Seth Atkins, Seth, the woman-hater, the man who had threatened him with all sorts of penalties if he ever so much as looked at a female, was meeting one of the sex himself, meeting her on the sly.

What it meant Brown could not imagine.

Probably it explained the clay smears on the boots and Seth's discomfiture of the morning; but that was immaterial.

The fact, the one essential fact, was this: the compact was broken.

Seth had broken it.
Brown was relieved of all responsibility.