“What’s this?” he asked haughtily.  “Why have you meddled?”

Askew looked hard at him, but answered in a quiet voice, “It cost us some trouble to mend the bank, and if you dig out the otter the stream will soon make an ugly gap.”

“Then it’s a matter of the cost!” said Thorn.  “How much?”

“Not altogether,” Askew replied, coloring.  “It’s a matter of the damage the next flood may do.  We had an awkward job to strengthen the bank and I’m not going to have it cut.”

“Noo, Kit, dinna spoil sport,” the old huntsman urged.  “It’s none a trick for a canny lad to cheat the hounds.”

“Put terrier in an’ niver mind him!” shouted another, and there were cries of approval.

“Stop digging, Tom,” Askew said with quiet firmness.  “Pick up the dog.”

“We are wasting time,” Thorn remarked.  “I don’t like bargaining; you had better state your price.”

Grace, looking on across the broken hedge, sympathized with the farmer.  For one thing, she wanted the otter to escape; besides, she approved the man’s resolute quietness.  He had pluck, since it was plain that he was taking an unpopular line, and he used some self-control, because Thorn’s tone was strongly provocative.  In fact, she thought Thorn was not at his best; he was not entitled to suggest that the other was trying to extort as much money as he could.

“No more do I like bargaining,” Askew replied.  “There will be no digging here.  You have smashed the hedge, and that’s enough.  Call off your dogs.”

“So you mean to spoil sport, even if the damage costs you nothing?  I know your kind; it’s getting common.”

“Oh, no,” said Askew.  “I won’t have the bank cut down, but that is all.  If you like, you can look for another otter on our part of the stream.”

Thorn gave him a searching glance, and then, seeing he was resolute, shrugged contemptuously.  The huntsman blew his horn, the dogs were drawn off, and Gerald followed the others across the field.  Grace, however, sat down on a fallen tree to rest her foot and for a minute or two thought herself alone.  Then she rose as Askew came through the gap in the hedge.  He began to pull about the broken rails and thorns, but saw her when he looked up.

“They have left you behind, Miss Osborn,” he remarked with a smile.

“I think I had enough; besides, I hurt my foot.”

“Badly?”

“No,” said Grace.  “I have only begun to feel it hurt, but I wish it wasn’t quite so far to the bridge.”

Askew looked at the water, measuring its height.  “The stepping stones are not far off.  One or two may be covered, but perhaps I could help you across and it would save you a mile.”

Grace went on with him and they presently stopped beneath the alder branches by a sparkling shallow.  Tall brush grew up the shady bank and briars trailed in the stream.  A row of flat-topped stones ran across, but there were gaps where the current foamed over some that were lower than the rest.  Grace’s foot was getting worse, and sitting down on a slab of the slate stile, she glanced at her companion.