"You have known Senor Sanchez for some time, sir?"

He started in surprise, yet answered as though the unexpected query
had been merely an echo of his own thoughts.

"No," he admitted frankly. "Indeed I hardly know how it happened that
I invited him to join our party. It seemed natural enough then, but
lately I confess to having taken a dislike to the fellow, and have
begun to imagine that he even pushed his way on me. But," he stopped,
suddenly realizing what he was saying, "why do you ask?"

I was not wholly prepared to say, yet as instantly comprehended the
prompt necessity of advancing some reasonable explanation. There came
to me swiftly, from the sharpness of his question, the paralyzing
knowledge that I was a servant addressing my master.

"Of course it is no business of mine," I confessed, rather lamely,
"who your guests are. I'm sorry I spoke."

"It is altogether too late to say that," he insisted. "Some thought
prompted the inquiry. Go on. See here, Carlyle, you are no nigger or
white thief. I know the difference, and recognize that you are
gentleman born. Because I've bought your services for a term of years,
is no reason why you cannot talk to me like a man. Do you know
anything about this Spaniard?"

"Not very much, sir. He has seen fit to threaten me, on account of
some row he has had with a brother of mine in England."

"In England! The Duke of Bucclough?"

"Yes. I haven't the slightest knowledge of what it was all about, but
evidently our Spanish friend got the worst of it. He planned to buy me
in at the sale; but, fortunately for me, you gained possession ahead
of him."

"Do you mean to say that he told you all this?"

"It came out in a moment of anger."

Fairfax looked at me incredulously.

"See here, Carlyle," he exclaimed bluntly, "I am not questioning your
word, but it is a bit difficult for me to understand why a guest of
mine should indulge in angry controversy with a government prisoner,
sent overseas for sale as an indentured servant. There must have been
some unusual cause. Haven't I a right to know what that cause was,
without using my authority to compel an answer?"

I hesitated, but only for a moment. He undoubtedly was entitled to
know, and besides there was nothing involved I needed to conceal.

"It is my impression, sir, that Mistress Dorothy was the unconscious
cause. She chanced to discover me alone on deck the night before we
landed, and hastened to tell me of your