who ought to have spoken--the man who had such a chance as
few men have off the stage--who could have confounded these villains
in a breath, and saved the wretched Rattray at once from them and
from himself--that unheroic hero remained ignobly silent in his homely
hiding-place. And, what is more, he would do the same again!

The rogues had fallen out; now was the time for honest men. They all
thought I had escaped; therefore they would give me a better chance than
ever of still escaping; and I have already explained to what purpose
I meant to use my first hours of liberty. That purpose I hold to have
justified any ingratitude that I may seem now to have displayed towards
the man who had undoubtedly stood between death and me. Was not Eva
Denison of more value than many Rattrays? And it was precisely in
relation with this pure young girl that I most mistrusted the squire:
obviously then my first duty was to save Eva from Rattray, not Rattray
from these traitors.

Not that I pretend for a moment to have been the thing I never was: you
are not so very grateful to the man who pulls you out of the mud when he
has first of all pushed you in; nor is it chivalry alone which spurs
one to the rescue of a lovely lady for whom, after all, one would rather
live than die. Thus I, in my corner, was thinking (I will say) of Eva
first; but next I was thinking of myself; and Rattray's blood be on his
own hot head! I hold, moreover, that I was perfectly right in all this;
but if any think me very wrong, a sufficient satisfaction is in store
for them, for I was very swiftly punished.

The captain's language was no worse in character than in effect: the bed
was bloody from my wounded head, all tumbled from the haste with which
I had quitted it, and only too suggestive of still fouler play. Rattray
stopped the captain with a sudden flourish of one of his pistols, the
silver mountings making lightning in the room; then he called upon the
pair of them to show him what they had done with me; and to my horror,
Santos invited him to search the room. The invitation was accepted. Yet
there I stood. It would have been better to step forward even then. Yet
I cowered among his clothes until his own hand fell upon my collar, and
forth I was dragged to the plain amazement of all three.

Santos was the first to find his voice.

"Another time you will perhaps think twice before you spik, friend
squire."

Rattray simply asked me what I had been doin