On reaching Odiam, Reuben did not go into the kitchen where his children were gathered, expectant and curious. He went straight upstairs. Caro, who caught a glimpse of him in the passage, ran away in terror—he looked so dreadful, his face all dabbled with blood and yolk of egg.

He went up to Albert\'s room. He had furiously given Ditch the lie in the Courthouse, but he had never trusted his son, and the accusation had poured over him a flood of shame which could be quelled only by its proof or its refutation. If Albert\'s guilt were proved—which Reuben, now bathing in this luminous shame, saw was quite probable—then he knew what to do to clean the smirch off Odiam; if, on the other hand, his innocence were established, then he would punish those swine who threw mud at him and his farm.

Albert slept in one of the attics with Jemmy and Pete. Reuben had no intention of meeting him till he had something to confront him with, for he was pretty sure that the boy would lie to him. He began turning the room topsy-turvy, and had soon found in a drawer a[Pg 186] heap of papers scrawled over with writing. It was unlucky that he could not read, for he could not even tell whether the handwriting were Albert\'s—these might be some letters he had received. Suddenly, however, a word caught his eye which he had seen a hundred times on hoardings, letters, bills, and other documents—MacKinnon. He could trace it out quite clearly. What had Albert to do with MacKinnon? Reuben clenched the papers together in his fist, and went downstairs to the kitchen.

Albert was not there. All the better! Reuben strode up to Tilly, unaware of how terrible he looked with the traces of his battle not yet washed from his face, and banged the papers down in front of her.

"Wot\'s all this?"

Tilly was frightened.

"It\'s—it\'s only poetry, f?ather."

"Read me some of it."

"It\'s only Albert\'s."

"That\'s why I want to hear wot it\'s about. You read it."

Tilly began to read in a faltering voice:
"If you\'d know what the Colonel is, pray travel over
The Sluice at Scott\'s Float—and then drive on to Dover—
You\'ll find yourself quickly brought up by a Gate...."

Reuben struck his fist on the table, and she dropped the paper with a little cry.

"It\'s true, then! Oh Lard! it\'s true!"

"Wot, f?ather?"

"Them\'s Albert\'s verses right enough?"

"Yes, f?ather, but——"

"Fetch him here."

Tilly was more frightened than ever. She had never heard anything about the great Gate controversy, and could not understand why Reuben was so angry with Albert. The verses seemed to her quite harmless, they[Pg 187] were not even about love. However, she could not disobey her father, so she ran and fetched Albert out of the corn-chamber, begging him to be careful what he said, "fur f?ather\'s unaccountable vrothered to-night about something."

"How did the Election go?"

"I never asked."

"Oh, you gals! Well, I expect that\'s wot\'s the matter. The Liberal\'s got in."

"But why should that m?ake f?ather angry wud you?"

Albert stuck out his chest and looked important, as he invariably did before an encounter with Reuben, in spite of the fact that these always ended most ingloriously as far as he was concerned.

"He\'s bin reading some poetry of yours, Bertie," continued his sister, "and he\'s justabout dreadful, all his cl?athes tore about, and a nasty mess of blood and yaller stuff on............