is not there! And then leave
the house!"

He was not at all for going to search, and cringed and muttered an
apology; but she would have him, and as good as forced him. Then, when
he had searched as much as he pleased--and it was little, with her
burning eyes watching him from the doorway--she brought him down again
and bade him go. "Go!" she cried.

"I never thought that he was there," he said slyly, smiling at the
floor. And of course he did not go, and she could not make him; and the
desperate attempt failed as hopelessly as her father could have told her
it would.

The whole position was strange. The tall clock ticked in the corner of
the great warm panelled kitchen; where the fire shone cosily on delft
and pewter, and on the china dogs and Nankin idols that skippers,
bringing cargoes of Hollands and Mechlin, had given to the Owler's
daughter. Through the open window the belated bees could be heard among
the hollyhocks, and a frugal swallow hawked to and fro for flies. The
quiet that falls on a farm in the evening lay on everything.

But within was a difference. There, to say nothing of the soldiers, who,
irritated by Eubank's supervision, hung about the open windows listening
sullenly, the three never ceased to watch and observe one another, ready
to spring, ready to fall back at a sign. Of all, perhaps, Hunt was most
mystified. He knew that in the search which had attended his arrest the
premises had been ransacked from roof to cellar; that every locker and
hiding-place had been laid open and discovered; and that apart from this
Eubank, who had played jackal in many of his adventures, was familiar
with all, even the most secret. Where, then, was Fayle?

He learned only too soon. When it came to closing time, "Your woman is
not in," said one of the soldiers; and he looked at the girl.

"Woman?" said Eubank, with meaning; "I have seen no woman."

"She was here at midday," the man answered, without suspicion.

Perhaps the girl had been expecting it, for she did not blench, though
Eubank's eyes were on her face. "Then leave the door on the latch," she
said; and she added, with fine contempt, "If a wench has a lover you
need not tell the town!"

She went upstairs with that, and Hunt, who was tired and mystified and
in a poor humour--things at home promising to turn out as ill as matters
abroad, went to his den off the kitchen and shut himself in to sulk. For
the use of Eubank and the soldiers two pallets had