good bright hope of heaven."

"But are you sure, Zacharias? Are you sure? Isn't it possible that all
these five masters of yours may have been mistaken?"

Zacharias could only stare in his horror. Finally he turned away and
went silently across the patio.

"Ben," cried the girl softly, "why did you do it? Aside from torturing
the poor man, what if this comes to David's ear?"

Connor snapped his finger. His manner was that of one who knows that he
has taken a foolish risk and wishes to brazen the matter out.

"It'll never come to the ear of David! Why? Because he'd wring the neck
of the old chap if he even guessed that he'd been talking about leaving
the valley. And in the meantime I cut away the ground beneath David's
feet. He has not standing room, pretty soon. Nothing left to him, by
Jove, but his own conceit, and he has tons of that! Well, let him use it
and get fat on it!"

She wondered why Connor had come to actually hate the master of the
Garden. Sure David of Eden had never harmed the gambler. She remembered
something that she had heard long before: that the hatred always lies on
the side of injurer and not of the injured.

They heard David's voice, at this point, approaching, and in another
moment a small cavalcade entered the patio.

_CHAPTER THIRTY_

First, a white flash beneath the shadow of the arched way, came a colt
at full run, stopping short with four sprawling, braced feet at the
sight of the strangers. It was not fear so much as surprise, for now it
pricked its ears and advanced a dainty step or two. Ruth cried out with
delight at the fawn-like beauty of the delicate creature. The Eden Gray
was almost white in the little colt, and with its four dark stockings it
seemed, when it ran, to be stepping on thin air. That impression was
helped by the comparatively great length of the legs.

Next came the mother, walking, as though she was quite confident that no
harm could come to her colt in this home of all good things, but with
her fine head held high and her eyes luminous with concern, a little
anxious because the youngster had been out of sight for a moment.

And behind them strode David with Elijah at his side.

Ruth could never have recognized Elijah as the statuesque figure which
had confronted David on the previous day. He was now bowing and scraping
like some withered old man, striving to make a good impression on a
creditor to whom a great sum was owing. She remembered then wh