e more impressive. But he was certainly
withholding his thanks a distressingly long while.

The situation had become embarrassing. The others had stopped
talking and looked a little uncomfortable. When the old mistress
went round to refill the coffee cups some of the men hesitated; Jan
among them.

"Oh, have another wee drop, Jan!" she said. "If you hadn't been so
quick to act we would have lost a cow that's worth her two hundred
rix-dollars."

This was followed by a dead silence, and now every one's eyes
turned toward the man of the house. All were waiting for some
expression of appreciation from him.

Lars cleared his throat two or three times, as if to give added
weight to what he was about to say.

"It strikes me there's something queer about this whole business,"
he began. "You all know that Jan owes two hundred rix-dollars and
you also know that last spring I was offered just that sum for the
cow. It seems to fit in altogether too well with Jan's case that
the cow should have gone down in the marsh to-day and that he
should have rescued her."

Lars paused and again cleared his throat. Jan rose and moved toward
him; but neither he nor any of the others had an answer ready.

"I don't know how Jan happened to be the one who heard the cow
bellowing up in the marsh," pursued Lars. "Perhaps he was nearer
the scene when the mishap occurred than he would have us think.
Maybe he saw a possibility of getting out of debt and deliberately
drove the cow--"

Jan brought his fist down on the table with a crash that made the
cups jump in their saucers.

"You judge others by yourself, you!" he said, "That's the sort of
thing you might do, but not I. You must know that I can see through
your tricks. One day last winter you--"

But just when Jan was on the point of saying something that could
only have ended in an irreparable break between himself and his
employer, the old housewife tipped him by the coat sleeve.

"Look out, Jan!" said she.

Jan did so. Then he saw Katrina coming toward the house with a
letter in her hand.

That was surely the letter from Glory Goldie which they had been
longing for every day since her departure. Katrina, knowing how
happy Jan would be to get this, had come straight over with it the
moment it arrived.

Jan glanced about him, bewildered. Many ugly words were on the tip
of his tongue, but now he had no time to give vent to them. What
did he care about being revenged on Lars Gunnar