"I sent no message," he cried, as he hastily read the stained slip, and caught the words "come"--"meet me"--some figures "P.M.," and his name in full--"Clive Reed." "A forgery!" he cried wildly, as the truth flashed upon him. "There is no postal mark upon it. I did not send this lie." "No?" said Dinah faintly, as the look of despair grew more marked in her eyes. "I have thought since that I had been deceived, but I felt that I would sooner die than you should not know the truth." Then she turned pale and shrank to her father's side, as a spasm of rage shot through Clive Reed. "Jessop again!" he whispered hoarsely to the Doctor; and his fingers crooked, and he held out his hands as if about to spring at another's throat. Then he reeled, but recovered himself with an exultant cry, for a voice came loudly to their ears from round the buttress toward the mine. "Curse you! I will. The police shall stop that." "No; you don't get away," cried another voice; and Dinah turned of a sickly white. "Stop, you! and let's have it out, or I'll heave you down below. Blast you! I tell you she was my lass--before you and your cursed brother came in the way. Mine, I tell you.--Ah! just in time!" Sturgess uttered a savage laugh, and he stopped short facing the little group upon the shelf, and holding on by Jessop's collar, in spite of the latter's struggles to get free. "Look here, all of you. This man, my servant--you are witnesses--he has threatened my life. I go in fear of him. I'll have him in charge. I go in fear, I tell you." "Yes, so much," cried Sturgess, with a mocking laugh, "that he was off down again to the cottage to see pretty little Miss Gurdon here, only I stopped him, for I've had enough of it. Master or no, he don't go poaching on my estate. I'd sooner break his cursed neck." "Silence, sir!" roared the Major. "Silence yourself!" cried Sturgess savagely. "Who are you?" "The father of the lady you insulted, and but for her sake you would have been sent to gaol." "For courting a pretty girl," cried Sturgess, with a mocking laugh. "But I'll have no more of it. Do you hear, both of you--you too, Clive Reed? You call yourselves my masters. I'm yours. Keep off, both of you, if you value your necks. I tell you she's my girl--my lass--my very own to marry or leave as I please." Dinah uttered a piteous moan, and turned her agonised face to Clive, who stood there with jaw dropped and the paper trembling in his hand. "Yes. You see. She don't deny it." "Dinah!" cried Clive wildly, and there was so agonising an appeal in his voice, that his cry thrilled her, and sent the blood flushing into her pale cheeks, as she now stood up unsupported. "Yes, all of you; it's all right. I used to meet her on the hill side, and we used to go courting among the heather before these white-faced hounds came down. She don't deny it. She daren't. Dinah, my lass, come here."