heme all right. I would like to see the dear old chap again. I must
have treated him very shabbily. And the old Canon--is he still to the
fore?"

"Rather, and as nailing good an old sort as ever. He wants to see you
again too--almost as much as Uncle Luke does."

"Ah, he always was a straight 'un--not an ounce of shoddy or humbug
about him--"

"Come on, you fellows, or we'll never get to work," shouted Earle's
voice, now very far ahead of them.

And leaving their home talk and reminiscences for the present, they
spurred on their steeds--to join the rest of the party.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

"IT CANNOT BE."

In the conjecture that his cousin had fallen into an infatuation for
Hermia, Hilary Blachland was right--the only respect in which he had
failed to grasp the full situation being that he had not fathomed the
depth of that infatuation.

He knew her little ways, none better; knew well how insidiously
dangerous she could be to those who did not know them, when she saw fit
to lay herself out to attract. That she was laying herself out to
entrap Percy was the solution of the whole problem.

Yet not all of it. She had been with the Earles before Percy's arrival,
before she could even have known he was in the country at all. And what
had become of Spence? Well, this, too, would be cleared up, for he knew
as well as though she had told him in so many words, that before they
parted again she meant to have a private talk with him, and an
understanding, and to this he was not averse. It would probably be a
stormy one, for he was not going to allow her to add young West to her
list of victims; and this he was going to give her emphatically to
understand.

A rustle and a rush in front, and a blekbuck leaped out of the long
grass almost at his horse's feet, for they were riding in line--a
hundred yards or so apart. Up went his gun mechanically--a crack and a
suspicion of a puff of smoke. The graceful little animal turned a
complete somersault, and lay, convulsively kicking its life away.
Another started up, crossing right in front of Percival. The latter
slipped to the ground in a moment, got a sight on, and turned it over
neatly, at rather a long distance shot.

"I say, Bayfield. Those two Britishers are leading off well," said
Earle, as they pulled in their horses and lighted pipes, to wait till
the other two should be ready to take the line again.

There are more imposing, but few more enjoyable forms