"Stuff and nonsense!" cried the widow, angrily. "You mind your own business, miss! Long before any messenger could reach Lud, the lads will be back safe and sound. Towards the hills, indeed! That Luke Hempen is a regular old woman. It's just a bit of Master Ranulph's fun. He's hiding behind a tree, and will jump out on them with a 'Boo!' Never in my life have I heard so much fuss about nothing." And then, turning to the farm-servants, who were clustering round the children with scared, excited eyes, she bade them go about their business, and let her hear no more nonsense. Her words sounded like good sense, but, for all that, they did not convince Hazel. Her deep distrust of the widow was almost as old as herself, and her instinct had told her for some time that the widow was hostile to Ranulph. Never for a moment did Hazel forget that she, not the widow, was the rightful owner of the farm. Should she for once assert her position, and, in direct defiance of the widow, report what had happened to the law-man of the district and send a messenger to Master Nathaniel? But, as everybody knows, legal rights can be but weaklings--puny little child princes, cowed by their bastard uncles, Precedent and Seniority. No, she must wait till she was of age, or married, or ... was there any change of condition that could alter her relations with the widow, and destroy the parasite growth of sullen docility which, for as long as she could remember, had rotted her volition and warped her actions? Hazel clenched her fists and set her teeth ... she would assert herself!--she would!... now, at once? Why not give them, say, till noon, to come back? Yes, she would give them till noon. But before then, a rather shame-faced Luke arrived with his confession that Master Ranulph had made proper fools of them. "So, Miss Hazel, if you'll give me a bite of something, and lend me a horse, I'll go after the young scamp to Moongrass. To think of his giving us the slip like that and never having told me he'd heard from his father! And there was me expecting a letter from his Worship every day, telling us to leave at once, and...." Hazel raised her eyebrows. "You were expecting a letter ordering you to leave us? How was that?" Luke turned red, and mumbled something inaudible. Hazel stared at him for a few seconds in silence, and then she said quietly, "I'm afraid you were wise if you asked the Seneschal to remove Master Ranulph." He gave her a shrewd glance. "Yes ... I fear this is no place for Master Ranulph. But if you'd excuse me for being so bold, miss, I'd like to give you a word of warning--don't you trust that Endymion Leer further than you can see him, and don't you ever let your Granny take you out fishing!"