se who smoked their pipes and sipped their ale around the
captain's table, softened her heart towards him. Ugly clouds of
suspicion hung over him, and men said bitter things concerning him; but
to Dorothy's mind the alleged treason seemed impossible. The accused
man, she would argue, was a gentleman and a forester; he had sat at her
father's board, he had spoken of love to her: such a one could not be a
traitor; she would not condemn him unheard. But she had resolved to
put him upon trial if opportunity offered. The opportunity had come,
and, believing in his innocence, she seized upon it.

Dorothy went straight to her task without bush-beating. She told
Master Andrew very plainly what men were saying about him, and then she
asked him some blunt and awkward questions. Windybank was cunning; he
saw that in Dorothy he had a friend and a ready champion. To answer
her questions truthfully was to forfeit her good opinion and turn her
liking into loathing. He determined to fence.

The maiden would have none of it. "I must have plain answer to plain
question!" she cried.

So Master Windybank gave answers that appeared stamped with the mark of
truth. He assumed the indignation of a wronged innocent, and spouted
with some heat a torrent of lies and cunning half-truths.

It was all very cleverly done, especially the contrite confessions
concerning interviews with Father Jerome and his brother-conspirators.
He acknowledged that men had had some cause to suspect him. "But,"
exclaimed he, "a man should not be written down a criminal because some
one asks him to commit a villainy. All of us are liable to temptation!"

"Truly spoken!" said Dorothy. "However, we must not parley with the
tempter, but flee from him."

"That is not easy," answered Andrew, "for these men steal about like
very wolves. They spring into one's path when least expected. It is
impossible to avoid them."

Dorothy tapped her companion's sword. "Thou art armed," she said, "and
so are they. What shouldst thou do when an avowed enemy of the Queen
crosses thy path actually engaged in evil-doing?"

Windybank gulped. "Cut him down," he replied.

"Exactly!" Dorothy arose and held out her hand.

"I expect to hear that a gentleman and a forester has done his duty to
his Queen, himself, and his friends."

The master of Dean Tower bowed, murmured some words of loyalty and
devotion, and then took his leave. He went the longest way home,