By Right of Purchase
th the old house of Barrock-holme. He had been a week there now as the guest of Lieutenant Denham, whose acquaintance he had originally made out on the wide prairie in Western Canada, and for who
plish it, for Branscombe Denham of Barrock-holme was not troubled by many s
and habitable still; the rest of the low building stretched round three sides of a quadrangle, with a dry moat across the fourth, beyond which lawn and flower-garden lay shielded from t
f lonely moorlands and bleak Scottish hills which stretched, shining warm in the paling sunlight, along the northern horizon. It reminded him of his own country, which was even more wild and desol
e edge of the ravine which had borne bitter fruit in the days of foray, and-for the men of Barrock-holme could strike back tellingly then-the quadrangle had been filled with Scottish cattle. They were grim, hard men, and what he had heard of their do
Denham came along the terr
tle wave of a particularly well-shaped hand the white-clad figures t
well. In fact, I don't play any of you
eyes, and distinguished by a finicking, almost feminine daintiness in dress and person, though he was proficient in most ma
r beginner show quite as good form at billiards as you do. I'll play you fifty
learning your amusements a trifle expensive, and I'm not sure they're worth it. You see, I'm not going to stay
aken a little out of you, the acquisition of knowledge is usually more or less
er, if you'll mak
inkle in his eyes, and l
t significant, and I have a notion your nerve's too good. Of course, it isn't
why you wanted to pl
might be considered offensive, but nobody seems to mind how you express yourself, although your observations aren't
e of dryness, "if you would take it
would have grinned. "Not in the least! In fact, I
l have a chequ
d, a little sardonic smile crept into his eyes. He was known in his own country as a shrewd man, and was quite aware that he ran s
l who has just come into th
her pretty, though. While the governor and I are Denhams, she takes after the other
as he could see it, her face beneath the big white hat was attractive, too; but it was her pose that vaguely impressed him. There was a suggestion of strength and pride in it that was by no means noticeable in the case of either her father or Jimmy Denham. The appearance of the man with whom she tal
entleman?"
the usual something in the city. Comes down for a week or two at the partridges, ostensibly, at least, though it's quite possible there will be a dog or two, and, per
ce was cold and somewhat colourless, with dusky hair low on the broad forehead, unusually straight brows, and dark eyes; a beautiful face it seemed to him, but one that had a vague suggestion of weariness in it just then. Carrie Denham, he thought, in no way resembled her easy-going brother
rown-eyed, English type, showed undoubted force. He was, she fancied, a man accustomed to exert authority, but not exactly what in the most restricted English sense of the word would be called a gentleman. At
pleasant," she said. "In weather like this the bi
," said
n. His sister glanced at the fleshy Aylmer
not trouble. I am not going to stay here. Have
and went out through the archway together. Then Leland stopped a moment and flashed a questioning glance at Carrie Denham, for the strip of pathway outside the wall was, perhaps, two feet wide, and he could look almost straight down
l the path grew broader beyond a bend of the wall. Then looking round he saw, as he half-expected, that the pas
ere not afrai
e no disclaimer, which, for no app
ourse, another
id Leland. "Do you really
r face almost startled the man. The coldness and reserve had go
at you think of it. Under the circumstances, it might be better to go on
where a tiny stream came trickling out of a hollow shrouded with sombre firs. A few stones had evidently once been laid in t
long while, but I don't l
e men
at him, but his face was expressi
sually a way; but the trouble is that I am a stranger. If I were in my
s that suggested ironical appreciation of his bo
not," she said. "We are a
, "I guess we must
to her. She noticed as she sprang from stone to stone how hard it was and how firm his grasp. It seemed t
ed the well, which Leland promptly decided was not very much to look at. It lay at the head of a little green hollow, a wall of fissured limestones sprinkled with mosses and tufted with h
re here, you may as well notice that the water has rather curious properties. If you wi
ery like silver lace. The stem was also crusted with a white deposit, and it cost him a little effort to
wig?" he said, and she noticed for the first time his Wes
made you
ely. "Well," he said with a little depr
more frequently than I do now. I should, however, like to p
l, I should scarcely have fancied you would have felt it yet. Anyway, that's not the question; and, pe
companion without a word. Following through a gap, she came upon him as he picked up a rabbit from the grass. The little creature's eyes were protuding in an agony of strangulation, and a th
"This is not a thi
her, and make others do it, than to do what she was told. It was a minute o
in a burrow," he said. "It would have pleas
interest. "I believe it is th
s who allow that abominable cruelty to go on. The little beast might have str
anly gentleness while he slackened the torturing wire. It was made even more impressive when, on suggesting hanging for the man who had laid the snare, something in his face and voice left her with the conviction that
he?" s
d Jimmy with his near
that a
ourself. I spent a month shooting round his place in Western Canada, and made him promise
s he do o
a. His father was, I believe, an Englishman, but he died when Leland was young, and the farm and the stock-run have doubled in the hands of the son.
t somewhat thoughtfully to her room. On the wh