"Well, sir, it's Major Calmour. Lives at Siege House, just this side of the bridge, sir." And Wagram thought to detect a subtle grin drooping the corners of the man's well-trained mouth as he filled the Squire's glass. "To be sure, to be sure. Now it all comes back. Major Calmour! Ho-- ho--ho! Wagram, that's the man right enough. Why? Has he been writing to you about anything?" "No. But--who is he, anyway?" "He is a retired army veterinary surgeon, addicted to strong drink, and a wholly unnecessarily lurid way of expressing himself." "I know the species. What sort of a crowd are his descendants?" "His descendants? I believe they are many. Their female parent was, they say, even more partial to _aqua vita_ than their male; indeed, report sayeth that she died thereof. One, by the way, obtained large damages from Vance's eldest fool in an action for breach of promise. I believe the family has been living on it ever since." "Which of them was that?" said Wagram carelessly, wondering if it was the heroine of the afternoon's adventure. "I don't remember. Which of them was it, Rundle?" "I believe it was the second of the young ladies, sir," supplied the butler, who, being an old and privileged and, withal, discreet family servant, was often consulted by the Squire as to local and personal matters when memory proved defective. The answer, no name having been mentioned, of course conveyed no information to Wagram. So the heroine of the adventure was the daughter of a tippling and disreputable ex-Army vet. Well, she was not lacking in pluck and readiness of resource, at any rate. "I made the acquaintance of one of the girls this afternoon, father, and that in rather a queer way," he said. "Ah, really; and how was that?" Then Wagram told the story, told it graphically, too. The Squire, listening, was taken quite out of himself. "Why didn't you shoot the brute, Wagram? You had the rifle." "Oh, I didn't want to do that as long as it could possibly be avoided. It couldn't in the long run. But the girl shot him instead. Had to." "The girl shot him?" "Yes! I'm coming to that." And then as he narrated the progress of his hand-to-hand struggle, and the relief just in the nick of time, the Squire burst forth with: "Splendid! Splendid! There's nerve for you. You'd certainly have been killed Wagram. Why, man, did you think you were a match for the beast by sheer force of strength? Why, you might as well have tried the same thing on with a bull. Ah well, it's a pity, but it's lucky it was no worse. Lucky too, you were about, or that poor girl would have been killed or, at best, seriously injured. But how did the thing get out? This is within Hood's responsibility." "I sent him at once to see," answered Wagram. "Perrin opined that it jumped the palisade, and that's not impossible. I gave them particular instructions about the head. It's worth keeping. We'd better send it to Rowland Ward's to be set up."