pat the pale brush of
her lover's well-cropped hair. "Good boy, we'll make a Blue Nose of you
yet! And what is this famous bargain, may I ask?"

"Why, I've just bought what so many of your fellow-countrymen call the
'Noo Ma'sh,'" answered Desbra. "I have got it for twenty dollars an
acre, and it's worth a hundred any day! I've got the deed, and the
thing's an accomplished fact."

Jessie looked grave, and removed herself from her lover's embrace in
order to lend impressiveness to her words. "Oh, Jack, Jack!" she said,
"you don't know what you have done! You have become a man of Destiny,
which I don't believe you want to be at all. You have bought the 'Star.'
You have made yourself the master of the 'Witch's Stone.' You have
summoned the 'Eye of Gluskap' to keep watch upon you critically. In
fact, it would take a long time to tell you all you have done. But one
thing more you must do,--you must get rid of that famous bargain of
yours without delay. I'm not superstitious, Jack, but truly in this case
I am disturbed. Bad luck, horrid bad luck, has always befallen any man
owning that piece of Marsh, for the Marsh contains the Witch's Stone,
and a spell is on the man that possesses that fatal jewel."

Jack Desbra laughed and recaptured the maiden. "All right," said he, "if
a man mustn't possess it, I shall give it away to a woman! How will that
suit you, my lady?"

Jessie looked dubious, but said anything would be better than for him to
keep it himself. Whereupon the young man continued: "Put on your hat,
then, and come down into the village with me, and I will forthwith
transfer the property, with all appurtenances thereof, to Jessie
McIntyre, spinster, of the parish of Grand Pre, County of Kings,
Province of Nova Scotia, in her Majesty's Dominion of Canada; and the
'Eye of Gluskap' will find something better to keep watch upon than me!"

To this proposal Miss Jessie, being in the main a very level-headed
young lady, in spite of her little superstitions, assented without
demur, and the two proceeded to the village.

On the way thither and back, Desbra learned all the history of the "Star
on the Marsh," as I have endeavored to unfold it in the preceding pages.
As it happened, however, there was no mention of Pierrot Desbarat's
surname in Jessie's account. Marie Beaugrand she spoke of, but Marie's
_fiance_, the last finder of the amethyst, she simply called Pierrot.

"But have you yourself ever seen the sinister glory