termination of their year, but better men took their places, and
John Thorndyke, having settled matters to his satisfaction, now
began to attend more to other affairs. He had been, when he first
came back, welcomed with great heartiness by all the gentry of the
neighborhood; his father had been a popular man, and young Thorndyke
had been regarded as a pleasant young fellow, and would in any case
have been welcomed, if only because Crowswood had become a nuisance
to the whole district. It was, indeed, a sort of rendezvous for
poachers and bad characters, it was more than suspected that gangs
of thieves and burglars made it their headquarters, and that even
highwaymen found it a convenient and quiet resort.

Thus, then, the transformation effected within a few months of Mr.
Thorndyke's return caused general and lively satisfaction, and a
year later he was put on the Commission of the Peace, and became
one of the most regular attendants at the Bench of Magistrates.
Reluctantly as he had taken up his present position, he found it,
as time went on, a pleasant one. He had not been conscious before
that time hung somewhat heavily on his hands, but here he had
duties to perform and ample employment. His nature was naturally
somewhat a masterful one, and both as a magistrate and a landlord
he had scope and power of action. Occasionally he went up to London,
always driving his gig, with a pair of fast trotting horses, and
was known to the frequenters of the coffee houses chiefly patronized
by country gentlemen. Altogether, John Thorndyke became quite a
notable person in the district, and men were inclined to congratulate
themselves upon the fact that he, and not the Indian officer, his
brother, had come into the estate.

The idea of an old Indian officer in those days was that he was