Moreton Bay by F.W. Mole — Read

Earl Belriven was more than fortunate in that he had in John Gatcombe, trustee and steward combined, a man of unyielding integrity and unbending honesty. But to say that his lordship appreciated the sterling worth of his steward would be to admit something that was quite foreign to the nature of the noble earl. He never recognised (or if he did he never appreciated it) worth in any one save in his own noble self. The rugged honesty and downright directness of his steward was anathema to the earl inasmuch as he was a legal check to his ambitious villainies. That John Gatcombe was responsible, in spite of the extravagances of his noble master, for the splendid upkeep of the Manor of Grassmere and its magnificent estate, was quite overlooked by the impossible earl, who knew neither justice nor mercy in his hatred of his steward.

It was, therefore, with a certain amount of devilish satisfaction that Earl Belriven, who had a genius for wickedness and was rotten to the core, commanded his steward to ride over to Pentecost farm and claim for heriot, the magnificent hunter of Mary Worthington.