hifted in
their seats.

"You can't do it; you cannot do it," said Willy emphatically, stamping
his foot on the floor.

"And why not?" The constable was unmoved. "Angus Ray is dead. Ralph
Ray is his eldest son."

"It's against the law, I tell you," said Willy.

"You seem learned in the law, young farmer; enlighten us, pray."

"My mother, as relict of my father, has her dower, as well as her own
goods and chattels, which came from her own father, and revert to her
now on her husband's death."

"True; a learned doctor of the law, indeed!" said the constable,
turning to his fellows.

"I have also my share," continued Willy, "of all except the freehold.
These apportionments the law cannot touch, however it may confiscate
the property of my brother."

"Look you, young man," said the constable, facing about and lifting
his voice; "every commissioner must feel that the law had the ill-luck
to lose an acute exponent when you gave up your days and nights to
feeding sheep; but there is one point which so learned a doctor ought
not to have passed over in silence. When you said the wife of the
deceased had a right to her dower, and his younger son to his portion,
you forgot that the wife and children of a traitor are in the same
case with a traitor himself."

"Be plain, sir; what do you mean?" said Willy.

"That wise brain of yours should have jumped my meaning; it is that
Angus Ray was as much a traitor as his son Ralph Ray, and that if the
body of the latter is not delivered to judgment within fourteen days,
the _whole_ estate of Shoulthwaite will be forfeited to the Crown as
the property of a felon and of the outlawed son of a felon."

"It's a quibble--a base, dishonorable quibble," said Willy; "my father
cared nothing for your politics, your kings, or your commonwealths."

The constables shifted once more in their seats.

"He feels it when it comes nigh abreast of himself," said one of them,
and the others laughed.

Rotha was in an agony of suspense. This, then, was what the woman had
meant by her forebodings of further disaster to the semiconscious
sufferer in the adjoining room. The men rose to go. Wrapping his cloak
about him, the constable who had been spokesman said,--

"You see it will be wisest to do as we say. Find him for us, and he
_may_ have the benefit of pardon and indemnity for his life and
estate."

"It's a trick, a mean trick," cried Willy, tramping the floor; "your
pardon is a mockery, and