ught of the handsome woman with the grey,
fierce eyes. In a way, I hoped that might have another tussle with her,
not because I liked adventure, no sane creature does, but because I
thought of her with liking. I felt that she would be such a brave, witty
person to have for a friend. I felt sad somehow at the thought of not
seeing her again. She was quite young, not more than twenty, if her
looks did not belie her. I used to wonder how it was that she had come
to be a secret agent. I believed that the sharp-faced horsey man had
somehow driven her to it against her will. Thinking of her at night,
before I fell asleep, I used to long to help her. It is curious, but I
always thought tenderly of this woman, even though she had twice tried
to kill me. A man's bad angel is only his good angel a little warped.

On the second of May, though I did not know it then, Argyle set sail for
Scotland, to raise the clans for a foray across the Border. On the same
day I was summoned from my quarters in the barge to take up my King's
service. Late one evening, when it was almost dark night, Mr. Jermyn
halted at the wharf-side to call me from my supper. "Mount behind me,
Martin," he said softly, peering down the hatch. "It's time, now."
I thought he must mean that it was time to invade England. You must
remember that I knew little of the rights of the case, except that the
Duke's cause was the one favoured by my father, dead such a little while
before. Yet when I heard that sudden summons, it went through me with a
shock that now this England was to be the scene of a bloody civil war,
father fighting son, brother against brother. I would rather have been
anywhere at that moment than where I was, hearing that order. Still, I
had put my hand to the plough. There was no drawing back. I rose up
with my eyes full of tears to say good-bye to the kind Dutch bargemen.
I never saw them again. In a moment I was up the wharf, scrambling into
the big double saddle behind Mr. Jermyn. Before my eyes were accustomed
to the darkness we were trotting off into the night I knew not whither.

"Martin," said Mr. Jermyn, half turning in his saddle, "talk in a low
voice. There may be spies anywhere."

"Yes, sir," I answered, meekly. For a while after that we were silent; I
was waiting for him to tell me more.

"Martin," he said at length, "we're going to send you to England, with a
message."

"Yes, sir?" I answered.

"You understand that there's danger, boy