492 A JACOBITE EXILE

I learn whether warrants are out for my apprehension. Of
course, the evidence is not so strong against me as it is
against Sir Marmaduke, still the spy’s evidence would tell
as much against me as against him. You will go up,
Harry, with your friend to Pincot’s farm. It lies so far in
the hills that it would probably be one of the last to be
searched, and if a very sharp look-out is kept there, a body
of men riding up the valley would be seen over a mile
away, and there would be plenty of time to take to the
hills. There Charlie had better remain until he hears
from me.

“You can return here, Harry, in the morning, for there
is no probability whatever of your being included in any
warrant of arrest; it could only relate to us who were in
the habit of meeting at Sir Marmaduke’s. You will ride
over to the farm each day, and tell Charlie any news you
may have learnt, or take any message I may send you for
him. We must do nothing hastily. The first thing to
learn, if possible, is whether any of us are included in the
charge of being concerned in a plot against William’s life.
In the next place, who are the witnesses, and what evidence
they intend to give. No doubt the most important is the
man who was placed as a spy at Sir Marmaduke’s.”

“As I know his face, sir,” Charlie said eagerly, “could
I not find him, and either force him to acknowledge that it
is all false or else kill him? I should be in my right in
doing that surely, since he is trying to swear away my
father’s life by false evidence.”

“T should say nothing against that, lad. If ever a fellow
deserved killing he does; that is, next to his rascally em-
ployer. But his death would harm rather than benefit us;
it would be assumed, of course, that we had removed him
to prevent his giving evidence against us. No doubt his
depositions have been taken down, and they would then be
assumed to be true, and we should be worse off than if he