by a ghastly smile.

"Oh, I'm a woman of a man," he muttered, looking stupidly down at the
paper in his hand. "A poor-spirited fool," he muttered again. "I must
be so, God knows." But at the next moment his white face grew
blood-red, and he cried: "My curse upon him," and with that he tossed
back the letter and swung out of the house.

He went on to Port-y-Vullin, mounted the new mill, threw down the
roof rafters, and every wall that they had rested upon, until not one
stone was left above another, and the house, so near completion, was
only a heap of ruins. Then he went into the old hut, took up his
treasures and flung them out to sea.

Meantime, the six Fairbrothers were putting their heads together.

"President!" said Thurstan; "that's as good as Governor-General."

"The deuce!" said John.

"She'll be rich," said Ross. "I always said she was fit for a lady."

"Hum! We've made a mess of it," said Stean.

"Well, you wouldn't take my advice," said Asher. "I was for treating
the girl fair."

"Stay," said Jacob, "it's not yet too late."

"Well, what's to be done?" said the others together.

"Go after her," said Jacob.

"Ah!"

"Hum! Listen! This is what we had better do," said Jacob. "Sell
Ballacraine and take her the money, and tell her we never meant to
keep it from her."

"That's good," said John.

"A Governor-General has pickings, I can tell you," said Jacob.

"But who'll go?" said Asher.

"Go! Hum! What! The deuce! Well I mightn't refuse to go myself," said
Jacob.

"And maybe I wouldn't mind going with you," said John.

And so it was settled. But the other four said to themselves: "What
about the pickings?" And then each, of himself, concluded secretly
that if Jacob and John went to Iceland, Jacob and John would get all
that was to be got by going, and that to prevent such cheating it
would be necessary to go with them.

CHAPTER VII.

THE YOKE OF JACOB.

Jason paid the last of his debts in the Isle of Man, and then set
sail for Iceland with less money in his pocket than Adam Fairbrother
had carried there. He knew nothing of the whereabouts or condition of
the man he was going to seek, except that Michael Sunlocks was at
Reykjavik; for so much, and no more, he had read of the letter that
the Fairbrothers put into his hands at Lague. The ship he first
sailed by was a trader between Copenhagen and the greater ports of
Scotland, and Ireland, and at the Danish capital he secured a pass