tablets. Suddenly he raised his head.

"When did his Grace dismiss you?" he asked.

Now Ormonde had been the Duke last spoken of, but Mr. Lovel's precarious
wits fell into the trap. He denied indignantly that he had fallen from
his master's favour.

A grim smile played round Talbot's mouth.

"You have confessed," he said. Then to the others: "This fellow is one of
Malbrouck's pack. He has been nosing in the Scotch westlands. Here are
the numbers of Kenmure and Nithsdale to enable the great Duke to make up
his halting mind. See, he has been with Roxburghe too.... We have a spy
before us, gentlemen, delivered to our hands by a happy incident. Whig
among the sectaries and with Stair and Roxburghe, and Jacobite among our
poor honest folk, and wheedling the secrets out of both sides to sell
to one who disposes of them at a profit in higher quarters. Faug! I know
the vermin. An honest Whig like John Argyll I can respect and fight, but
for such rats as this--What shall we do with it now that we have trapped
it?"

"Let it go," said the boy, Nick Wogan. "The land crawls with them and
we cannot go rat-hunting when we are aiming at a throne." He picked up
Lovel's ring and spun it on a finger tip. "The gentleman has found more
than news in the north. He has acquired a solid lump of gold."

The implication roused Mr. Lovel out of his embarrassment. "I wear
the ring by right. I had it from my father." His voice was tearful with
offended pride

"The creature claims gentility," said Talbot, as he examined the trinket.
"Lovel you call yourself. But Lovel bears barry nebuly or chevronels.
This coat has three plain charges. Can you read them, Nick, for my eyes
are weak! I am curious to know from whom he stole it."

The boy scanned it closely. "Three of something I think they are
fleur-de-lys, which would spell Montgomery. Or lions' heads, maybe, for
Buchan?"

He passed it to Lord Charles, who held it to a candle's light. "Nay, I
think they are Cummin garbs. Some poor fellow dirked and spoiled."

Mr. Lovel was outraged and forgot his fears. He forgot, indeed, most
things which he should have remembered. He longed only to establish his
gentility in the eyes of those three proud gentlemen. The liquor was
ebbing in him and with it had flown all his complacence. He felt small
and mean and despised, and the talents he had been pluming himself on an
hour before had now shrunk to windlestraws.

"I do assure you, sirs," he faltered, "