A RESCUE 63

his hand to his friend. “They had got me so firmly in
their clutches that I thought my chances were at an end.
How are you, Charlie? I am right glad to see you safe and
sound, for they had managed to include you in their pre-
tended plot, and for aught I knew you had been all this
time lying in a cell next mine in Lancaster Castle. But
who are the good fellows who helped you?”

Mr. Jervoise briefly gave an account of the affair. “They
are only keeping up a sham pursuit of the soldiers, so as to
send them well on their way. I told them not to overtake
them, as there was no occasion for any further bloodshed
when you were once out of their hands. By to-morrow
morning they will all be at work on their farms again, and
if they keep their own counsel need not fear.”

Suddenly Sir Marmaduke reined in his horse.

“We are riding south,” he said.

“Certainly we are,” Mr. Jervoise said. “Why not?
That is our only chance of safety. They will, in the first
place, suspect us of having doubled back to the hills, and
will search every farmhouse and cottage. Our only hope
of escape is to ride either for Bristol or one of the southern
ports.” <

“T must go back,” Sir Marmaduke said doggedly. “I
must kill that scoundrel John Dormay before I do anything
else. It is he who has wound this precious skein in order
to entrap us, expecting, the scoundrel, to have my estates
bestowed on him as a reward.”

“Tt were madness to ride back now, Sir Marmaduke. It
would cost you your life, and you would leave Charlie here
fatherless, and with but little chance of ever regaining the
estate. You have but to wait for a time, and everything
will right itself. As soon as the king comes to his own
your estates will be restored, and then I would not seek to
stay your hand if you sought vengeance upon this cunning
knave,”