to avenge the witless and those at
whom fools make a mock! _Be quiet, you there!_"

She sent the door of the barn clashing into its place with her foot,
and with the click of the well-oiled wards the screeching behind it
redoubled.

The tall woman sighed and folded her arms across her breast. There was
a certain weary dignity about her, and at first I could not believe
that she was really out of her mind, as all in Breckonside averred.
"They are worse than usual to-day," she said, with a careless nod of
the head in the direction of the barn, "but that will teach them. They
shall stay there till I come and fetch them out! No food for such as
they!"

She turned about and called hurriedly: "Jeremy! Jeremy!"

Then the big black man with the ringlets, the onyx eyes and gipsy's
skin, came bounding toward us. He seemed to arrive from the direction
of the moat, but from much farther round and nearer to the house than
the bridge by which we had crossed. He was grinning and holding his
hands behind him, like a child who fears to be punished. I soon
noticed that he was far more afraid of his sister than he had been of
Mr. Stennis and his riding whip.

"Show your hands!" The tall woman spoke in a tone of command. Jeremy
stood grinning before her. Then quite suddenly he began to cry. Big
tears rolled down his face.

"I haven't--I haven't, indeed, Aphra!" he whimpered. "I have only been
sailing boats on the moat! Indeed, I have!"

"_Show your hands!_"

She spoke so shortly that the great, cleanly built powerful giant
fairly quaked before her.

"I will--I will!" he repeated. "Yes, Aphra!"

And all the time he was evidently rubbing them together as hard as he
could. I could see his shoulders and elbows working. Then the tall
woman, losing all patience, snatched at his arms and pulled the hands
sharply forward. The marks of earth between the fingers and about the
nails were obvious. But Jeremy still continued to rub off the little
pellets of mould, raising his fingers and looking at them with an air
of surprise, as if he wondered how in the world the dirt had got there.

"You have been digging again!" cried Miss Orrin; "this is the third
time, and you are well aware of the penalty!"

"Oh, no, no!" cried the big man, catching her by the skirt, which she
swept away from him, the tears fairly rolling down his cheeks. "Whip
me, if you like, Aphra, but----"

"Go and shut yourself up in the dark hole," sh