In crediting his unwelcome guest with a desire to `take over the whole show,' Lamont was stating no more than was warranted by fact. For Ancram had made himself rather more than very much at home, to such an extent indeed that he might have been the owner of the place. Further, he had adopted a kind of elder-brotherly tone towards Lamont, and a patronising one towards Peters: and of this, and of him altogether, small wonder that both men were already thoroughly sick. Moreover, he showed not the slightest symptom of moving on. As a sacrifice on the sacred altar of hospitality Lamont had conscientiously striven to conceal his dislike for the man, had even gone out of the way in order to make time pass pleasantly for him, in pursuance of which idea he had stood from him what he would have stood from nobody else. All of which Ancram put down to a wrong motive, and made himself more objectionable still. "What are your plans, Ancram?" said Lamont, the day after the foregoing conversation. "Oh, my dear fellow, it's so jolly here with you I hadn't begun to think of any." Lamont's face was stony grim in its effort to repress a frown. "It brings back dear old Courtland," went on Ancram, watching his host narrowly. "Now you don't knock up against anyone who knows Courtland too, every day out here, Lamont?" "No. I don't know that that's any loss, by the way." "Not? Now I should have thought--er--that for old acquaintance' sake you'd--er--but then--er--I was forgetting. What a fool I am." He little suspected how cordially his listener was agreeing. "You see, it's this way, Lamont. I came out here to see what I could do in the gold digging or farming line, or something of that sort. What could I?" "Do you want a candid opinion, Ancram?" "Yes. What could I?" "Nothing." The other stared, then laughed unpleasantly. "You left your things at Pagadi," went on Lamont. "My advice is get back to Fagadi, pick up your traps--thence, to England." The other laughed again, still more unpleasantly. "Meaning that you want me out of the country," he said. It was Lamont's turn to stare. "I'm very dense," he said, "but for the life of me I can't see what the devil interest your being in the country or out of it can have for me." "We were at Courtland together," rejoined Ancram meaningly. "A remarkable coincidence no doubt. Still--it doesn't explain anything." "I thought perhaps you might find it awkward--er--anyone being here who was--er--there at that time." "Then like many another you have proved `thought' a desperately unreliable prompter. Candidly, my dear fellow, since you put it that way, I don't care a twopenny damn whether you are in this country or in any other. Now?" Lamont spoke quickly and was fast losing his temper. He pulled himself up with a sort of gulping effort. Ancram, noting this, could hardly suppress the sneer which rose to his face, for he read it entirely wrong.