The old man was sitting at the table when I looked in, his long nose buried in a musty parchment deed. The light from the single small window was none too good, but it sufficed to help him recognize me at a glance, despite the hussar uniform. In a twinkling he put the breadth of the oaken table between us, hurled3 the parchment deed into the open strong-box, slammed to the cover and gave a shrill4 alarm.
"Ho! you devils without, there! Here he is—I have him! Help! Murder!"
The guard, a burly, bearded Darmstädter, turned on his heel and stood at attention in the doorway5, looking stolidly6 for his orders, not to the shrilling7 master of the house, but to the man who wore a uniform.
"'Tis naught," I said, speaking in German. "He mistakes me for a rittmeister of the rebels. Verstehen Sie?"
The soldier saluted8, wheeled and vanished; and I sat down to wait till the old man's outcry should pause for lack of breath. When my chance came, I said:
"Calm yourself, Mr. Stair. You are in no present danger greater than that which you may bring upon yourself. Blot9 out all the past, if you please, and consider me now as a member of Lord Cornwallis's military family seeking quarters in your house by my Lord's express command."
"Quarters in my house?—ye're a damned rebel spy!" he cried. "I'll denounce ye to my Lord for what ye are. Ho! ye rascals10, I say!"
"Peace!" I commanded, sternly; "this is but child's folly11. No man in the British army would arrest me at your behest. Ring the bell and summon your factor lawyer. I would have a word or two in private with both of you."
He dropped into a chair, and I could see the sweat standing12 in great beads13 on his wrinkled forehead.
"D' ye—d' ye mean to kill us both?" he gasped14.
"Not if I can help it. But some better understanding is needful, and we will have it here and now, once for all. Will you ring, or shall I?"
He made no move to reach the bell-cord, and I rang for him. A grinning black boy came to the door, and seeing that Mr. Gilbert Stair was beyond giving the order, I gave it myself.
"Find Master Pengarvin and send him here quickly. Tell him Mr. Stair wants him."
There was a short interval15 of waiting and then the lawyer came. Being but a little wisp of a man, all malignance and no courage, he would have fled when he saw me. But I caught him by the collar and sent him scurrying16 around the table to keep his master company.
"Now, then; how much or how little have you two blabbed of the doings at Appleby Hundred some weeks since?" I demanded. "Speak out, and quickly."
'Twas the lawyer who obeyed, and now he was the trapped rat to snap blindly in despair.
"You will hang higher than Haman when the dragoons find you," he gritted17 out.
"On your information?"
"On mine and Mr. Stair's."
"Ye lie!" shrieked18 the miser19. "I tell't ye to keep hands off, ye bletherin' little deevil, ye!"
"Never mind," said I; "what's done is done. But it must be undone20, and that swiftly and thoroughly21. Lie out of it to Colonel Tarleton and the others as you will; Captain John Stuart and the baronet are not here to contradict you, and you are the only witnesses. Knock together some story that will hold water and lose no time about it. Do you understand?"
Seeing he was not to be put to the wall and spitted on the spot, the lawyer recovered himself.
"'Tis not the criminal at the bar who dictates22 terms, Captain Ireton," he said, with his hateful smirk23. "You are under sentence of death, and that by a court lawful24 enough in war time."
"You refuse?" I said.
He shrugged25.
"Speaking for myself, I shall leave no stone unturned to bring you to book, Captain,—when it suits my purpose."
I was loath
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