It was cut into a bloodstone, and showed a stag's head, surmounted by five pointed rays, like a crown of daggers.
"I cannot decipher the motto," he said; "what is it ?" "Fortis et audax." "Hum! 'Strong and bold.' A stiff-necked legend, too." He reached to his bookcase for Burke's "General Armoury." After a brief search, he asked: "Do you know anything about heraldry ?" "Nothing whatever." "Then listen to this.

The crest of your, house is: 'A stag's head, erased argent, charged with a star of five rays gules.' It is peculiar." "Yes, so my father says; but why does it appeal to you in that way ?" "Because 'erased' means, in this instance, a stag's head torn forcibly from the body, the severed part being jagged like the teeth of a saw.

And 'gules' means 'red.' Now, such heraldic rays are usually azure or blue." "By Jove, you have hit upon the old man's idea.

He contends that those five blood-coloured points signify the founder of the baronetcy and his four lineal descendants.

Moreover, the race is now extinct in the direct succession.