of her cheek, the mass of rippling hair, the fresh, sweet, subtle fragrance of her presence.
“You’ll have to hurry about it then, for on my soul you’re due to die of tightened hemp to-morrow,” I told him, lounging forward from the door.
The girl cried out, eyes dilating, hand pressing to the heart. For the man, after the first start he did not turn a hair. The face that looked over his shoulder at me was unmoved and bereft of emotion.
“My malapropos friend Montagu again. Devil take it, you have an awkward way of playing harlequin when you’re not wanted! Now to come blundering in upon a lady and her friend is— Well, not the best of form. Better drop it before it becomes a habit,” he advised.
“’Slife, ’tis tit for tat! I learnt it from you,” was my answer.
Long we looked at each other, preparing for the battle that was to come. Save for the quick breathing of the girl no sound fell.
“Sir Robert, your audacity confounds all precedent,” I said at last.
“You flatter me, Mr. Montagu.”
“Believe me, had Major Macleod discovered you instead of me your soul had by this time been speeding hellward.”
“Exit Flattery,” he laughed. “The lady phrased it less vilely. Heavenward, she put it! ’Twould be interesting to know which of you is right.”
“As you say, an interesting topic of speculation, and one you’re like to find the answer of shortly, presupposing that you suffer the usual fate of captured spies.”
His brows lifted in polite inquiry. “Indeed! A spy?” he asked, indifferently.
“Why not? The favourite of the Hanoverian usurpers discovered in our midst—what other explanation will it bear?”
He smiled. “Perhaps I have a mind to join your barelegged rebellion.”
“Afraid your services are not available, Sir Robert. Three hundred Macleod claymores bar the way, all eager to wipe out an insult to the daughter of Raasay. Faith, when they have settled their little account against you there won’t be much left for the Prince.”
“Ah! Then for the sake of argument suppose we put it that I’m visiting this delightful city for my health.”
“You will find the climate not agree with you, I fear.”
“Then say for pleasure.”
“’Twill prove more exciting than amusing.”
“On my life, dear Kenn, ’tis both.”
“I have but to raise my voice and you are undone.”
“His voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in Kenneth,” he parodied, laughing at me.
The girl said never a word, but her level eyes watched me steadily. No need of words to tell me that I was on trial! But I would not desist.
“You appear not to realize the situation,” I told him coldly. “Your life is in hazard.”
The man yawned in my face. “Not at all, I sit here as safe as if I were at White’s, and a devilish deal better satisfied. Situation piquant! Company of the best! Gad’s life, I cry content.”
“I think we talk at cross purposes. I am trying to have you understand that your position is critical, Sir Robert.”
Nonchalant yet watchful, indolent and yet alert, gracefully graceless, he watched me smilingly out of half-closed eyes; and then quietly fired the shot that brought me to.
“If you were not a gentleman, Montagu, the situation would be vastly different.”
“I do not see the point,” I told him; but I did, and raged at it.
“I think you do. Your lips are sealed. I am your rival”—he bowed to Aileen—“for the favour of a lady. If you put me out of the way by playing informer what appearance will it bear? You may talk of duty till the world ends, but you will be a marked man, despised by all—and most of all by Kenneth Montagu.”
The man was right. At one sweep he had spiked my guns, demolished my defenses. The triumph was sponged from my face. I fumed in a stress of impotence.
“I don’t know about that. I shall have to think of it. There is a duty to perform,” I said at last, lamely.
He waved a hand airily. “My dear fellow, think as long as you please. You can’t think away facts. Egad, they’re immutable. You know me to be no spy. Conceded that I am in a false position. What can you do about it? You can’t in honour give me up. I’faith, you’re handcuffed to inaction.”
I was, but my temper was not improved at hearing him tell it me so suavely and so blandly. He sat smiling and triumphant, chuckling no doubt at the dilemma into which he had thrust me. The worst of it was that while I was ostensibly master of the situation he had me at his mercy. I was a helpless victor without any of the fruits of victory.
“You took advantage of a girl’s soft heart to put her in a position that was indefensible,” I told him with bitter bluntness. “Save this of throwing yourself on her mercy there was no other way of approaching her. Of the wisdom of the serpent you have no lack. I congratulate you, Sir Robert. But one may be permitted to doubt the manliness of such a course.”
The pipers struck up a song that was the vogue among our party, and a young man passed the entrance of the room singing it.
“Oh, it’s owre the border awa’, awa’,
It’s owre the border awa’, awa’,
We’ll on an’ we’ll march to Carlisle Ha’,
Wi’ its yetts, its castles, an’ a’, an’ a’.”
The audacious villain parodied it on the spot, substituting two lines of his own for the last ones.
“You’ll on an’ you’ll march to Carlisle Ha’,
To be hanged and quartered an’ a’, an’ a’,”
he hummed softly in his clipped English tongue.
“Pity you won’t live to see it,” I retorted tartly.
“You’re still nursing that maggot, are you? Debating with yourself about giving me up, eh? Well that’s a matter you must settle with your conscience, if you indulge in the luxury of one.”
“You would never give him up, Kenneth,” said Aileen in a low voice. “Surely you would not be doing that.”
“I shall not let him stay here. You may be sure of that,” I said doggedly.
The girl ventured a suggestion timidly. “Perhaps Sir Robert will be leaving to-morrow—for London mayhap.”
Volney shook his head decisively. “Not I. Why, I have but just arrived. Besides, here is a problem in ethics for Mr. Montagu to solve. Strength comes through conflict,
