service to her.




CHAPTER VIII

HOW TOM WANTED TO BUT DIDN'T DARE


Before the six weeks allowed by Sark law for the retraiting of the
property had expired, Grannie and Mrs. Hamon put in their claims, and it
became generally known that they would become the new owners of La
Closerie, in place of John Guille.

When the rumour at length reached Tom's ears, he, not unnaturally
perhaps, set down the whole matter as a plot to oust him from his
heritage and put Nance and Bernel in his place.

So his anger grew, and he was powerless. And the impotence of an angry
man may lead him into gruesome paths. Smouldering fires burst out at
times into devastating flames, and maddened bulls put down their heads
and charge regardless of consequences.

When Tom Hamon asked Peter Mauger to lend him his gun to go
rabbit-shooting one night, Peter, if he had been a thoughtful man, would
have declined.

But Peter was above all things easy-going, and anything but thoughtful
of such matters as surged gloomily in Tom's angry head, and he lent him