been having a brush with that scoundrel
Lowrie, and I believe something has happened to my wrist."

He made an effort to raise his left hand and failed, succumbing to a
pain so intense that it forced an exclamation from him.

"I thought it was a sprain," he said, when he recovered himself, "but it
is a job for a surgeon. It is broken."

And so it proved under the examination of the nearest practitioner, and
then Derrick remembered a wrench and shock which he had felt in Lowrie's
last desperate effort to recover himself. Some of the small bones had
broken.

Grace called in the surgeon himself, and stood by during the strapping
and bandaging with an anxious face, really suffering as much as Derrick,
perhaps a trifle more. He would not hear of his going home that night,
but insisted that he should remain where he was.

"I can sleep on the lounge myself," he protested. "And though I shall be
obliged to leave you for half an hour, I assure you I shall not be away
a longer time."

"Where are you going?" asked Derrick.

"To the Rectory. Mr. Barholm sent a mes-sage an hour ago, that he wished
to see me upon business."

Fergus agreed to remain. When Grace was on the point of leaving the
room, he turned his head.

"You are going to the Rectory, you say?" he remarked.

"Yes."

"Do you think you shall see Anice?"

"It is very probable," confusedly.

"I merely thought I would ask you not to mention this affair to her,"
said Derrick. The Curate's face assumed an expression at that moment,
which it was well that his friend did not see. A shadow of bewilderment
and anxiety fell upon it and the color faded away.

"You think--" faltered he.

"Well, I thought that perhaps it would shock or alarm her," answered
Derrick. "She might fancy it to have been a more serious matter than it
was."

"Very well. I think you are right, perhaps."

CHAPTER IX - The News at the Rectory

If she did not hear of the incident from Grace, Anice heard of it from
another quarter.

The day following, the village was ringing with the particulars of "th'
feight betwix' th' Lunnon chap an' Dan Lowrie."

Having occasion to go out in the morning, Mr. Barholm returned to
luncheon in a state of great excitement.

"Dear me!" he began, almost as soon as he entered the room. "Bless my
life! what ill-conditioned animals these colliers are!"

Anice and her mother regarded him questionably.

"What do you suppose I have just heard?" he went