ved to probe a little
deeper.

"Miss Columbine is a very reliable guide," he remarked. "If you and Adam
have been her instructors in shore-craft, she does you credit."

His remark went into utter silence. Rufus, with huge hands loosely
clasped between his knees, appeared to be engrossed in watching the
progress of the boat as she drifted gently on the rising tide. His face
was utterly blank of expression, unless a certain grim fixity could be
described as such.

Knight became slightly exasperated. Was the fellow no more than the fool
Columbine believed him to be after all? He determined to settle this
question once and for all at a single stroke.

"I suppose she has all you fellows at Spear Point at her feet?" he said,
with an easy smile. "But I hope you are all too large-minded to grudge a
poor artist the biggest find that has ever come his way."

There was a pause, but the burning blue eyes were no longer fixed upon
the sparkling ripples through which they had travelled. They were turned
upon Knight's face, searching, piercing, intent. Before he spoke again,
Knight's doubt as to the existence of a brain behind the massive brow
was fully set at rest.

"There is another thing I have to say," said Rufus.

Knight's smile broadened encouragingly. "By all means let us hear it!"
he said.

Rufus proceeded. "You speak of Columbine as if she were just a bit of
amber or such-like as you'd found on the shore and picked up and put in
your pocket. You speak as if she's your property to do what you like
with. That's just what she is not. You're making love to her. I know
it. I seen it. And it's got to stop."

He spoke with blunt force; his hands were suddenly locked upon each
other in a hard grip.

Knight lifted his shoulders; his smile had become whimsical. He had
drawn the fellow at last. "I thought you'd seen something," he remarked,
"by your way. But who could help making love to a girl with a face like
that? It would take a heart of stone to resist it. Why, even you"--and
his look challenged Rufus with careless derision--"even you have fallen
to that temptation before now, or I'm much mistaken. But I gather that
your attentions did not meet with a very favourable response."

He was baiting the animal now, taunting him, with the semi-humorous
malice of the mischievous schoolboy. He had no particular grudge against
Rufus, but he had a lively desire to see him squirm.

But this desire was not to be gratified. Rufus