ricken dumb in the face of this mute
evidence giving me the lie. The girl gazed at me for a moment;
then, her lip curling with disdain, she turned her back and walked
up the path towards the house.

"Well, rascal?" said the gentleman sternly.

"It is mine, truly," I said. "But--"

"Go fetch the men," he said to the boy.

"As sure as I'm alive I'll commit you for a rogue and vagabond, for
mendicancy and assault."

He drew his horse across the gate so that I could not escape, while
the boy hastened to the house.

"You are a magistrate, sir," I ventured to say, "and sure 'tis not
your custom to condemn your prisoners unheard."

"Adzooks, you teach me my duty?" he cried in a rage. "You insolent
scoundrel!"

I held my peace, and in a few moments the boy returned, with two
stablemen.

"Take this fellow to the coach house," said their master.

"I'll go where you please," I cried hotly, "but if those men lay a
finger on me I'll crack their skulls for them."

My height and my fierce aspect so well promised that I could
perform my threat that the men held off and eyed their master
dubiously.

"Lead on, Roger!" he cried with an oath, too much incensed for
further speech.

The boy led the way. I followed, the two stablemen stepping behind
me, but at a reasonable distance, and the horseman brought up the
rear. Thus in procession we went round the house to the back; I
entered the coach house, and the gentleman having dismounted, came
in after me, and commanded me to give an account of myself.

Chapter 9: Good Samaritans.

During the short passage to the coach house I had been trying to
consider my course: but my state of famishment and the agitation
into which I had been thrown had bereft me of all power of
consecutive thought; so that when the gentleman called upon me, in
no gentle tones, to give an account of myself, I stood like a stock
fish before him. Then I was amazed to feel my legs giving way under
me; I stretched forth my arms in an instinctive attempt to steady
myself, and, clutching at empty air, fell heavily forward on to the
stone floor.

When I came to myself, I saw a kind, motherly face bending over me,
and was aware of a hot taste in my mouth.

"Are you better now?" said the lady, in tones the like of which I
had seldom heard.

I smiled, and she held a spoon to my lips, and I swallowed its
contents--a mixture of rum and milk, I think--as obediently as a
baby.

"Poor boy! he must have