Black Pete, too, who held on to you in the rapid when we were running the
bridge-logs through. It was in firing a short fuse that he got his
discharge," He raised his free hand, with a wry smile. "Gone on--with
more of their kind after them; a goodly company. Why are we left
prosperous? What have we done?"

Carroll made no response. The question was unanswerable, and after a
while Vane abruptly began to talk about their business in British
Columbia. It passed the time; and he had resumed his usual manner when he
pulled up where a stile path led across a strip of meadow.

"You can drive round; we'll be there before you," he said to the groom as
he got down.

Carroll and he crossed the meadow. Passing around a clump of larches they
came suddenly into sight of an old gray house with a fir wood rolling
down the hillside close behind it. The building was long and low,
weather-worn and stained with lichens where the creepers and climbing
roses left the stone exposed. The bottom row of mullioned windows opened
upon a terrace, and in front of the terrace ran a low wall with a broad
coping on which were placed urns bright with geraniums. It was pierced by
an opening approached by shallow stairs on which an iridescent peacock
stood, and in front of all that stretched a sweep of lawn.

A couple of minutes later, a lady met them in the wide hall, and held out
her hand to Vane. She was middle-aged, and had once been handsome, but
now there were wrinkles about her eyes, which had a hint of hardness in
them, and her lips were thin. Carroll noticed that they closed tightly
when she was not speaking.