that black-guard's lease: he
has been in plenty of mining cases. I have got a sort of half opinion
out of him already; he thinks it contrary to the equity of contracts
that minerals should pass under a farm lease where the surface of the
soil is a just equivalent to the yearly payment; but the old fox won't
speak positively till he has read every syllable of the lease. However,
it stands to reason that it's a fraud; it comes from a man who is all
fraud; but thank God I am myself again."

He started up erect as a dart. "I'll have him off my lands; I'll drag him
out of the bowels of the earth, him and all his clan."

With this and other threats of the same character he marched out of the
room, striking the floor hard with his stick as he went, and left Julia
Clifford amazed, and Walter Clifford aghast, at his vindictive fury.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SERPENT LET LOOSE.

Walter Clifford was so distressed at this outburst, and the prospect of
actual litigation between his father and his sweetheart's father, that
Julia Clifford pitied him, and, after thinking a little, said she would
stop it for the present. She then sat down, and in five minutes the
docile pen of a female letter-writer produced an ingratiating composition
impossible to resist. She apologized for her apparent insincerity, but
would be candid, and confide the whole truth to Mr. Bell. Then she told
him that Colonel Clifford "had only just been saved from death by a
miracle, and a relapse was expected in case of any great excitement or
irritation, such as a doubtful lawsuit with a gentleman he disliked would
certainly cause. The proposed litigation was, _for various reasons_, most
distressing to his son and successor, Walter Clifford, and would Mr. Bell
be so very kind as to put the question off as long as possible by any
means he thought proper?"

Walter was grateful, and said, "What a comfort to have a lady on
one's side!"

"I would rather have a gentleman on mine," said Julia, laughing.

Mr. Bell wrote a discreet reply. He would wait till the Assizes--six
weeks' delay--and then write to the Colonel, postponing his visit. This
he did, and promised to look up cases meantime.

But these two allies not only baffled their irascible chief; they also
humored him to the full. They never mentioned the name of Bartley, and
they kept Percy Fitzroy out of sight in spite of his remonstrances, and,
in a word, they made the Colonel's life so smooth that he tho