he said firmly, "though I wear no sword I am at one with all
these gentlemen, and I accept my release on parole. To-morrow I will
answer for my offense of playing cards, which apparently, is an illicit
pastime. I am one of the pigeons who have been plucked in this house."

"By that gentleman?" queried Gunning with a grim smile and nodding over
his shoulder in the direction where Endicott was being led away by a
couple of armed men.

"No! not by him!" replied Segrave boldly.

With a somewhat theatrical gesture he pointed to Lambert, who, more of a
spectator than a participant in the scene, had been standing mutely by
outside the defiant group, absorbed in his own misery, wondering what
effect the present unforeseen juncture would have on his future chances
of rehabilitating himself.

He was also vaguely wondering what had become of Sir Marmaduke and
Mistress de Chavasse.

But now Segrave's voice was raised, and once more Lambert found himself
the cynosure of a number of hostile glances.

"There stands the man who has robbed us all," said Segrave wildly, "and
now he has heaped disgrace upon us, upon me and mine.... Curse him! ...
curse him, I say!" he continued, whilst all the pent-up fury, forcibly
kept in check all this while by the advent of the police, now once more
found vent in loud vituperation and almost maniacal expressions of rage.
"Liar ... cheat! ... Look at him, Captain! there stands the man who must
bear the full brunt of the punishment, for he is the decoy, he is the
thief! ... The pillory for him ... the pillory ... the lash ... the
brand! ... Curse him! ... Curse him! ... the thief! ..."

He was surrounded and forcibly silenced. The foam had risen to his lips,
impotent fury and agonized despair had momentarily clouded his brain.
Lambert tried to speak, but the Captain, unwilling to prolong a conflict
over which he was powerless to arbitrate, gave a sign to Bradden and
anon the two young men were led away in the wake of Endicott.

The others on giving their word that they would appear before the Court
on the morrow, and answer to the charge preferred against them, were
presently allowed to walk out of the room in single file between a
double row of soldiers whose musketoons were still unpleasantly
conspicuous.

Thus they passed out one by one, across the passage and down the dark
staircase. The door below they found was also guarded; as well as the
passage and the archway giving on the street.