ng upon the clasped hands. There was no sound of any
sort. Green sat and watched, a kind of stern pity replacing the
unyielding mastery of his look. He moved at length, was on the verge of
speech, when something checked him. Footsteps fell beyond the open door,
and in a moment a man's figure appeared entering through the gloom.

"Hullo, Dick!" a voice said. "You here? There's going to be the devil of
a storm. Where's that scoundrel Robin?"

Robin stirred with a deep sound in his throat like the growl of an
angry animal.

Richard Green rose with a sharp movement. "Jack! I want a word with you.
Come outside!"

He passed Robin and went to the new-comer, gripping him quickly by the
shoulder and turning him back by the way he had come.

Jack submitted to the imperative touch. He was taller and broader than
his elder brother, but he lacked that subtle something--the distinction
of bearing--which in Richard was very apparent.

"Well, Dick! What do you want?" he said. "I'm pretty mad, I can tell you.
I hope you're going to thrash him well. Because if you don't, I shall."

Briefly and decidedly Dick made answer. "No, you won't. You'll not touch
him. I shall do--whatever is necessary."

"Shall you?" said Jack. "Then why don't you shut him up in a wild-beast
house? It's the only place he's fit for."

"Shut up, please!" Richard's tone was an odd mixture of tolerance and
exasperation. "I'll manage this affair my own way. But I've got to know
the truth of it first. What made him throw that stone? Have you been
baiting him again?"

"I?" Jack squared his shoulders; a sneer crossed his good-looking face.
"Oh, say I did it!" he drawled.

"Don't be an ass, Jack! Can't you see I want your help?" Richard spoke
with insistence; his hand gripped his brother's arm.

Jack's sneer turned to a self-satisfied smile. "I'll help you hammer him
if you like. There's nothing would please me better. Oh, all right, man!
Don't be impatient! That's my funny bone when you've done with it. I
don't mind telling you all about it if you want to know. He chucked that
stone at me out of sheer damned vindictiveness. He meant to break my
head, but he broke the window instead, and frightened Madam Fielding into
fits. In her own park too! It's a bit thick, you know, that. I don't
wonder that she came straight along to you to demand his blood. You'll
have the old man down next; also the beautiful Miss Moore. It's getting
beyond a joke, you know, Dick. Yo