e my father, Harry Shelton, by his death?"

The man's face altered instantly.

"I know not," he replied, doggedly.

"Nay, ye know well," returned Dick. "Seek not to put me by."

"I tell you I know not," repeated Carter.

"Then," said Dick, "ye shall die unshriven. Here am I, and here shall
stay. There shall no priest come near you, rest assured. For of what
avail is penitence, an ye have no mind to right those wrongs ye had a
hand in? and without penitence, confession is but mockery."

"Ye say what ye mean not, Master Dick," said Carter, composedly. "It is
ill threatening the dying, and becometh you (to speak truth) little. And
for as little as it commends you, it shall serve you less. Stay, an ye
please. Ye will condemn my soul--ye shall learn nothing! There is my
last word to you." And the wounded man turned upon the other side.

Now, Dick, to say truth, had spoken hastily, and was ashamed of his
threat. But he made one more effort.

"Carter," he said, "mistake me not. I know ye were but an instrument in
the hands of others; a churl must obey his lord; I would not bear
heavily on such an one. But I begin to learn upon many sides that this
great duty lieth on my youth and ignorance, to avenge my father.
Prithee, then, good Carter, set aside the memory of my threatenings, and
in pure good-will and honest penitence give me a word of help."

The wounded man lay silent; nor, say what Dick pleased, could he extract
another word from him.

"Well," said Dick, "I will go call the priest to you as ye desired; for
howsoever ye be in fault to me or mine, I would not be willingly in
fault to any, least of all to one upon the last change."

Again the old soldier heard him without speech or motion; even his
groans he had suppressed; and as Dick turned and left the room, he was
filled with admiration for that rugged fortitude.

"And yet," he thought, "of what use is courage without wit? Had his
hands been clean, he would have spoken; his silence did confess the
secret louder than words. Nay, upon all sides, proof floweth on me. Sir
Daniel, he or his men, hath done this thing."

Dick paused in the stone passage with a heavy heart. At that hour, in
the ebb of Sir Daniel's fortune, when he was beleaguered by the archers
of the Black Arrow and proscribed by the victorious Yorkists, was Dick,
also, to turn upon the man who had nourished and taught him, who had
severely punished, indeed, but yet unwearyingly protected his you