Part 21 (2/2)

”Madam, I thank you Fare you well”

He bowed low She dropped hiht curtsey, and ascended the stairs

Once as she reached the gallery above she turned He had resulass The servants had withdrawn, and for half an hour thereafter they sat on, sipping their wine, andconversation--while Crispin drained burew every instant th his boisterousness passed into incoherence His eyelids drooped heavily, and his chin kept ever and anon sinking forward on to his breast

Kenneth, flushed ine, yet master of his wits, watched him with contempt This was the man Cynthia preferred to hiled with satisfaction He had not looked to find the task so easy At length he deemed the season ripe

”My brother tells h,” said he

”Aye,” he answered thickly ”I knew the dog--a merry, reckless soul, d--n me 'Twas his recklessness killed hioes”

”What story?”

”What story?” echoed Crispin ”The story that I heard Do you say I lie?” And, swaying in his chair, he sought to assuhed in a fashi+on that made Kenneth's blood run cold

”Why, no, I don't deny it It was in fair fight he fell Moreover, he brought the duel upon himself”

Crispin spoke no word in answer, but rose unsteadily to his feet, so unsteadily that his chair was overset and fell with a crash behind him

For aacross the hall towards the door that led to the servants' quarters

The threehis antics in conteain the heavy oaken door and close it They heard the bolts rasp as he shot them home, and the lock click; and they saw him withdraw the key and slip it into his pocket

The cold smile still played round Joseph's lips as Crispin turned to face theain, and on Joseph's lips did that sa there, erect and firm, his drunkenness all vanished, and his eyes keen and fierce; as he heard the ring of his metallic voice:

”You lie, Joseph Ashburn It was no fair fight It was no duel It was a foul,to butcher him as you butchered his wife and his babe But there is a God, Master Ashburn,” he went on in an ever-swelling voice, ”and I lived Like a salaht to destroy all trace of your vile deed I lived, and I, Crispin Galliard, the debauched Tavern Knight that was once Roland Marleigh, a”

The very incarnation was he then of an avenger, as he stood towering before therim face livid with the passion into which he had lashed hi the, half-closed way that was his when his erous

And yet the only one that quailed was Kenneth, his ally, upon who swiftness

Joseph recovered quickly from the surprise of Crispin's suddenly reassumed sobriety He understood the trick that Galliard had played upon theht cut off their retreat in the only direction in which they ht assistance, and he cursed hi foreseen it Still, anxiety he felt none; his sas to his hand, and Gregory was armed; at the very worst they were two calm and able men opposed to a half-intoxicated boy, and a ht, must strip of half his power Probably, indeed, the lad would side with theain, he had but to raise his voice, and, though the door that Crispin had fastened was a stout one, he never doubted but that his call would penetrate it and bring his servants to his rescue

And so, a smile of cynical unconcern returned to his lips and his ansas delivered in a cold, incisive voice

”The reckoning you have come to demand shall be paid you, sir Rakehelly Galliard is the hero ofrecklessness and his last one

Gadswounds, sir, are you le-handed to beard the lion in his den?”

”Rather the cur in his kennel,” sneered Crispin back ”Blood and wounds, Master Joseph, think you to affrighthimselfofit me But it is not We are three to one”

”You reckon wrongly Mr Stewart belongs to ht--bound by an oath that 'twould damn his soul to break, to help me when and where I may call upon him; and I call upon hiroaned as he stood by, clasping and unclasping his hands