ken," Jervaise snapped.

"Give me a chance to prove it, then," was Banks's counter.

"How?"

"I've got to take that car back. Give me a chance for another talk with
Mr. Jervaise; alone this time."

I looked at Banks with a sudden feeling of anxiety. I was afraid that he
meant at last to use that "pull" he had hinted at on the hill; and I had
an intuitive shrinking from the idea of his doing that. This open defiance
was fine and upright. The other attitude suggested to my mind the
conception of something cowardly, a little base and underhand. He looked,
I admit, the picture of sturdy virtue as he stood there challenging his
late master to permit this test of old Jervaise's attitude, but the prize
at stake was so inestimably precious to Banks, that it must have altered
all his values. He would, I am sure, have committed murder for Brenda--any
sort of murder.

Frank Jervaise did not respond at once to the gage that had been offered.
He appeared to be moodily weighing the probabilities before he decided his
policy. And Brenda impatiently prompted him by saying,--

"Well, I don't see what possible objection you can have to that."

"Only want to save the pater any worry I can," Jervaise said. "He has been
more cut up than any one over this business."

"The pater has?" queried Brenda on a note of amazement. "I shouldn't have
expected him to be half as bad as the mater and Olive."

"Well, he is. He's worse--much worse," Jervaise asserted.

I was listening to the others, but I was watching Banks, and I saw him
sneer when that assertion was made. The expression seemed to have been
forced out of him against his will; just a quick jerk downwards of the
corners of his mouth that portrayed a supreme contempt for old Jervaise's
distress. But that sneer revealed Banks's opinion to me better than
anything he had said or done. I knew then that he was aware of something
concerning the master of the Hall that was probably unknown either to
Brenda or Frank, something that Banks had loyally hidden even from his
sister. He covered his sneer so quickly that I believe no one else noticed
it.

"But, surely, it would be better for the pater to see Arthur and have done
with it," Brenda was saying.

"Oh! I dare say," Jervaise agreed with his usual air of grudging the least
concession. "Are you ready to go now?" he asked, addressing Banks.

Banks nodded. "I'll pick up the car on the way," he said.

"I'll come with you--as far as the