Chattaway turned away his face. Instinct taught him that even this stolid serf should not see the cold moisture that suddenly oozed from every pore. "_What_ did he say?" he cried, in accents of scorn. Hatch considered. And you must not too greatly blame the exaggerated reply. Hatch did not purposely deceive his master; but he did what a great many of us are apt to do--he answered according to the impression made on his imagination. He and the rest of the listeners had drawn their own conclusions, and in accordance with those conclusions he now spoke. "He said for one thing, Squire, as he didn't like you----" "How does he know me?" Mr. Chattaway interrupted. "Nora Dickson asked him, but he wouldn't answer. He's a lawyer, and----" "How do you know he's a lawyer?" again interrupted Mr. Chattaway. "Because he said it," was the prompt reply. And the man had no idea that it was an incorrect one. He as much believed the white-bearded stranger to be a lawyer as that he himself was a day-labourer. "He said he had come to help Master Rupert to his rights, and displace you from 'em. Our hairs stood on end to hear him, Squire." "Who is he?--where does he come from?" And to save his very life Chattaway could not have helped the words issuing forth in gasps. "He never said where he come from--save he hadn't been in England for many a year. We was a wondering among ourselves where he come from, after he walked off with Nora Dickson." "Does she know?" "No, she don't, Squire. He come up while she were standing there, and she wondered who he were, as we did. 'Twere through her asking him questions that he said so much." "But--what has he to do with my affairs?--what has he to do with Rupert Trevlyn?" passionately rejoined Mr. Chattaway. It was a query Hatch was unable to answer. "He said he were a friend of the dead heir, Mr. Joe--I mind well he said that--and he had come to this here place partly to see Master Rupert. He didn't seem to know afore as Master Rupert had not got the Hold, and Nora Dickson asked if he'd lived in a wood not to know that. So then he said he should help him to his rights, and Nora said, 'What! displace Chattaway?' and he said, 'Yes.' We was took aback, Squire, and stopped a bit longer maybe than we ought. It was that kep' us from the rick." Every pulse beating, every drop of blood coursing in fiery heat, the master of Trevlyn Hold reached his home. He went in, and left his hat in the hall, and entered the dining-room, as a man in some awful dream. A friend of Joe Trevlyn's!--come to help Rupert to his rights!--to displace _him_! The words rang their changes on his brain.