arefully examined Tod. Both were obviously lost
in the moment. And with a feeling of defeat Felix led the way back to
the cottage.

In the brick-floored kitchen Derek was striding up and down; while around
him, in an equilateral triangle, stood the three women, Sheila at the
window, Kirsteen by the open hearth, Nedda against the wall opposite.
Derek exclaimed at once:

"Why did you let them, Father? Why didn't you refuse to give him up?"

Felix looked at his brother. In the doorway, where his curly head nearly
touched the wood, Tod's face was puzzled, rueful. He did not answer.

"Any one could have said he wasn't here. We could have smuggled him
away. Now the brutes have got him! I don't know that, though--" And he
made suddenly for the door.

Tod did not budge. "No," he said.

Derek turned; his mother was at the other door; at the window, the two
girls.

The comedy of this scene, if there be comedy in the face of grief, was
for the moment lost on Felix.

'It's come,' he thought. 'What now?'

Derek had flung himself down at the table and was burying his head in his
hands. Sheila went up to him.

"Don't be a fool, Derek."

However right and natural that remark, it seemed inadequate.

And Felix looked at Nedda. The blue motor scarf she had worn had slipped
off her dark head; her face was white; her eyes, fixed immovably on
Derek, seemed waiting for him to recognize that she was there. The boy
broke out again:

"It was treachery! We took him in; and now we've given him up. They
wouldn't have touched US if we'd got him away. Not they!"

Felix literally heard the breathing of Tod on one side of him and of
Kirsteen on the other. He crossed over and stood opposite his nephew.

"Look here, Derek," he said; "your mother was quite right. You might
have put this off for a day or two; but it was bound to come. You don't
know the reach of the law. Come, my dear fellow! It's no good making a
fuss, that's childish--the thing is to see that the man gets every
chance."

Derek looked up. Probably he had not yet realized that his uncle was in
the room; and Felix was astonished at his really haggard face; as if the
incident had bitten and twisted some vital in his body.

"He trusted us."

Felix saw Kirsteen quiver and flinch, and understood why they had none of
them felt quite able to turn their backs on that display of passion.
Something deep and unreasoning was on the boy's side; something that