per ravine, Jack, and we shall never have a better
chance than this. Hold you quiet here, whilst I--"

But I laid fast hold of him and would not hear to any such a foolhardy
marring of Ephraim Yeates's plan.

"Heavens, boy! are you gone clean mad?" I would say. "'Twill be risky
enough with midnight in our favor; with the camp well asleep, and that
great fire burned down to give us something less than broad daylight to
work in!"

He turned upon me like a pettish child. "Oh, to the devil with your
stumbling-blocks, John Ireton! You are always for holding back. By
heaven! I'll swear you have no drop of lover's blood in your veins!"

"So you have said before. But let that pass, we must bide by our promise
to Yeates, which was not to interfere unless Margery stood in present
peril. Moreover, we should learn the lay of the land better while we
have the firelight to help. When the time for action comes we must be
able to make the play with our eyes shut, if need be. Come."

'Twas like pulling sound teeth to get him away, but he yielded at length
and we crept on to have some better sight of the troop camp. We had it;
had also a glimpse of the baronet-captain playing loo with his
lieutenant and another. The tableau at the fire gave us better courage.
The men had laid their arms aside and were sprawling at their ease; and
while the arch scoundrel was in the gaming mood, Margery had less to
fear from him.

I said as much to Dick, and for answer he pointed to the flask of
usquebaugh which was at that moment making the round of the loo players.

"I know Frank Falconnet better than you do, Jack, for I have known him
later. He is all kinds of a villain sober, but he is a fiend incarnate
with the liquor in him. 'Tis lucky we are here. If he do but drink deep
enough, Margery is like to have need--"

"Hist!" said I; "some of these lounging rascals may not be so drowsy as
they look."

He nodded, and we backed away to make another circuit which fetched us
out on the up-valley side of the encampment. Here we could look down
into a smaller glade or bottom meadow on the stream where the horses of
the band were cropping the lush grass. It was the sight of these, and of
Margery's black mare among them, that set me thinking of a pickeering
venture to the full as harebrained as that from which I had but now
dissuaded Richard Jennifer.

"We shall need another mount, and Mistress Margery's saddle," I said.
"Lie you close here whilst I p