aptain Downes, and learned that he
was right in his conjecture, and that it was he who had retained Mr.
Probert's services in Julian's behalf before the magistrates.

For the next few days Julian kept in the house, except that after
nightfall he went out for a long walk. The report of the proceedings in
the court had caused a great sensation in Weymouth, and the feeling was
so strong against Mr. Faulkner that he was hooted in the streets when he
rode into the town. The general expectation was that he would resign his
position on the bench; and when at the end of a week he did not do so, a
private meeting of the other magistrates was held, and it was whispered
in the town that a report of the proceedings at the court had been sent
to the Home Secretary, with an expression of opinion that Mr. Faulkner's
brother magistrates felt that they could not sit again with him on the
bench after what had taken place.

Ten days after the affair Julian started early one morning for a day's
rabbit-shooting at the house of a friend who lived some six miles up the
valley. Some snow fell in the course of the afternoon and put a stop to
shooting, and he started to walk home. When he was within a few hundred
yards of Mr. Faulkner's place he heard a horse coming along behind him.
The snow that had fallen had deadened the sound of the hoofs on the
road, and, looking round, he saw Mr. Faulkner riding fast, at a distance
of but fifty yards away. Had he caught sight of him sooner Julian would
have left the road and entered the wood to avoid him, but it was too
late now, and he hoped that at any rate the man would pass on without
speaking. The horseman had apparently not recognized Julian until he
came abreast of him, when, with a sudden exclamation, he reined in his
horse.

[Illustration: "MARK MY WORDS, YOU YOUNG SCOUNDREL, I WILL BE EVEN WITH
YOU YET."]

"So it is you, Julian Wyatt?" he said, in a tone of suppressed fury.

"It is I, Mr. Faulkner," Julian replied quietly; "and as I don't want
to have anything to say to you, I think that you had better go on your
way without interfering with me."

"Mark my words, you young scoundrel, I will be even with you yet."

"The debt is not all on your side, Mr. Faulkner. I, too, have got a debt
to pay; and perhaps some day we may square matters up, when you have not
got a score of coast-guardsmen at your back. However, I am content to
leave matters as they are so long as you do the same. As to you