Arrived at Watters, there was no getting away from Hamer’s hospitality, and Lancaster stayed to dinner with a sardonic consciousness of cold sausage and scrambled eggs awaiting him at Crabtree. They were still at table, however, when the lights of his dog-cart flashed on the windows, summoning him to a fire at Far Borrans. Hamer and Dandy followed him out to listen to Armer’s explanation. It was the hay, it seemed--like enough the late crop had been got in too fast--and the Hall itself was in danger. There was a big crowd of helpers gone up, and the fire-engine was out from Witham, as well as the small one from the House. Armer, full of theories and excitement, had thought the master ought to know at once. He had brought the trap in case he was tired; incidentally, that he might himself assist at the pageant. Lanty climbed in, said good-bye, and clicked to Blacker, but from an overgrown rambler a thick briar reached out and held him fast. Hamer laughed as he loosed him with difficulty. “My little girl says Watters has the choosing of our friends. It’s made a pretty tight grab at _you_, anyway! I hope you’ll take it as an omen. See here--can’t I run you to this farm in the car? I could have her out in five minutes.” “Thanks, but it’s up the Dale,” Lancaster said. “No motor-road. Narrow. Bad surface. Dangerous to-night, with so many traps going up. I suppose you wouldn’t care to come with me?” Hamer shook his head. “Not unless I’d be of use! It hurts me to see good stuff going by the board. I’d be dreaming all night it was Watters, and waking Mother twisting ropes out of the sheets! I’ll have a Minimax in every corner after this, won’t I, Dandy Anne?” He linked his arm in hers, and they followed the trap as it spun out into the main road, and turned quickly into the Lane. Now and again, over and through the hedges, they caught the gleam of the lamps; and once Lanty’s head and shoulders stood out black on the golden air. In the drawing-room at Watters, Wiggie used the perfect artistry of his _demi-voix_ to set Mrs. Hamer nodding over 1 d.c. between sixth and seventh d.trs. Hamer sighed in the Lane, and Dandy knew he was away on his tram-horse hobby once more. “I could have lent a hand with a bucket!” he said regretfully, “though they’ve likely more than enough men on the job already. I could have sent the hat round, too, though perhaps they’d not say thank you for that sort of thing, up here, and of course they’re insured. But I’m a big weight. I’d have made a difference to the going, and Lancaster was in a hurry. But I’d have liked to lend a hand!” Dandy was not listening. Their wandering had brought them to the Gate of the Fairy-Ring, and she drew him up to the fence. There she told him something of the walk home and the talk that had roused her to revolt.