ng by being clever!" sneered the squire, taking
a threatening step forward. For at the last moment I had tucked my
revolver behind my back, not only for the pleasure, but for the obvious
advantage of getting them all in front of me and off their guard. I
had no idea that such eyes as Rattray's could be so fierce: they were
dancing from me to my companion, whom their glitter frightened into an
attempt to disengage herself from me; but my arm only tightened about
her drooping figure.

"I shall gain no more than I expect," said I, carelessly. "And I know
what to expect from brave gentlemen like you! It will be better than
your own fate, at all events; anything's better than being taken hence
to the place of execution, and hanged by the neck until you're dead, all
three of you in a row, and your bodies buried within the precincts of
the prison!"

"The very thing for him," murmured Santos. "The--very--theeng!"

"But I'm so soft-hearted," I went insanely on, "that I should be sorry
to see that happen to such fine fellows as you are. Come out of that,
you little fraud behind there!" It was my betrayer skulking in the
room. "Come out and line up with the rest! No, I'm not going to see you
fellows dance on nothing; I've another kind of ball apiece for you, and
one between 'em for the Braithwaites!"

Well, I suppose I always had a nasty tongue in me, and rather enjoyed
making play with it on provocation; but, if so, I met with my deserts
that night. For the nigger of the Lady Jermyn lay all but hid behind Eva
and me; if they saw him at all, they may have thought him drunk; but, as
for myself, I had fairly forgotten his existence until the very moment
came for showing my revolver, when it was twisted out of my grasp
instead, and a ball sang under my arm as the brute fell back exhausted
and the weapon clattered beside him. Before I could stoop for it there
was a dead weight on my left arm, and Squire Rattray was over the table
at a bound, with his arms jostling mine beneath Eva Denison's senseless
form.

"Leave her to me," he cried fiercely. "You fool," he added in a lower
key, "do you think I'd let any harm come to her?"

I looked him in the bright and honest eyes that had made me trust him
in the beginning. And I did not utterly distrust him yet. Rather was the
guile on my side as I drew back and watched Rattray lift the young girl
tenderly, and slowly carry her to the door by which she had entered and
left the hall just t