a tall, good-looking, blond
officer, bowing to Patsy, "where the young men Garland are to be found?
We had come with warrants for their taking. This is His Majesty's
press."

"Ah," said Patsy easily, "so you are the press-gang--let me look at you.
I have never seen a 'press' before. Where are your handcuffs? Which of
you is the chief executioner? You tie up the poor fellows, they tell
me."

"I must ask you to explain your presence here," said Captain Laurence,
who had grown hot all over at being spoken to in this fashion.

"This is the Maid Marian of the gang," suggested Lieutenant Everard of
the _Britomart_, with a sneer. "I have seen something like this get up
in the Gulf of Corinth."

"Then you are a lucky man," said the captain of dragoons. "All the same
I must ask you to account for your presence here, young lady."

"Rather might I ask you to explain yours," said Patsy, breathing on a
glass, rubbing it, and holding it up to the light. "You are trespassing
on my father's ground--and from what I see of your arms, in pursuit of
game!"

"And who is your father, madame?"

"I have quite as good a right to ask you for the name of yours!"

The officers laughed and glanced at each other.

"Not quite," said the dragoon; "you observe that we are on special
duty--"

"I should indeed hope so," said Patsy, standing up with her drying-cloth
in her hand and shaking it contemptuously at them. "Special duty,
indeed, that means the chasing of honest men and honest men's sons at
the bidding of spies!"

"It is a duty which I perform as seldom as possible," said Captain
Laurence. "Naturally I would rather be fighting the foes of my king and
country, but as to that I am not consulted. Besides, the naval and
military forces of the realm must be recruited in some way or other!"

"I should have thought that treating men like criminals was not the best
way to make brave soldiers of them!"

"Tell us your father's name," broke in Lieutenant Everard, a small dark
man, very nervous and restless, with eyes that winked continually and
impatient fingers that fiddled endlessly with the tassel of his
sword-hilt. "We will not be put off longer. The men are escaping all the
time while you are left here to hold us in talk. If he be, as you say, a
gentleman and a magistrate, he will give us assistance in our search,
according to his oath."

"My father's name is Adam Ferris, of Cairn Ferris," said Patsy,
pleasantly. "But whether he will