RADCLIFF.
Lord Betterson now came out of the house, calm and stately, but with something of the look in his eye, as he turned it upon his nephew, which Jack had observed when it menaced Peakslow at the gap of the fence.
"Ah, Radcliff! you have returned? Why don't you alight?" And he touched his hat to Jack.
"Your nephew may tell you the reason, if he will," Jack replied.
"The long and the short of it is this," said Radcliff, betraying a good deal of trouble, under all his assumed carelessness: "When I was on my way home, a few weeks ago, this young man asked me to drive in some deer for him. He gave me his horse to ride. I made a mistake, and rode him too far."
"You, Radcliff!" said Lord Betterson, sternly; while Mrs. Betterson went into hysterics on Vinnie's shoulder, and was taken into the house.
"We thought of Rad when you described him," Rufe said to Jack. "But we couldn't believe he would do such a thing."
