im up, and
that's my last word to you, Master Quinton Edge."

Half a dozen men entered the hall hurriedly; the girl Esmay must have
summoned them when she had disappeared a few minutes before. Sturdy
varlets they were, clad in green jerkins and armed with ashen lances
pointed with steel. As Constans came afterwards to know, they were of
the personal body-guard of the old Dom Gillian, to whom the boy Ulick
was both grandson and presumptive heir. Now Quinton Edge was not yet
ready to measure swords with Dom Gillian. So he veiled his irritation
and answered, equably:

[Illustration: "THE BLOWS RAINED DOWN UPON HIS FACE"]

"You know the law about harboring a House-dweller, and since you choose
to violate it"--here he shrugged his shoulders detestably--"let Dom
Gillian see to it. Yet, for the sake of peace, I will ask you once more
to surrender this serf, who bears my mark and is legally proved my
property. In the end it may save a mountain of trouble. What say you?"

"No!" thundered Ulick, roundly, for he was angered at the implied
threat, and would have held his ground now out of pure stubbornness.
Whereupon Quinton Edge smiled and sauntered out, adjusting the ruffles
at his wrist and carrying himself as gallantly as though he had been the
victor, not the vanquished, in this little contest of wills.

Constans went up to Ulick and held out his hand. "Thank you," he said,
awkwardly, and Ulick flushed in his turn.

The guardsmen were crowding about the two boys, looking curiously at
Constans. But Ulick ordered them out imperiously, and they obeyed, being
men of slow wit and not used to argue with their superiors. Ulick turned
to Constans. "Well, that was fair enough, to make up for--for the other
thing?"

Constans nodded a hearty assent; he hesitated, and then spoke, steadily:
"But you must understand that I would rather fight again than wear the
iron collar of a slave, or call any one master, even you. You will kill
me, for you are the better man with the naked fist. But I should prefer
it that way."

"Will you leave this with me?" asked Ulick, nodding his head wisely,
and Constans wondered and submitted.

They went out into the breathless noon of an August day. Two or three
men were loitering about, and Ulick frowned as he saw them.

"I shall have to take you to my grandsire," he whispered. "These are
Quinton Edge's men, and they are doubtless under orders to watch us.
This way," and Constans followed obediently