CHAPTER XIV.


KEEPING OFFICE.

Hamish entered the office. Arthur and Roland Yorke had their heads
stretched out of the window, and did not hear his footsteps. He
advanced quietly and brought his hands down hastily upon the shoulder
of each. Roland started, and knocked his head against the window-frame.

"How you startle a fellow! I thought it was Mad Nance come in to lay
hands upon me."

"She has laid hands upon enough for one day," said Hamish. "Harper will
dream of her to-night."

"I thought Galloway would have gone into a fit, he laughed so," cried
Arthur. "As for my sides, they'll ache for an hour."

Roland Yorke's lip curled with an angry expression. "My opinion agrees
with Harper's," he said. "I think Mad Nance ought to be punished. We
are none of us safe from her, if this is to be her game."

"If you punish her to-day, she would do the same again to-morrow, were
the fit to come over her," rejoined Hamish. "It is not often she breaks
out like this. The only thing is to steer clear of her."

"Hamish has a fellow-feeling for Mad Nance," mockingly spoke Roland
Yorke.