ling he put the breadth of the
oaken table between us, hurled the parchment deed into the open
strong-box, slammed to the cover and gave a shrill alarm.

"Ho! you devils without, there! Here he is--I have him! Help! Murder!"

The guard, a burly, bearded Darmstaedter, turned on his heel and stood at
attention in the doorway, looking stolidly for his orders, not to the
shrilling master of the house, but to the man who wore a uniform.

"'Tis naught," I said, speaking in German. "He mistakes me for a
_rittmeister_ of the rebels. _Verstehen Sie?_"

The soldier saluted, wheeled and vanished; and I sat down to wait till
the old man's outcry should pause for lack of breath. When my chance
came, I said:

"Calm yourself, Mr. Stair. You are in no present danger greater than
that which you may bring upon yourself. Blot out all the past, if you
please, and consider me now as a member of Lord Cornwallis's military
family seeking quarters in your house by my Lord's express command."

"Quarters in my house?--ye're a damned rebel spy!" he cried. "I'll
denounce ye to my Lord for what ye are. Ho! ye rascals, I say!"

"Peace!" I commanded, sternly; "this is but child's folly. No man in the
British army would arrest me at your behest. Ring the bell and summon
your factor lawyer. I would have a word or two in private with both of
you."

He dropped into a chair, and I could see the sweat standing in great
beads on his wrinkled forehead.

"D' ye--d' ye mean to kill us both?" he gasped.

"Not if I can help it. But some better understanding is needful, and we
will have it here and now, once for all. Will you ring, or shall I?"

He made no move to reach the bell-cord, and I rang for him. A grinning
black boy came to the door, and seeing that Mr. Gilbert Stair was beyond
giving the order, I gave it myself.

"Find Master Pengarvin and send him here quickly. Tell him Mr. Stair
wants him."

There was a short interval of waiting and then the lawyer came. Being
but a little wisp of a man, all malignance and no courage, he would have
fled when he saw me. But I caught him by the collar and sent him
scurrying around the table to keep his master company.

"Now, then; how much or how little have you two blabbed of the doings at
Appleby Hundred some weeks since?" I demanded. "Speak out, and quickly."

'Twas the lawyer who obeyed, and now he was the trapped rat to snap
blindly in despair.

"You will hang higher than Haman when the dragoons