“Yes, thanks.” Lanty’s voice sounded as if pulled by a string. “I’m afraid I frightened Helwise a little, but the girl brought me some soup. She lighted the fire, too. She’s not usually so useful.” Hamer stared a minute, but said nothing. What game had Dandy been playing? Had Lanty really mistaken her for the “girl”? “Miss Lancaster’s all right now, anyhow. She and Dandy Anne are having a cosy chat in the drawing-room, snug as snug. She’s very easy thrown out of gear. Dandy’s cosseting her a bit.” “It’s very kind of Miss Shaw.” Hamer glanced at him shrewdly, but found the answer purely mechanical. No; this wasn’t Dandy’s hour, he decided with a sigh. “I heard the--bad news--before I left. Lancaster, I can’t forgive myself for having that show of mine, last night!” “It made very little difference.” “A deal, surely! There’d have been many more, sheep saved, if the men had been on the spot.” “I doubt it. You forget that they didn’t think the storm anything out of the common.” “Except Brack. It was queer how he knew, wasn’t it? I’m blessed if I can make it out! He certainly did his best to warn us.” “Perhaps. But Brack’s was hardly a business proposition.” His tone was cold, and Hamer felt suddenly silenced. He raised his eyes to the portrait above them, vivid with energy and pride, remembering Helwise’s hysterical conviction, and the likeness between father and son, always marked, struck him strangely to-night. Reversion to type is always the first strong instinct to emerge under great stress. There had been something much deeper than she knew behind Miss Lancaster’s chattered fears. “Well, I’ll fix no more hotpots till I get the weather ruled to order!” Hamer sighed. “I suppose the Lugg’s broken its back out and out? I saw a paper in Manchester. Those poor old souls at the Pride! I met Dennison, just now. He said Whinnerah was set on going there. You’d no choice but to let him have it, had you?” Lanty thought a moment. There _had_ been choice, perhaps, at the very beginning. He hardly knew; so swift had the hour of forced decision come upon him. “They made it the test of my belief in the Lugg,” he said. “If the storm were to-morrow instead of yesterday, I would still let the cottage to-night!” “Then you think you were right about the bank? You don’t blame it--you still think it justified?” Hamer stammered, taken aback. For the first time Lanty turned and looked him straight in the eyes.