if that
foolish woman, my Aunt Barbara, had not begun sowing the seeds of
discord in her son's mind. But as soon as he was old enough to
understand her, she began talking to him of Beechcot and its glories,
pointing out to him the wide park and noble trees, the broad acres
filled with golden grain, and the great moors that stretched away for
miles towards the sea; and she said, no doubt, how grand a thing it
would be to be lord of so excellent an estate, and how a man might enjoy
himself in its possession. Then she told him that I was to have all
these things when Sir Thurstan died, and thereafter my cousin Jasper
hated me. But he let his hate smoulder within him a good while before
he showed it openly. One day, however, when we were out in the park with
our bows, he began to talk of the matter, and after a time we got to
high words.

"My mother tells me, Humphrey," said he, "that when my uncle Thurstan
dies all these fair lands will pass to thee. That is not right."

"'Tis our uncle's land to do with as he pleases," I answered. "We have
naught to do with it. If he likes to leave it to me, what hast thou to
say in the matter? 'Tis his affair; not thine, Master Jasper. Besides, I
am a Salkeld, and you are not."

"Is not my mother a Salkeld?" he asked.

"It counts not by the mother," I answered. "And, moreover, my father
would have heired the estate had he lived. But be not down-hearted about
it, Jasper, I will see that thou art provided for. When I am lord of
Beechcot I will make thee my steward."

Now, that vexed him sore, and he flew into a violent rage, declaring
that he would serve no man, and me last of all; and so violent did he
become that he was foolish to look at, and thereupon I laughed at him.
At that his rage did but increase, and he presently fitted an arrow to
his bow and shot at me meaning, I doubt not, to put an end to me
forever. But by good fortune his aim mischanced, and the arrow did no
more than pin me to the tree by which I stood, passing through my
clothes between the arm and the body. And at that we were both sobered,
and Jasper cooled his hot temper.

"What wouldst thou have done if the arrow had passed through my heart,
as it might easily have chanced to do?" I inquired of him.

"I would have gone home and told them that I had killed thee by
accident," he answered readily enough. "Thou wouldst have been dead,
and therefore no one could have denied my tale."

I said naught to that, but