However, he was content enough with the moment. The sky was blue and radiant, the earth was all so green, and the wide, wide world opened out before him in whatever direction he chose to gaze. While beside him, sitting her mare with that confident seat of a perfect horsewoman, was the most beautiful girl in all the world, a girl in whose companionship he was to spend the next six months. The gods of Fortune were very, very good to him, and he smiled as the vision of his sportsman father flashed through his mind.
But his moments of pleasant reflection were abruptly cut short.
Hazel had suddenly raised one pointing arm, and a note of concern was in her voice.
"Look," she cried. "Something's—upset my daddy."
Gordon looked in the direction of the house.
Silas Mallinsbee was pacing the veranda at a gait that left no doubt in his mind. It was the agitated walk of a man disturbed.
"What's the matter?" demanded Gordon, with some concern.
"It looks like—David Slosson," said Hazel, in a hard voice.
They rode up in silence, and the girl was the first to reach the ground.
"Daddy——" she began eagerly.