g to himself in helpless fury.

"He just stood there grinning, even guessing my thoughts, for he said,
'You could knock me down, I know, but it would be no satisfaction to
you, for I would get back at you through the law. It would cost you
more than it is worth, John Massey.' It was what I knew was true
myself, so I kept my hands off him and came away."

Janet and Oliver stood looking at him miserably, knowing that there
was nothing to be done.

"Get into the car and wait for us," Oliver directed at last. "We will
take you home when we have finished here. We won't stay long."

"You won't want to," observed John Massey bitterly. "He is in a famous
bad temper."

They went through the gate with Janet's steps lagging more than ever.
There was something almost uncanny about a man who could cause such
misery to other people and yet go unscathed himself. They saw him
almost immediately as they came up the path. He had been cutting down
some weeds in the neglected field and was standing in the middle of
it, close beside the scarecrow. He did not move, but waited for them
to come close, evidently meditating what he could say that would hurt
and anger them the most. He began to speak the moment they came near,
giving Oliver no opening for what he had meant to say:

"So Jasper Peyton, having sent one of you to steal my picture, has
lost courage and sent two of you to bring it back again. Very clever,
very clever of him indeed!"

"He knew nothing about it," Janet was beginning passionately, when
Oliver silenced her by a touch on her shoulder.

"He knows that," he reminded her calmly; "he is only trying to make
you angry."

He caught a look of smoldering fury in Anthony Crawford's eye and a
note of surprised irritation in his voice.

"Well," the man snapped, "am I to have my property or not?"

"You are to have it. We will not keep anything that you even claim as
yours," returned Oliver.

He felt hot rage surging up within him, yet he strove to keep it down.
He had realized, of a sudden, that this man who could hurt his Cousin
Jasper so deeply, who could ruin John Massey, could harm neither him
nor Janet in the least. Oliver had felt real dread as he came through
the gate, he had been haunted by the vague terror of what Anthony
Crawford might be able to do, but he looked upon him now with
disillusioned eyes, knowing him for nothing but a small-minded,
selfish, spiteful man whose power over them was nothing at all.

"