could
make things highly unpleasant for you if you provoked me too far," he
said. "And let me warn you, you have gone quite far enough in a matter in
which you have no concern whatever. I never have stood any interference
from you and I never will. Let that be understood--once for all!"

He met Scott's look with eyes of smouldering wrath. There was more than
warning in his hold; it conveyed menace.

Yet Scott, very pale, supremely dignified, made no motion to retreat.
"You have not answered me yet," he said. "I must have an answer."

Sir Eustace's brows met in a thick and threatening line. "You will have
very much more than you bargain for if you persist," he said.

"Meaning that I am to draw my own conclusions?" Scott asked, unmoved.

The smouldering fire suddenly blazed into flame. He pulled Scott to him
with the movement of a giant, and bent him irresistibly downwards. "I
will show you what I mean," he said.

Scott made a swift, instinctive effort to free himself, but the next
instant he was passive. Only as the relentless hands forced him lower he
spoke, his voice quick and breathless.

"You can hammer me to your heart's content, but you'll get nothing out of
it. That sort of thing simply doesn't count--with me."

Sir Eustace held him in a vice-like grip. "Are you going to take it lying
down then?" he questioned grimly.

"I'm not going to fight you certainly." Scott's voice had a faint quiver
of humour in it, as though he jested at his own expense. "Not--that
is--in a physical sense. If you choose to resort to brute force, that's
your affair. And I fancy you'll be sorry afterwards. But it will make no
actual difference to me." He broke off, breathing short and hard, like a
man who struggles against odds yet with no thought of yielding.

Sir Eustace held him a few seconds as if irresolute, then abruptly let
him go. "I believe you're right," he said. "You wouldn't care a damn. But
you're a fool to bait me all the same. Now clear out, and leave me alone
for the future!"

"I haven't done with you yet," Scott said. He straightened himself, and
returned indomitably to the attack. "I asked you a question, and--so
far--you haven't answered it. Are you ashamed to answer it?"

Sir Eustace got up with a movement of exasperation, but very oddly his
anger had died down. "Oh, confound you, Stumpy! You're worse than a swarm
of mosquitoes!" he said. "I dispute your right to ask that question. It
is no affair of yours.