plainly to his company. Here is a danger, 'a saith, and here difficulty;
and jesteth in the very saying. Nay, by St. Barbary, he is a born
captain! Not a man but he is some deal heartened up! See how they fall
again to work."

This praise of Sir Daniel put a thought in the lad's head.

"Bennet," he said, "how came my father by his end?"

"Ask me not that," replied Hatch. "I had no hand nor knowledge in it;
furthermore, I will even be silent, Master Dick. For look you, in a
man's own business there he may speak; but of hearsay matters and of
common talk, not so. Ask me Sir Oliver--ay, or Carter, if ye will; not
me."

And Hatch set off to make the rounds, leaving Dick in a muse.

"Wherefore would he not tell me?" thought the lad. "And wherefore named
he Carter? Carter--nay, then Carter had a hand in it, perchance."

He entered the house, and passing some little way along a flagged and
vaulted passage, came to the door of the cell where the hurt man lay
groaning. At his entrance, Carter started eagerly.

"Have ye brought the priest?" he cried.

"Not yet awhile," returned Dick. "Y' have a word to tell me first. How
came 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