or merely mooning over some
kitchen wench?" demanded Lindley, with asperity.

"Neither, my master," answered the lad, in the cracking voice that
leaps unbidden from piping youth to manly depths. "I'm uncommonly good
of hearing. I'd sure fall off my horse if I were asleep, and the wench
who's most in my mind would be sadly out of place in a kitchen."

"Didn't you hear me calling, then?" Lindley was reining in his own
steed to keep pace with the white horse.

"Surely I heard your halloo"--the boy's hand drew his hood closer
about his face--"but I did not know that it was addressed to me."

"You're servant to Master James Ogilvie, are you not?" Lindley's tone
implied a statement rather than a question, but the lad denied him.

"No, you're wrong. I'm no servant of Master James Ogilvie's."

"But it's Mistress Judith Ogilvie's horse you ride!" Again Lindley
made an assertion.

"Ay, you're right there," answered the boy. "Once wrong, once right.
Try again, my master."

"It's you who'll be tried, I'm thinking," said Lindley, once again
laying his hand on the scarlet bridle of the white horse. "What do you
with Mistress Judith's horse at this hour of the night, if you're not
Master Ogilvie's servant?"

"I might be servant to Mistress Judith," hazarded the lad.

"No insolence, boy," quoth Lindley, working himself into a fine rage.
"Mistress Judith has no servants that are not of her father's
household."

"Ah, that proves that you've not seen Mistress Judith Ogilvie." A
faint ripple, that might have been laughter, shook the boy's words.
"All men are servants to Mistress Ogilvie, all men who have laid eyes
on the lady."

"And so you're serving Mistress Judith by riding her horse from The
Jolly Grig to the Ogilvie stables?" The sneer in Lindley's voice was
evident, and he tried again to take possession of the scarlet bridle
that had slipped or had been withdrawn from his fingers.

"Ay, my master, the horse had strayed while Mistress Judith was
gathering wild flowers in the Ogilvie woods. And since you may have
reason for your curiosity, I'll add that the maid was afraid her
father would deprive her of the horse if he knew of this mischance,
and she dared not trust one of the stable boys to search for it, so
she came to me."

"And thanking you for so much courtesy, add but one more favor,"
scoffed Lindley. "Who and what may you be that Mistress Judith should
come to you for aid?"

Lindley could see the careless sh