"Bah! why did not old Quethiock live a month longer?" grunted the lawyer. "Why, what would have been the use?" I asked. "Use? Why, if you could prove that you had held the land for twenty years, you could lawfully claim it as yours." And thus everything was against me, and although we talked over a dozen things together, no ray of light came to cheer the darkness. The next thing that happened was the event of a letter which I got from Nicholas Tresidder, the Falmouth lawyer. This letter was to the effect that as I was neither a lawful tenant of Elmwater Barton, nor the owner thereof, I must immediately vacate the place, as Paul Quethiock intended to take possession thereof immediately. I had expected this, and had been for days trying to value the stock on the place. As I have before stated, I was barely twenty years of age, and although my father had appointed as my guardians two neighbouring farmers, they took but little interest in my affairs--indeed, I do not think they understood what their duties were. Anyhow, they took no steps to help me, neither did they interfere with me in any way. On the receipt of this letter, which was brought from Falmouth by messenger, I saddled my mare, and immediately rode to see Lawyer Trefry. He read the letter very carefully, and then asked me if I had received nothing else. "Nothing," I replied; "what is there else to receive? They have taken away the farm, they have ordered me to leave it; now I am come to you to arrange with James Trethewy and John Bassett about selling the stock. I suppose the crops will have to be valued, too, and a lot of other matters before I can realise on my property." He looked very grave, but said nothing for some time. "I will do what I can at once," he grunted, at length; "but believe me, Jasper, my boy, Nicholas Tresidder is a clever dog--a very clever dog. He's been set to work on this bone, and he'll leave nothing on it--mark my words, he'll leave nothing on it." "He _has_ left nothing," I replied; "I doubt if the stock will fetch very little more than the L500 my father spent when he took Elmwater Barton from my Grandfather Quethiock." Lawyer Trefry shook his head and grunted again; but he made no remark, and so I left, thinking that I knew the worst. I imagined that when the stock was sold I should be worth several hundred pounds, and with this as a nucleus, I should have something to give me a fair start. And so the day of the sale of the stock on the Barton was fixed, but before that day came another letter was brought by a messenger of Lawyer Nicholas Tresidder from Falmouth. This letter stated that as no rent had been paid since the death of Margaret Pennington, the heirs of the late Peter Quethiock claimed six years' rent, as they were entitled to do by the law of the land.