It was noon ere he reached Rigsworth, and inquiry showed that the Mordaunts' house was situated at the farther end of the small village. He walked through the street of scattered houses, and attracted some attention by the sure fact that he was a stranger. At any rate, that was how he regarded the discreet scrutiny to which he was subjected. "A big house with a lodge-gate, just past the church on the left," were the station-master's directions, and David had no difficulty in finding his way. His heart fell a little when he saw the style of the place. The lodge was a pretty villa in itself. Its garden would be of great worth within the London suburban area. Behind it stretched the park of Dale Manor, and the turrets of a mansion among many lordly elms seemed to put Violet on a somewhat inaccessible pinnacle. David did not know that people of moderate means can maintain a good sporting estate by letting the shooting, but he had learned in the free air of the States to rate a man on a different level to parks; if a half-bred rascal like Van Hupfeldt was able to enter this citadel like a thief for one daughter of the house, why should not an honest man storm it for the sake of another? At the lodge, however, he met with a decided rebuff. "No visitors admitted," was the curt response of a gamekeeper sort of person who was lurking in a doorway when David tried to open the locked gate. "My business is important," urged David, quietly, though his face flushed a little at the man's impudent manner. "So's my orders," said velveteens. "But I must see either Mrs. Mordaunt or Miss Violet." "You can't see either. Absolute orders. Your name's Harcourt isn't it?" Then David knew that Van Hupfeldt had over-reached him by the telegraph, and the shattering of his dream-castle caused such lightnings to gleam from within that the surly gamekeeper whistled to a retriever dog, and ostensibly revealed a double-barreled gun which lay in the corner of the porch. David was likely to have his own way with clodhoppers, even in the hour of tribulation. "Yes," he said, "my name is Harcourt. And yours?" "Mine is no matter." "Very well, 'No Matter.' You are obeying orders, I have no doubt; but you must be taught civility. I give you notice, 'No Matter,' that a little later I shall lick you good and plenty, and if you don't take it like a man you will probably be fired into the bargain." The keeper was for abusing him, but David turned away. And now he was not the well-dressed, gloved, spick-and-span Londoner, but the Indian of the prairie, with a heart from which the glow had gone, with eyes that saw and ears that heard and a brain that recorded everything. He was instantly aware that the country policeman who had lolled through the village behind him was a forewarned spy. He knew that this functionary watched his return to the railway station, from which, as David happened to remember, the time-table had shown a train London-wards at one o'clock.