?"

"Tom Shanks. I caught him coming out of the wood with some pheasants
and warned him he'd have to leave Bank-end if Jim knew."

"Do you mean you promised not to tell Jim?"

"I imagined he understood something like that. He is a powerful
fellow, and carried a heavy stick. Still, my satisfying him doesn't
bind you."

"I don't know; perhaps it does bind me, in a way," Dick replied. "All
the same, Shanks is a loafing thief; I'd have turned him out of the
neighborhood."

Mordaunt hesitated. He would have liked Dick to tell Jim, since this
might lead the latter to take the cottage from Shanks. For all that,
he did not see how he could persuade Dick to do so, because he did not
want him to think he had an object.

"Well, I must get on," he said. "Bernard grumbles when I'm late for
dinner."

He felt rather angry with himself when he went off. Luck had given him
an opportunity and he had used it in a manner of which he was
half-ashamed. The thing was done, however, and he was not sure he was
sorry. Shanks was a savage brute and had already borne Jim a grudge.
One or two of the farmers and country gentlemen had had grounds to
regret they had not left him alone. He would not hesitate much if he
saw a way to prevent Jim's turning him out, but Mordaunt shrank from
wondering how far he would go. After all, he had merely warned Shanks
about the consequence of his poaching.

When dinner was over he told Bernard he had been to Whitelees, and
added: "I imagine Evelyn would not like it publicly announced just yet,
but she has promised to marry Jim."

Bernard was silent for a few moments, and his face was inscrutable.
"Then, she is pluckier than I thought," he said, dryly. "But why does
she not want people to know?"

"It's something of a puzzle. Perhaps she felt telling people would
bind her to her promise."

"Jim is a handsome fellow; I suppose the flesh is willing but the
calculating brain weighs the drawbacks that may after all tip the
beam," Bernard remarked, and added with a sneer: "You ought to have
married Evelyn; you would have got on with her. In fact, if she had
been willing, I'd have seen that her prudence was properly rewarded.
The curious thing is, I imagine you both knew this."

"I don't think either of us deserves the taunt, sir," Mordaunt
rejoined. "Anyhow, I doubt if your generous plan altogether sprang
from good will to us."

"You're clever," said Bernard, with dry humor. "Much clever