38 MASTER SKYLARK

“With their tongues, ay,” said Carew, bitterly ; “but not
otherwise.” He clapped his hand upon his poniard, and
threw back his head defiantly. “They dared not come to
blows—they knew my kind! Yet John Shakspere is no
bad sort—he knoweth what is what. But Master Bailiff
Stubbes, I ween, is a long-eared thing that brays for
thistles. I ‘ll thistle him! He called Will Shakspere
rogue. Hast ever looked through a red glass?”

“Nay,” said Nick.

“Well, it turns the whole world red. And so it is with
Master Stubbes. He looks through a pair of rogue’s eyes
and sees the whole world rogue. Why, boy,” cried the
master-player, vehemently, “he thought to buy my
tongue! Marry, if tongues were troubles he has bought
himself a peck! What! Buy my silence? Nay, he ’ll
see a deadly flash of silence when I come to my Lord the
Admiral again!”