"Then I guess you're wasting time. While there are implements to be had anywhere between here and Winnipeg we'll buy none from you."
Nevis favored her with a single swift glance, and then took up his hat.
"In that case I may as well get on again. I dare say your mother and Miss Leigh will excuse me."
He did not offer to shake hands with either of them, which may have been due to the fact that Mrs. Calvert's face was now hard and suspicious, and Alison carefully looked away from him. There was, also, a gleam of ironical amusement, which probably had some effect, in Thorne's eyes. Soon after he disappeared, Mrs. Calvert asked Thorne to come out and look at a mower which she said the hired man had had some trouble with, and when they left the room Lucy leaned back in her chair with her eyes fixed on Alison in a significant manner. They were of a clear blue, and Alison admitted that, with the somewhat unusual color in her cheeks and the light on her mass of gleaming hair, the girl was aggressively pretty.
"I'm glad they've gone--I guess I have to thank you for what you did," she said. "It was right smart, and I'm not sure my mother caught on to the thing."
"How did you know?" Alison asked in rather disturbed astonishment.
"Mavy saw you through the window. The mail-carrier told him Nevis was here, and it was quite easy to figure what he was after. That's why Mavy hitched his team behind the willows and crept up quiet to see what was going on, so he could spoil his game, but he left it to you when he saw that you were on to it. Said he felt quite sure you could fix the man."
Alison remembered the footstep at the window, but she was curious about another aspect of the matter.
Lucy's manner changed, and there was a hint of hardness in her expression.
"Well," she answered, "perhaps he wanted me to know what you had done, and, anyway, he had to put me on my guard. Still, though Mavy's quick, they're none of them very smart after all, and there was a point that didn't seem to strike him. He wasn't clear as to why Nevis would try to pick up Jake's trail through me."
The last words were flung sharply at the listener, and Alison made a gesture of appeal.
"Of course," she returned, "he wouldn't tell you that."