with the house guard for a guide i found my host in a box-like den below stairs; a room with a writing-table, two chairs and a great iron strong-box for its scanty furnishings.
the old man was sitting at the table when i looked in, his long nose buried in a musty parchment deed. the light from the single small window was none too good, but it sufficed to help him recognize me at a glance, despite the hussar uniform. in a twinkling he put the breadth of the oaken table between us, hurled the parchment deed into the open strong-box, slammed to the cover and gave a shrill alarm.
"ho! you devils without, there! here he is—i have him! help! murder!"
the guard, a burly, bearded darmstädter, turned on his heel and stood at attention in the doorway, looking stolidly for his orders, not to the shrilling master of the house, but to the man who wore a uniform.
"'tis naught," i said, speaking in german. "he mistakes me for a rittmeister of the rebels. verstehen sie?"
the soldier saluted, wheeled and vanished; and i sat down to wait till the old man's outcry should pause for lack of breath. when my chance came, i said:
"calm yourself, mr. stair. you are in no present danger greater than that which you may bring upon yourself. blot out all the past, if you please, and consider me now as a member of lord cornwallis's military family seeking quarters in your house by my lord's express command."
"quarters in my house?—ye're a damned rebel spy!" he cried. "i'll denounce ye to my lord for what ye are. ho! ye rascals, i say!"
"peace!" i commanded, sternly; "this is but child's folly. no man in the british army would arrest me at your behest. ring the bell and summon your factor lawyer. i would have a word or two in private with both of you."
he dropped into a chair, and i could see the sweat standing in great beads on his wrinkled forehead.
"d' ye—d' ye mean to kill us both?" he gasped.
"not if i can help it. but some better understanding is needful, and we will have it here and now, once for all. will you ring, or shall i?"
he made no move to reach the bell-cord, and i rang for him. a grinning black boy came to the door, and seeing that mr. gilbert stair was beyond giving the order, i gave it myself.
"find master pengarvin and send him here quickly. tell him mr. stair wants him."
there was a short interval of waiting and then the lawyer came. being but a little wisp of a man, all malignance and no courage, he would have fled when he saw me. but i caught him by the collar and sent him scurrying around the table to keep his master company.
"now, then; how much or how little have you two blabbed of the doings at appleby hundred some weeks since?" i demanded. "speak out, and quickly."
'twas the lawyer who obeyed, and now he was the trapped rat to snap blindly in despair.
"you will hang higher than haman when the dragoons find you," he gritted out.
"on your information?"
"on mine and mr. stair's."
"ye lie!" shrieked the miser. "i tell't ye to keep hands off, ye bletherin' little deevil, ye!"
"never mind," said i; "what's done is done. but it must be undone, and that swiftly and thoroughly. lie out of it to colonel tarleton and the others as you will; captain john stuart and the baronet are not here to contradict you, and you are the only witnesses. knock together some story that will hold water and lose no time about it. do you understand?"
seeing he was not to be put to the wall and spitted on the spot, the lawyer recovered himself.
"'tis not the criminal at the bar who dictates terms, captain ireton," he said, with his hateful smirk. "you are under sentence of death, and that by a court lawful enough in war time."
"you refuse?" i said.
he shrugged.
"speaking for myself, i shall leave no stone unturned to bring you to book, captain,—when it suits my purpose."
i was loath to go to extremities with either of them; but my bridge of glass must be defended at all hazards.
"you would best reconsider, mr. pengarvin. at this present moment i am of my lord cornwallis's military family and i have his confidence. a word from me will put you both in arrest as persons whose loyalty in times past has been somewhat more than blown upon."
"bah!" said the pettifogger. "bluster is a good dog, but holdfast is the better. you can prove nothing, as you well know. moreover, with your own neck in a noose you dare not mess and meddle with other men's affairs."
"dare not, you say? i'll tell you what i may dare, master attorney. if you are not disposed to meet me half way in this matter, i shall go to my lord, tell him how i have been cheated out of my estate, declare the marriage with mistress margery, and see that you get your just deserts. and you may rest assured that this soldier-earl will right me, come what may."
'twas a bold stroke, the boldest of any i had made that morning; but i was wholly unprepared for its effect upon the lawyer. his rage was like that of some venomous little animal, a thing to make an onlooker shudder and draw back.
"never!" he hissed; "never, i say! i'll kill her first—i'll—" he choked in the very exuberance of his malignance, and his face was like the face of a man in a fit.
'twas then that i saw the pointing of his villainy and knew what margery had meant when she said that for reasons of his own he was holding my betrayal in abeyance. he was falconnet's successor and my rival. this little reptile aspired to be the master of my father's acres and the husband of my dear lady! and his holding off from denouncing me at once was also explained. taking it for granted that the wife would bargain for the husband's life, he had made a whip of his leniency to flog margery into subjection.
my determination was taken upon the instant. there was no safety for margery whilst this plotting pettifogger was at large, and i stepped to the door and called the sentry. the darmstädter came back and i pointed to the lawyer. then, indeed, the furious little madman found his tongue and shrilled out his defiance.
"curse you!" he yelled. "i'll be quits with you for this, master spy! 'tis your hearing now, but mine will come, and you shall hang like a dog! i'll follow you to the ends of the earth—i'll—"
i made a sign and the soldier brought his musket into play and pricked his prisoner with the bayonet in token that time pressed. so we were rid of the lawyer in bodily presence, though i could hear his snarlings and spittings as the big darmstädter ran him out at the bayonet's point.
during this tilt between his factor and me, mr. gilbert stair had stood apart, watchful but trembling. when we were alone i said:
"now, mr. stair, i shall trouble you to billet me somewhere in your house, as a member of my lord's family. lead on, if you please, and i'll follow."
he went before me without a word, out of the little den and up the broad stair, doddering like a man grown ten years older in a breath, and catching at the balustrade to steady himself as we ascended. the room he gave me was at an angle in one of the crookings of the corridor, and pointing me to the door he went pottering away, still without a word or a look behind him.
the door was on the latch, but it gave reluctantly, letting me in suddenly when i set my shoulder to it. there was a quick little cry, half of anger, half of affright, from within. i drew back hastily, with a muttered curse upon the old man's spite, and in the act my spur caught the door and slammed it shut behind me.
for reasons known only to omniscience and to himself, gilbert stair had shown me to my lady's chamber; she was standing, with her bodice off, before the oval mirror on the high dressing case.
