ached the end of the lane and glanced back at the rambling dwelling,
she was still leaning on the gate with one foot on the lower rail and
her chin cupped in the hollow of her hand. She made a slight gesture,
not clearly intelligible at that distance; it might have been a
mischievous imitation of the way he had thrown the gun over his
shoulder, it might have been a wafted kiss.

The master however continued his way in no very self-satisfied mood.
Although he did not regret having taken the place of Cressy as the
purveyor of lethal weapons between the belligerent parties, he knew he
was tacitly mingling in the feud between people for whom he cared little
or nothing. It was true that the Harrisons sent their children to his
school, and that in the fierce partisanship of the locality this simple
courtesy was open to misconstruction. But he was more uneasily conscious
that this mission, so far as Mrs. McKinstry was concerned, was a
miserable failure. The strange relations of the mother and daughter
perhaps explained much of the girl's conduct, but it offered no hope of
future amelioration. Would the father, "worrited by stock" and boundary
quarrels--a man in the habit of cutting Gordian knots with a bowie
knife--prove more reasonable? Was there any nearer sympathy between
father and daughter? But she had said he would meet McKinstry in the
clearing: she was right, for here he was coming forward at a gallop!

CHAPTER III.

When within a dozen paces of the master, McKinstry, scarcely checking
his mustang, threw himself from the saddle, and with a sharp cut of
his riata on the animal's haunches sent him still galloping towards the
distant house. Then, with both hands deeply thrust in the side pockets
of his long, loose linen coat, he slowly lounged with clanking spurs
towards the young man. He was thick-set, of medium height, densely and
reddishly bearded, with heavy-lidded pale blue eyes that wore a look of
drowsy pain, and after their first wearied glance at the master, seemed
to rest anywhere but on him.

"Your wife was sending you your rifle by Cressy," said the master, "but
I offered to bring it myself, as I thought it scarcely a proper errand
for a young lady. Here it is. I hope you didn't miss it before and don't
require it now," he added quietly.

Mr. McKinstry took it in one hand with an air of slightly embarrassed
surprise, rested it against his shoulder, and then with the same hand
and without removing