
away, when her eyes fell upon his keys. Of these he was always so
careful—so suspiciously careful—and never left them about. Happy
thought! She could amuse herself unusually well, in having a good
rummage through his dispatch box. Perhaps she would discover
some of his secrets. A husband had no business to have secrets
from his wife; perhaps she would discover something about what she
mentally called “the other girl.” With this honourable intention she
carried the box into her own room, placed it on a table near the fire,
and sat herself deliberately down before it. The key was easily
found, and as easily turned in the lock; the lid was thrown open, and
the upper tray scrutinised. Nothing but a cheque book, a banker’s
book, some papers and envelopes, and a Manual on Musketry. In
the lower compartment were some of his mother’s letters, a packet
of paid bills, some recipes for dogs and horses, and at the bottom of
all a sealed parcel. She felt it carefully. Yes—it contained a cabinet
photograph—the photograph; she must, and would, see what the
creature was like.
In a second the cover was torn off. But—but, who was this?
holding it to the lamp with a shaking hand.
Betty!
At first, she could not realise the full extent of her discovery, she
simply stared, and panted, and trembled. It meant nothing! Then her
eye caught sight of the other contents of the packet—a little well-
remembered brooch, a withered flower, and a letter in her mother’s
handwriting.
As she read this, her breast heaved convulsively, the veins in her
forehead stood out like cords, her fingers twitched, so that the paper
between them rattled and was torn.
When she had come to the very end of it, she sat with her eyes
fixed, her hands to her head, as if she had received a galvanic
shock. “To think that all along it was Betty, the hypocrite, the viper,
the wretch, that robbed me of my husband’s love. Oh, how I hate
her! How I loathe her! How I wish she was dead! I see it all—all now.
She stole him from me that time she went to the Moores, and oh,
how false she has been ever since. How well they have kept their
secret. I shall never believe in any one again, not in a saint from
heaven. And I, poor fool, asking if she ever had a love affair! Oh, I
could tear her to pieces. I could, I could,” and she gnashed her teeth,
and clenched her hands, and “Mossoo” fled into hiding under a chest
of drawers.
Not a thought of remorse for two lives sacrificed for her, not a
thought of any one but herself, and her wrongs.
Now, she saw why George avoided Betty, at least, in public; now
by the light of her discovery she saw everything; many puzzling
circumstances were as plain as A, B, C, and here, at this present
moment, that abominable girl was under her roof, sitting in her place,
and entertaining her guests! Oh! Oh! Oh! it was past all endurance,
and she began to pace the room almost at a run; her fury rising like a
gale at sundown. She must wait (if she could) till those people had
gone; it was after eleven; they must leave soon, and then——
It was a fearful night. Thunder rolled and crashed among the
mountains, the rain came down on the zinc roof with a deafening
roar, the paths were foaming water-courses, the water-courses
boiling rivers; and now and then a furious blast shook the house to
its foundation.
At last the laughing and talking ceased, the merry company had
departed. She saw their lanterns dimly through the mist, and
instantly rushed into the drawing-room. Betty was there, busily
putting away cards and counters, and George, who had been
speeding his guests, stood in the doorway.
In her furious precipitation, Belle knocked over a chair, and they
both turned and saw her—saw her livid, distorted face, compressed
lips and glittering eyes—that looked as if they were illuminated by
some inward flame—and knew but too well what these signs
portended.
“So,” she screamed, her piercing voice distinct above the
thundering rain. “So I have found you both out at last! Oh! you false
wretch,” shaking her own photograph at Betty, “how I would like to
strangle you! You, that we all thought so quiet, so modest, and that
was engaged all the time on the sly. You artful, bad girl, you robbed
me—me—of his affections,” pointing to George. “He liked me first,
he liked me best. He dares not deny it! I must say this for him, that
whatever he is, he is no liar.”
All the time she was speaking—screaming, it might be called—she
was tearing the photograph into atoms, with feverish, frenzied
fingers, and with the word liar, she dashed them into Betty’s face.
“Belle,” said her husband sternly, “what are you about? Have you
taken leave of your senses? What do you mean by treating your
cousin in this way?”
“There,” she shrieked, “there, you take her part. You try and blind
me still! Have I gone out of my senses? No, but I am going out of
them! I have opened your box, I have read my mother’s letter. I know
all. How dared you marry me?”
After this question, there was a pause for ten seconds, the rain
and wind alone broke the silence, whilst the raging woman, from
whom every restraint had fallen away, awaited his answer.
“I married you,” speaking with painful slowness, “because I
thought it was the only thing to be done under the circumstances. I
did my best to make you happy, I hoped——”
“Hoped! Thought!” she interrupted, shaking from head to foot.
“Who cares what you hoped or thought?” And then she broke into a
torrent of passion, in which scathing, scorching words seemed to
pour from her lips one over the other, like a stream of lava. This, to
the couple who had been mercilessly sacrificed for her advantage.
“Betty,” said George abruptly, “this is no scene for you; go to your
own room.”
“To her room! go out of the house, go now!” cried Belle, stamping
her foot; “now, this second, do you hear me?”
“To-morrow,” interrupted her husband, “not to-night, you could not
turn a dog out in such weather.”
“No, but I would turn out a snake, a viper, a cobra.”
“You may be certain that Betty is not anxious to trespass on your
hospitality, but she will stay as a favour, she shall not go out on such
a night, I will not allow it,” he returned firmly.
“Very well then, I’ll go! The Burns will take me in. I refuse to remain
under the same roof with that girl for another five minutes.”
“Do not be afraid, Belle, I will go,” said Betty, who had been
hitherto too stunned to move or speak. “I will go this moment. You
are a cruel woman, you have wronged both George and me, and you
will be sorry for all you have said to-morrow.”
 Belle’s voice drowned hers in furious protestations to the contrary,
and she hastened away, threw on a waterproof, and twisted a scarf
round her head, whilst George called for a syce and a lantern.
“Belle,” he said, as he re-entered, putting on his top-coat, and his
face looked white and set. “This is about the last straw! God knows
that I have done my best, or tried to do my best for you. After this we
will live apart—apart for ever.”
Before she had time to reply, he was gone, he had quitted the
room, and she saw him and Betty go forth into the sheets of rain,
and the black surrounding darkness, in the wake of a syce with an
oilskin cape over his head, and a lantern in his hand. She watched
the trio descend the hill, till they and their flickering light were lost to
sight.
Then she went and sat down beside the dying fire—feeling
somewhat exhausted—and assured herself that she had done well,
had acted as any other wife of spirit would have done, but her fury
was abating and her confidence with it; cold remorse began to
whisper in her ear, as she listened to the booming of the thunder and
the roaring of the rain; they had nearly three miles to go by the long
road, and Betty was in her evening dress and shoes! Of course
George did not care for Betty now; even her distorted mind could not
summon the ghost of a charge against him. She glanced over past
months, with the piercing eye of a jealous wife. No, there was not a
word or a glance, by which she could arraign him.
He had got over it ages ago. Betty would marry some wealthy
man, and George was her husband. She must forgive them! At the
end of half-an-hour’s solitary meditation, during which she had
reckoned up her probable allowance and probable prospects at
home, she actually had absolved them both. Betty had no business
to have had an understanding with George when she was a mere
child—and of course did not know her own mind; but Betty had
always been good to her, forbearing, generous, and useful. Only that
very morning she had cooked her a dainty little dish to tempt her
appetite, and she had gone down in all the rain to get her a remedy
for her cold, and a novel from the library.
 And George? yes, he was good to her too; he never refused her
money, he never flirted with other women, he always remembered
her birthday, he wrote regularly when she was from home, and
punctually met her at the station on her return. If he was cold and
reserved, and hated French poodles, it was his nature, and he could
not help himself. Looking round among the Lords and Masters of her
numerous acquaintances, she could not name a woman who had a
better husband than her own.
And supposing he had really meant what he said? There was a
strange expression in his eyes,—a look that she had never seen
there before, not even after she threw the tennis-bat at Mrs.
Monkton! And once, in a passion, another lady told her that she
wondered Mr. Holroyd did not get a divorce for incompatibility of
temper! But no, no; nothing but death should ever part them. Her
Australian trip had shown her one thing most distinctly—that alone,
and unprotected by her popular, gentlemanly husband, she was a
very helpless and insignificant little person. What was she to do?
Perhaps he would never come back! The bare idea filled her with
dismay. She was now all penitence (as usual). She would follow
them instantly to Mr. Redmond’s door. She would make it up; she
would abase herself; she would go by the short cut across the hill,
and be there almost as soon as they were! No sooner thought than
done. She ran into her room, and put on a cloak, and a pair of strong
shoes, and going into the back verandah, called imperatively for a
lamp and a guide.
But what hill servant, sleeping comfortably in his “comlee,” would
respond to the screams of a bad memsahib—demanding a light and
attendant, at one o’clock, and on such a night? As she had sowed,
she reaped. No answer came, not a sound, not a sign, from the
cluster of godowns at the back; for once she refrained from rousing
them in person. She had no time to lose. She was obliged to hunt up
a lantern, and to light and carry it herself; and with “Mossoo” for her
sole escort, she set forth in the streaming downpour, and started
rapidly up the hill.
 CHAPTER X.
IN WHICH BELLE’S WISH IS FULFILLED.

“Covering with moss the dead’s unclosèd eye

The little red-breast teacheth charity.”

Betty almost ran down the footpath, her feet shod with indignation,
and refused her companion’s proffered arm with a sharp gesture,
that was nearer akin to passion than politeness. At first she hurried
along bravely enough, but afterwards more slowly and painfully.
What are bronze shoes, and silk stockings, among rocks and broken
branches, and overflowing water-courses? One of her feet was badly
cut, her hair had been blown adrift by the stormy rain that beat her
and buffeted her so mercilessly. At last she was compelled to cling to
the arm she had previously scorned; for as she stumbled forward in
the wake of the blinking lantern and shivering syce, furious gusts of
wind came sweeping down between Cheena and Diopatha, and
threatened to carry her off her balance, and to extinguish the light.
The pair made no attempt to speak, for their voices would have been
lost amid the crash of the thunder, and the hollow roar of the
torrents, as they tumbled tumultuously down the ravines, and poured
into the lake with the noise of an explosion. Amid the unchanging
fury of the storm, there were intervals of blinding light, alternating
with spells of utter darkness. Once, in a comparatively sheltered
spot, Betty halted to twist up her hair. As she did so, a dazzling white
flash lit up the dark surrounding hills—the grey sheets of rain
pattering into the lake—the streaming path—themselves.
There was a momentary lull, as if the raving, screaming wind was
taking breath, and Betty said tremulously, but with perfect
distinctness:
 “George, to-night it must be good-bye between us; you will
understand that it cannot be otherwise.”
“Yes,” he returned hoarsely, “I could never ask you to run the risk
of such another scene. It must be as you say—God help us!”
A second flash, bright as day, illumined his face; it was ashen; and
in the haggard eyes so near to hers there was a look of wistfulness
and despair—such an agonised look, as the eyes of the dying wear
when they take leave of those they love best, and pass away, alone,
into that undiscovered country.
In a moment all was black again, and once more the pair resumed
that struggle onwards, arm in arm, staggering against the wind, and
wrapped in the darkness and the silence of their own thoughts. After
half an hour’s scrambling and groping, and climbing of slippery paths
that ran with water, bruised, drenched, beaten and breathless, they
arrived at their destination, and were vociferously announced by the
barking of half a dozen curs of high and low degree.
Mr. Redmond always retired late, and was still sitting up; reading—
no—not a treatise on jurisprudence, but a French novel; he came in
his dressing-gown and spectacles, and opened the door in person,
and beheld his niece in a soaking evening dress, bareheaded, and
almost barefoot; and Holroyd looking ghastly, with the rain pouring
off his cap and moustache.
“What—what does this mean?” he demanded in a voice in which
anger and amazement struggled for mastery. “Do you wish to murder
the girl—sir—that you bring her out in such a plight on such a night?”
“I am more sorry than I can say, but I could not help it—I——”
“Come in, come in, man alive! and don’t stand dripping there,
come in and explain yourself!”
“Uncle Bernard,” said Betty, taking off her cloak and throwing back
her wringing hair. “He cannot explain—Belle and I have had a
quarrel.”
“A quarrel about what?” turning the lamp full on her colourless
face. Dead silence.
 “There has been more than a quarrel! There is something in the
background. Holroyd, you don’t leave my house till you explain the
whole business.”
“Oh, uncle, do not keep him,” expostulated Betty. “Don’t you see
how wet he is?”
“Then you shall tell me, run away at once, and put on dry clothes. I
shall not go to bed till I have come to the bottom of this affair! What
will every one say when they hear that your cousin turned you out of
doors in the middle of such a night? Holroyd, in common Christian
charity I must give you something to drink. I don’t want to have your
death on my head, but mind you, I have not done with you. Have
some old brandy, neat?”
“No, thank you, I must go,” and he glanced at Betty.
“Yes,” she said, approaching him quickly as she spoke. “You must
forgive Belle; she will be very sorry; forgive her as a favour to me.
Remember,” she added, almost in a whisper, “what you promised me
last Christmas. Good-bye.” Her lips trembled, whilst her eyes
dismissed him.
“Good-bye,” he echoed, in a husky voice, wringing her hand as he
spoke. In another second he was gone—gone without a word or
glance towards Mr. Redmond, and was hurrying down the hill at
breakneck speed.
“Must I tell you, Uncle Bernard?” said Betty, when, after a short
interval, she returned to the sitting-room, in a long, white, woollen
gown, and with her hair hanging over her shoulders.
“Yes, you must tell me everything, and you must drink this cherry
brandy.”
“I would so much rather not do one or the other.”
“And you will have to do both.”
“Then, Uncle Bernard, remember you make me tell what I have
never told to a soul,” and her eyes flashed at him through tears of
passionate pain. “But you stand in the place of my father.”
 “I do, and you stand to me in the place of a daughter. Begin what
you have to say—at once.”
“I—I—how can I begin?” she said, shading her face with her
hands. “I knew George Holroyd very well three years ago. I was a
good deal at Bridgetstown with his mother and sister, and—and—”
she hesitated.
“And he made love to you,” continued her uncle bluntly.
“He could not marry, for he had no money; he was supporting his
mother and sister, and he had but little besides his pay.”
“I am surprised he did not ask you to share that!” sneered her
listener.
“No, no, he would not bind me to any promise, but he said that if
his prospects improved—he would write.”
“And he never did. Oh, oh—I see it all!”
“Yes, he wrote and enclosed the letter to Mrs. Redmond, but Mrs.
Redmond wanted him to marry her own daughter. She scratched out
my name—and gave the letter to Belle.”
“What!” shouted Mr. Redmond, rising to his feet, “what
madwoman’s nonsense is this?”
“It is true: the letter seemed to apply to either of us. Belle thought
he liked her—she hated Noone, she was glad to get away from it—at
any price,” she gasped, in short and breathless sentences.
“And you paid the price?”
To this question Betty gave no answer or sign, beyond a slight
quivering of the lips.
“Well, go on,” continued the Collector imperiously.
“I never knew the truth, until Mrs. Redmond was dying, and then
she told me all. Belle went out to Bombay in complete ignorance,
and George met her, and married her.”
“The fool! the maniac! the great idiot!” cried Mr. Redmond,
throwing up his hands. “He must have been out of his mind.”
 “He believed that he was acting for the best,” said Betty with a kind
of proud severity, “and I think he did right; what would have become
of Belle, destitute and friendless? He has always kept his secret till
now, but she opened his dispatch box, and read her mother’s letter;
she never had a suspicion of the truth till to-night.”
“And the effect of her discovery?”
“Was to turn me instantly out of her house, but I know she will be
sorry to-morrow—she always is.”
“Well—well—well,” turning about and pacing the room, with his
hands clasped behind him under his dressing-gown. “I am fifty years
of age, and this story—this extraordinary story—transcends
everything in my experience either at home or abroad. Poor Holroyd,
unfortunate devil! Betty, you will never cross her threshold, and
never speak a word to that termagant again.”
“No, nor to him either, uncle; we agreed to-night that we would be
strangers for the future.”
“Oh, ha, hum,” stroking his chin; “well I daresay you are right, you
can’t cut a woman and know her husband.”
“And now, Uncle Bernard, I am so very, very tired, you will let me
go, won’t you?”
She looked haggard and completely exhausted, her face was as
white as her gown.
The horror and shame of Belle’s outbreak, that terrible walk
through rain and darkness, the ordeal of having to lay bare her
secret to her uncle, had been too much, even for her fortitude.
“Come and kiss me, Betty. I declare you are a good girl, you are a
true Redmond, and have a fine moral backbone. Poor Betty, you
have had a hard part to play.”
She approached and laid her lips softly on his forehead—lips that
were icy cold; she was so grave, and pale, and so utterly unlike
herself, that her uncle was slightly awed, and suffered her to depart
in silence.
 Mr. Redmond still sat up, and actually lit a cigar to soothe his
ruffled feelings, and to re-arrange his thoughts.
“That old Redmond woman ought to have been transported.
Supposing Betty had got the letter all right, and come out and
married Holroyd? Well, he liked him, he used to be a capital fellow,
but as it was, Betty could do far better, and marry someone in his
own service.”
Poor Holroyd! he had made him his confidante about Hammond
too. Yes, that was certainly an awkward mistake. It could not be
possible that Betty had still—no—no, out of the question. However,
she was a sensible girl, they had better be strangers in future, but he
himself was not going to give up George’s acquaintance (man-like,
he considered that a woman could easily make sacrifices that were
disagreeable and unnecessary for him). They could still meet and
dine at the club; they could go out shooting together. As to George’s
wife, to relinquish her society was no hardship.
Meanwhile Captain Holroyd was re-turning homewards with
headlong speed; he had now no girl companion to guide and protect,
and as for himself, he did not care. At first he determined to go to an
hotel, or the club, for the remainder of the night, but on second
thoughts, he changed his mind. He had never been one to send the
family linen to the public wash. He would endure to the end—and
this was almost the end. It required a man with a more hopeful
buoyant nature than his to resist sinking under the weight of his
surroundings. He would abandon the struggle once for all. The life
he led was not the existence of a self-respecting human being—it
was the life of a dog. He would offer Belle a tempting allowance,
leaving himself just sufficient for bare necessaries; he would tell her
that he could endure her society no longer, and that she must accept
it, and go—go home. If not, if she made a scandal, as she had once
threatened, he would sell out, and join some exploring party in
Africa, Australia, or Central America. Part they must; he was past the
days of piteous protestations, caresses, and hysterics, and he was
about to shape the rest of his life in another form. Belle and her
mother had ruined his happiness; he was an embittered,
disheartened, truly miserable man. All his best friends could give him
was pity and sympathy. As to what “might have been,” he dared not
trust himself to glance at it. He would free himself from Belle, and put
half the world between himself and Betty.
With this stern resolution in his mind, he found himself once more
at home—the door stood wide open, the lamp was flaring in the
drawing-room, and that apartment was precisely as he had left it—
with the overturned chair, and torn photograph, lying on the ground—
but empty. Where was Belle? The house seemed unnaturally quiet;
he looked into her bedroom, a pair of slippers lay in the middle of the
floor, as if they had been hastily kicked off. He called; there was no
reply; he searched, he took the lantern and went outside; the rain
was abating, for it was near dawn. He held the light close to the
ground, and saw the fresh footprints of two small shoes; they went
up the hill, not down. In an instant the truth flashed upon him. In a fit
of remorse, Belle had followed them and gone by the short cut—the
“closed” road. He seized the lantern, now burning very faintly, and
started at once in pursuit; for more than a mile he followed the
pathway, now ascending, now descending, sometimes between
rocks, sometimes between trees, sometimes along the bare edge of
a sheer naked precipice; and then the light went out, but as a faint
grey glimmer came creeping through the mists, he was able to make
his way on at a steady pace, though his heart thumped loudly
against his ribs, and his nerves were strung to their utmost tension,
for a chill shadow of apprehension seemed to stalk beside him!
Suddenly, turning a sharp corner, he was brought to a standstill, by a
ghastly break in the narrow track. The hill above had slipped down
five hundred feet, carrying with it, rocks, trees and pathway; loose
showers of little stones were still trickling lakewards, and as the
dawn came stealing over the crest of Cheena, and penetrated
through the dispersing clouds, George was aware of a small object,
a dog—shivering miserably on the brink of the gaping chasm, or
running to and fro, with every token of anguish and despair.
Belle’s wish had been accomplished. “Mossoo” survived her.

THE END.
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