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long pencils myself, they get in the way.' Miles Dorman foiled her half-formed decision to give her uncle the whole box full of new ones. 'I meant to ask you to shade in this map for me,' he went on, and unrolled a piece of parchment and spread it flat on the table. 'You do it so much better than I can. It's just this piece here, where the final length of road is marked.' He traced a roughly drawn line across the parchment.
    'I'll do it for you now.' Marion held out her hand for the half pencil. If she could get it back she would give her uncle the whole new box full after all, she could split them in two for him to use. It would give her the greatest pleasure to break them all, she thought vindictively.
    'Try out one of your new ones instead.' Reeve picked up the box from where she had dropped it, along with the duster, on the settee, and flipped open the lid, offering it to her like an open packet of cigarettes. Daring her to refuse to take one.
    'It'll save me from being held up if you can finish the map for me now,' her uncle said gratefully, and slid the half pencil into the top pocket of his jacket. 'I'll sharpen your new one for you.' He took one from the box Reeve held out. 'Will this number do?'
    Marion nodded, dumbly. She felt incapable of speaking. She watched while he sharpened it to a keener end for her, and abruptly turned her back on Reeve when her uncle held it out to her. She took it. It seemed to burn her fingers when she touched it, and she bent over the map, blotting out the sight of the dark, hawk face watching her. The rough sketched line of the road wavered before her eyes, and it took all her willpower to set to work to shade the area to the depth she knew from experience her uncle would desire. She could feel Reeve standing over her, although her eyes were bent on the map, his inflexible determination reached her like a spoken command, which he meant her to obey.
    'I'll finish off the finer bits for you tomorrow, in the daylight.' It was impossible for her to do the map justice with Reeve there, his presence destroyed her concentration as well as her will power, and she straightened up with an impatient sigh.
    'This is part of the drovers' road you can see from the fells by Fallbeck Scar.' To her relief her uncle made no comment on her reluctance to finish the map right away. Instead he turned the parchment round so that Reeve could see it more clearly. 'I'm not too certain about this end bit, though. I drew that from memory, and thinking back I'm almost sure it should be shown towards the right of that rocky outcrop there, not towards the left.'
    'I'll take it with me tomorrow,' Marion offered, 'if it's fine I'll be going up the fell to try and finish off my own sketch. What with one thing and another I didn't manage to finish it today.' She gave Reeve a resentful stare, but he met it coolly and she turned away. 'I can do any alterations to the map for you while I'm up there.'
    'Why not take Reeve with you?' Miles Dorman suggested innocently. 'He's seen the road from the air, he might like to see it at closer quarters.'
    'I can make sure your map's marked up properly,' Reeve accepted his offer blandly, and Marion's temper flared.
    'I'm quite capable of map drawing, I've done it before.' And I've no intention of allowing you to check my work, she added silently. 'Besides, I shall be busy finishing my own sketch,' she went on out loud, and Reeve said smoothly,
    'I shan't disturb you.'
    That was just the trouble. He did disturb her. Just by being there he took away her poise and the calm stability that until now she had always taken for granted. Until now, nobody had been able to upset it.
    'I'll have to disturb myself,' Miles Dorman said regretfully, 'I always spend the last half hour or so with Jim in the bar. It helps ensure we close on time with no argument,' he smiled, and Marion wondered, not for the first time, how it was the scholarly little man came to be in such an unlikely trade. Her aunt had