ook a keen pride in you;
there were respects in which I found you truer to our type than
Bertram."

"You heaped favours on me," Blake replied. "That I bitterly
disappointed you has been my deepest shame; in fact, it's the one thing
that counts. For the rest, I can't regret the friends who turned their
backs on me, and poverty never troubled the Blakes."

"But the taint--the stain upon your name!"

"I have the advantage of bearing it alone, and, to tell the truth, it
doesn't bother me much. That a man should go straight in the present
is all they ask in Canada, and homeless adventurers with no
possessions, which is the kind of comrades I've generally met, are
charitable. As a rule, it wouldn't become them to be fastidious.
Anyhow, sir, you must see the absurdity of believing that Bertram could
have failed in his duty in the way these tales suggest."

"I once felt that strongly; the trouble is that the objection applies
with equal force to you. Your mother had a resolute character; your
father was a daring man."

Blake coloured as he answered: "I'm glad you mentioned this; my parents
can't be held responsible for my faults. You must know that rather
surprising variations are apt to appear in a family strain. It's
possible I'm what gardeners call a sport; a throwback to some inferior
type. There may have been a weakling even among the Challoners."

"I have dreaded that there was one in the present generation," the
Colonel answered with stern gravity. "But we get no farther. Do you
deny the stories these people have told me?"

Blake felt that his task was hard. He had to convict himself and must
do so logically, since Challoner was by no means a fool. As he nerved
himself to the effort he was conscious of a rather grim amusement.

"I think it would be better if I tried to show you how the attack was
made. Is the old set of Indian chessmen still in the drawer?"

"I believe so. It must be twenty years since they were taken out.
It's strange you should remember them."

A stirring of half-painful emotions troubled Blake.

He loved the old house and all that it contained and had a deep-seated
pride in the Challoner traditions. Now he must show that he was a
degenerate scion of the honoured stock and could have no part in them.

"I have forgotten nothing at Sandymere, but we must stick to the
subject." Crossing the floor he came back with the chessmen, which he
carefully arranged, setting up the whit