officers.”
This withering piece of sarcasm made the Exciseman say, defensively, that he was only trying to do his duty. Nye ignored him, and threw open the door of the back bedchamber, saying: “Step in, Sir Tristram: I know I needn’t warn you not to go for to startle a sick lad.”
A small, insistent hand grasped Sir Tristram’s coat-sleeve. He glanced down into Eustacie’s white face, saw in it entreaty and alarm, and shaking off her hand strode into the room.
Ludovic had raised himself on his elbow. Across the room his strained blue eyes met Shield’s hard grey ones. Shield checked for an instant on the threshold, while Miss Thane gave Eustacie’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and the Exciseman said hopefully: “Do you know him, sir?”
“Very well indeed,” replied Shield coolly. He went forward to the bed, and laid a hand on Ludovic’s shoulder. “Well, my lad, you have got yourself into trouble through this piece of folly. Lie down now: I’ll talk to you later.” He turned, addressing the Exciseman: “I can vouch for this fellow. He does not look very like a smuggler, do you think?”
“No, sir, I’m bound to say he don’t,” said the Exciseman slowly, staring at Ludovic. “I’d say he looked uncommon like the old Lord—from what I remember. It’s the nose. It ain’t a nose one forgets, somehow.”
“It is a nose often seen in these parts,” said Sir Tristram with dry significance.
The Exciseman blinked at him for a moment, and then, as light broke in on him, said hurriedly: “Oh, that’s the way it is! I beg pardon, I’m sure! No offence meant! If you can vouch for the young fellow of course I ain’t got no more to say, sir.”
“Then if you ain’t got no more to say you can take yourself off!” said Nye, thrusting him out of the room. “It don’t do the house any good having your kind in it. Next you’ll be telling me I’ve got smuggled liquor in my cellar!”
“And so you have!” rejoined the Exciseman immediately.
The door closed behind them; those in the little chamber could hear the altercation gradually growing fainter as Nye shepherded his unwelcome guest down the stairs.
No one moved or spoke until the voices had died away. Then Eustacie caught Sir Tristram’s hand, and pressed it to her cheek, saying simply: “I will do anything you wish. I will even marry you!”
“Oh no, you will not!” exploded Ludovic, struggling to sit up. “If this last don’t beat all! What the devil did you mean by telling that long-nosed tidesman that I’m one of Sylvester’s by-blows?”
“But no, Ludovic, no! I find that was very clever of him!” protested Eustacie. “Did you not think so, Sarah?”
Miss Thane said gravely: “I’m lost in admiration of so quick a wit. You never told me he was such an excellent conspirator.”
“Well, truly I did not think that he would be,” confessed Eustacie.
Sir Tristram, ignoring this interchange, said: “In God’s name, Ludovic, what are you doing here?”
“Free trading,” replied Ludovic, with complete
Shield’s face darkened. “Are you jesting?”
“No, no, he really is a smuggler, Cousin Tristram!” said Eustacie earnestly. “It is very romantic, I think. Do not you?”
“No, I do not!” said Shield. “Hasn’t your name been smirched enough, you young fool? Smuggling! And you can lie there and blandly tell me of it!”
“You see!” Eustacie made a disgusted face at Miss Thane.
“Yes, he seems to have no feeling for romance at all,” agreed Sarah.
Ludovic said savagely: “You may be thankful I can do nothing but lie here! Do you think I care whether I’m hanged for a free trader or a murderer? I’m ruined, aren’t I? Then, damn it, I’ll go to the devil my own way!”
“I don’t want to interrupt you,” said Miss Thane, “but you’ll find yourself with the devil sooner than you think for if that wound of yours starts bleeding again.”
“Ah, let be!” Ludovic said, his right hand clenching on the coverlet.
Sir Tristram was looking at that hand. He bent, and grasped Ludovic’s wrist, and lifted it, staring at the bare fingers. “Show me your other hand!” he said harshly.
Ludovic’s lips twisted into a bitter smile. He wrenched his wrist out of Shield’s hold, and put back the bedclothes to show his left arm in a sling. The fingers were as bare as those of his right hand.
Sir Tristram raised his eyes to that haggard young face. “If you had it it would never leave your finger!” he said. “Ludovic, where is the ring?”
“Famous!” mocked Ludovic. “Brazen it out, Tristram! Where is the ring indeed?
“What the devil do you mean by that?” demanded Shield, in a voice that made Eustacie jump.
Ludovic flung off Miss Thane’s restraining hand, and sat up as though moved by a spring. “You know what I mean!” he said, quick and panting. “You laid your plans very skilfully, my clever cousin, and you took care to ship me out of England before I’d time to think who, besides myself, could want the ring more than anything on earth! Does it grace your collection now? Tell me, does it give you satisfaction when you look at it?”
“If you were not a wounded man I’d give you the thrashing of your life, Ludovic!” said Shield, very white about the mouth. “I have stood veiled hints from Basil, but not even he dare say to my face what you have said!”
“Basil—Basil believed in me!” Ludovic gasped. “It was you—you!”
Miss Thane caught him as he fell back, and lowered him on to his pillows. “Now see what you have done!” she said severely. “Hartshorn, Eustacie!”
“I would like very much to kill you!” Eustacie told her cousin fiercely, and bent over the bed, holding the hartshorn under Ludovic’s nose.
He came round in a minute or two, and opened his eyes. “Tristram!” he muttered. “My ring, Tristram!”
Shield brought a glass of water to the bed, and, raising Ludovic, held it to his lips. “Drink this, and don’t be a fool!”
“Damn you, take your hands off me!” Ludovic whispered.
Sir Tristram paid no heed to this, but obliged him to drink some of the water. He laid him down again, and handed the glass to Miss Thane. “Listen to me!” he said, standing over Ludovic. “I never had your ring in my hands in my life. Until this moment I would have sworn it was in your possession.”
Ludovic had averted his face, but he turned his head at that. “If you have not got it, who has?” he said wearily.
“I don’t know, but I’ll do my best to find out,” replied Shield.
Eustacie drew a deep breath. “I see that I have misjudged you, Cousin Tristram,” she said handsomely. “One must make reparation,
“Thank you,” said Sir Tristram, “but the matter does not call for such a sacrifice as that, I assure you.” He saw a certain raptness steal into her eyes, and added: “Don’t waste time picturing yourself in the role of a martyred bride, I beg of you! I haven’t the smallest desire to marry you.”
Eustacie frowned. “But you must have an—”
“Yes, we won’t go into that again,” he said hastily.
“And I think,” continued Eustacie, visibly attracted by the vision of herself as a martyred bride, “that perhaps it is my duty to marry you.”
Ludovic raised his head from the pillows. “Well, you can’t marry him. I’m the head of the family now, and I forbid it.”
“Oh, very well!” submitted Eustacie. “I dare say I should not like always to be a sacrifice, after all.”
“Am I to understand,” inquired Miss Thane, “that Sir Tristram is to become one of us? If you are satisfied he is not the villain it is not for me to raise objections, of course, but I must say I am disappointed. We shall have to remake all our plans.”
“Yes, we shall,” agreed Eustacie. “And that reminds me that if Tristram truly did not steal Ludovic’s ring, there is not any need for me to marry him. I had forgotten.”
Sir Tristram looked rather startled, observing which, Miss Thane said kindly: “You must know that we had it all fixed that Eustacie was to marry you so as to be able to search in your collection for the missing ring.”
“What a splendid notion, to be sure!” said Sir Tristram sardonically.
