ntry just at this juncture. Lord Claud's careless
indifference to consequences had had its effect upon him; but he
was not quite comfortable yet, and the feeling of being watched and
hunted for was an exceedingly unpleasant one.

He felt a distinct qualm of uneasiness that very morning as he and
his host sat at breakfast together.

"I am going to fetch Rosamund," said the perruquier, as the meal
drew to its close; "but if you will take my advice, good Tom, you
will not sally forth into the streets today."

"And wherefore not?" asked Tom.

"I misdoubt me that you are watched for here, Tom. It may be my
fancy, but several times during these past days I have seen
ill-looking fellows prowling nigh at hand--one or another of those
four bullies, of whose discomfiture Rosy has told me, and young
Harry also. Once the fellow they call Slippery Seal came boldly to
the shop asking news of you from the apprentice; but the lad had
the wit to reply that he thought you had ceased to lodge here.
Nevertheless I have seen one or another of them skulking about
since then, and it may be they will suspect that you may choose
today for a visit to us."

"And what do they watch me for?" asked Tom, with heightened colour,
but looking at Cale with an air of something almost like defiance,
though his heart misgave him the while.

"Nay, Tom, that is a question you should be able to answer better
than I. If there be no cause of offence against you, why, then, do
as you will, and go where you will. Yet men have ere now been haled
to prison and to the gallows for sins that have been less theirs
than those who set them on."

Tom's face was very grave. He was not afraid of adventure and
peril; but the thought of prison and disgrace--to say nothing of a
felon's death--seemed to paralyze the beating of his heart with a
numb sense of horror. Truly, if this sort of danger dogged his
steps, the sooner he was out of the country the better for himself!

But he would see Rosamund once more, and spend one happy day in her
company. If he went out into the streets, it had better be after
the summer dusk had fallen, when Cale took his daughter home. He
agreed, therefore, to remain within doors all that day; and he was
not sorry he had done so when presently he observed two of his
enemies slowly prowling past the house, scanning the windows
furtively, and talking together in very earnest tones.

Could it be possible that these men had been of the compan