"You need not take it so to heart, boy," Lindley urged. "You're sadly
worn and tired now. I saw last night that you were quite spiritless
and lacking in heart! To-night, I see it even plainer."

"Oh, 'tis naught but the work I have to do," Johan answered, wearily.

"The work?" questioned Lindley. "Is it a new part you have to play?"

"Ay, that's it," sighed Johan; "a new part, a man's part and a woman's
part all in one! It's a most difficult part, indeed." He was muttering
the words to himself, and, under his cloak, Lindley could see his
hands twisting nervously.

"Forgive me, lad!" Lindley's tone was conscience-stricken. "I'd not
forgotten the debt I owed you, though I seem to have forgot the
promised payment. There's been over much on my mind these last few
days. But I'll buy your freedom now, to-night, from this master player
of yours. Where lies he? Let us go to him at once. Then you can give
up this part and take the rest you need."

"Oh, no, no, I must play this part," answered the player's boy,
hurriedly. "I--I----Let me win to success before I speak to him of
leaving him. I must, _must_ succeed now. Then, perhaps, we can talk of
freedom, not before."

"Well, as you like!" Lindley's voice had grown careless once again. He
was again absorbed in his own affairs. "Think you I might see Mistress
Judith to-morrow, if I had a message from Lord Farquhart for the Lady
Barbara?"

"But have you access to Lord Farquhart?" The boy spoke quickly, so
quickly that Lindley failed to notice the change in voice and manner.

"Why, I suppose I can gain access to him," answered Lindley.

"But then surely I--surely we can rescue him," cried Johan. "I'd not
supposed that we could see Lord Farquhart, that we could gain speech
with him. Now I know that I can help you free him. Think, think from
now until to-morrow night at this time of some feasible plan, some way
of taking Johan, the player's boy, into Lord Farquhart's presence. But
wait! Why could you not take me to him disguised as the Lady Barbara?
Mistress Judith would provide me with Lady Barbara's cloak and veil
and petticoats. She could coach me in her looks and manners. Have you
forgotten how well I can impersonate a woman? And then, if I could
pass the jailer as the Lady Barbara, what would hinder Farquhart from
passing out as the Lady Barbara? I--I could personate Lord Farquhart,
at a pinch, until rescue came to me. Or if it came to a last
extremity, why I could stil