Impulsively he took her hand--a hand which she did not withdraw, for she was trembling. Slowly his face bent nearer her own, his words were sunk to a whisper, but in his eyes there gleamed the craving of her lips.

"Don't!" she protested, raising her free hand--"for G.o.d's sake don't!

_You shall not_!"

"I must," he answered, hotly.

"You shall not," she replied. "I should only suffer--I am unhappy enough as it is," and she buried her face in her clenched hands, her shoulders quivering.

Even the quiver did not evade the eyes of the man stock still beside the hemlock; no detail of the drama that was being enacted beside the brook escaped him. He who could observe with ease the smashing of a moth's wing thirty rods from sh.o.r.e, possessed a clearness of vision akin to that of a hawk. A bird fluttered in the underbrush near them.

"What was that?" she asked, with a guilty little start, withdrawing her hand.

"A bird--nothing more dangerous," he laughed outright, amused at her fright.

Holcomb's features, as he gazed at them, were like bronze. His first thought, as he gazed out from his ambush, had been Margaret's mother!

His second thought was his dislike for Sperry. He watched half unwillingly, with a feeling of mingled curiosity and disgust. He had not pried upon them; it was pure chance that had brought him where he was. At length he withdrew.

He was still thinking of the incident when he heard the brush crack ahead of him. Then the smug face of Blakeman emerged from a thicket.

It was the butler's afternoon off, and he was out after birds. He let down the hammers of his gun as Holcomb drew near.

"Any luck?" asked Holcomb.

The butler drew from the wide pocket of a well-worn leather hunting coat a pair of ruffled partridges.

"Good enough!" exclaimed Holcomb.

"'Twas a bit of devil's luck," returned Blakeman, dropping into his native brogue, which he always suppressed in service. "Both birds jumped back of me, but I got 'em."

"You're a good shot," declared Billy.

"No, my friend," replied Blakeman modestly, "I _used_ to be a good shot; I'm only a lucky shot now. It's not often I make a double. Where have you been?"

"Over to look at some timber on the West Branch."

"I heard voices," Blakeman said, "full half an hour ago"--and he pointed in the direction from which Holcomb had come--"and did you see anybody?"

"Yes," said Holcomb, after a moment's thoughtful hesitation, "I did."

"Whom?"

"Mrs. Thayor and the doctor, out for a walk."

"Of course," said Blakeman, looking queerly into Holcomb's eyes. "You saw them quite by chance, I'll wager. You're not the kind of a lad to prowl on the edge of other people's affairs."

Holcomb did not reply. He was weighing in his mind the advisability of making a confidant of Blakeman against the wisdom of telling him nothing.

"When you know these people of the world as well as I do, my friend,"

continued Blakeman, as the two seated themselves to rest, "what you've just seen won't rob you of much sleep," and he laid his favourite gun tenderly upon a log. "The very last people in the world--women--whom you wouldn't suspect--are usually the ones. Most of them do as they please if they've enough money."

"Blakeman," exclaimed Holcomb, unable to contain himself longer, "the man whom you and I serve is my friend. Sam Thayor never did a mean thing in his life--he's not that kind. It's his daughter, too, whom I am thinking about. You've known them both as well as I do--longer in fact--"

"And far better," added Blakeman. "It is a pleasure to serve a master like Mr. Thayor, and Miss Margaret is as good as gold." He sc.r.a.ped the mud from his boots as he continued: "Didn't I serve an archduke once, who was a pig in his household and a d.a.m.ned idiot out of it?--but neither you nor me are getting to the point. What you really want to talk about is madam, and since I believe in you I intend to post you further. It may be the means of keeping two people happy who deserve to be, if nothing else."

"That's about what I was going to say," confessed Holcomb simply, drawn by the butler's frankness.

Blakeman smiled--a bitter smile that terminated with a sudden gleam in his eyes as he leaned forward.

"Last winter," he went on hurriedly, as he glanced at the setting sun, "I stumbled on them both just as you've done, only my trail led through the conservatory of the New York house. They were both hard pressed, do you see, for a way out; that's how I first knew about Mr.

Thayor's intention to purchase this property."

"The telegram Mr. Thayor sent, you mean?"

"No--a letter. It meant separation to them. I saw her hand it to the doctor to read. Do you know what he did? He condemned Miss Margaret's lungs--told her mother the child had consumption. By G.o.d--I could have strangled him!"

Holcomb gripped the log on which he sat, staring grimly at the butler.

"Yes, ordered her here!" continued Blakeman. "That was _their way out. d.a.m.n him_! Ordered her here--winter and summer, knowing that her father would go along with her, and let the wife do as she pleased. It was d.a.m.nable!"

There are two kinds of anger that seize a man--explosive and suppressed. Holcomb was now suffering under the latter--a subtle anger that would undoubtedly have meant serious injury to the immaculate Sperry had he been unlucky enough to have crossed his path at the moment.

As Blakeman, little by little, unfolded more of the doctor's villainy, Holcomb's muscles relaxed and his indignation, which had risen by degrees until it boiled within him, now settled to reason. He had not only Thayor's happiness to think of, but Margaret's as well. Both, he determined, must be kept in ignorance of what, so far, only he and Blakeman knew.

"The morning the little fellow, Le Boeuf, got hurt," Blakeman went on, "the doctor took Miss Margaret for a walk. I was in the pantry and saw them start off together in the woods down by the brook. I followed them--I couldn't help it; I had a little girl myself once in the old country, and I've seen too much of Sperry's kind. Europe is full of them."

The tenseness in Holcomb returned. "What did you see?" he asked grimly.

"No more than I expected," returned the butler. "The doctor is a snake--and Miss Margaret is young and pretty; well--he would have kissed her--but I announced luncheon."

Holcomb caught his breath. "And she was willing?" he asked, looking sternly at Blakeman.

"Willing! She was frightened to death."

Holcomb threw up his head with a jerk--his clenched fists rigid on the log.

"I'm telling you this," Blakeman went on, not waiting for him to reply, "because I believe you can help. I have always made it a rule in service to keep silent, no matter what pa.s.ses in a family. I meddled once at Ostend in an affair of the like of this, and it taught me a lesson. There'll be trouble here if things go on like this--maybe later a divorce--and a divorce is the devil in a family like Mr.

Thayor's. Neither you nor me want that; we must stand by the little girl and the master and avoid it."

"What do you intend to do?" inquired Holcomb, staring grimly at the ground.

"I'm going to give madame a chance--she's a fool, but she's not crooked; that is, I don't think she is," Blakeman replied. "Then I'll speak out."

"Do you think Mr. Thayor suspects anything?" asked Holcomb, after a moment's hesitation.

"He's not that kind. I dare not tell him--never in the world would tell him. You might--he would listen to you. Butlers are seldom believed--I've tried it."

He gathered up the pair of fat partridges and stuffed them in his pocket.

"And you advise me to tell him?" asked Holcomb slowly.