d. "Sooner would I
never set eyes on the lad again. Let him go his ways as you intended."

"I never did intend it. What trustier messenger could I find now that
I have lent him zest by fright? To win Cynthia, we may rely upon him
safely to do that in which another might fail."

"Joseph, you will roast in hell for it."

Joseph laughed him to scorn.

"To bed with you, you canting hypocrite; your wound makes you
light-headed."

It was a half-hour ere Kenneth returned, booted, cloaked, and ready for
his journey. He found Joseph alone, busily writing, and in obedience to
a sign he sat him down to wait.

A few minutes passed, then, with a final scratch and splutter Joseph
flung down his pen. With the sandbox tilted in the air, like a dicer
about to make his throw, he looked at the lad.

"You will spare neither whip nor spur until you arrive in London, Master
Kenneth. You must ride night and day; the matter is of the greatest
urgency."

Kenneth nodded that he understood, and Joseph sprinkled the sand over
the written page.

"I know not when you should reach London so that you may be in time,
but," he continued, and as he spoke he creased the paper and poured
the superfluous sand back into the box, "I should say that by midnight
to-morrow your message should be delivered. Aye," he continued, in
answer to the lad's gasp of surprise, "it is hard riding, I know, but
if you would win Cynthia you must do it. Spare neither money nor
horseflesh, and keep to the saddle until you are in Thames Street."

He folded the letter, sealed it, and wrote the superscription: "This to
Colonel Pride, at the sign of the Anchor in Thames Street."

He rose and handed the package to Kenneth, to whom the superscription
meant nothing, since he had not seen that borne by the letter which
Crispin had received.

"You will deliver this intact, and with your own hands, to Colonel Pride
in person--none other. Should he be absent from Thames Street upon your
arrival, seek him out instantly, wherever he may be, and give him this.
Upon your faithful observance of these conditions remember that your
future depends. If you are in time, as indeed I trust and think you will
be, you may account yourself Cynthia's husband. Fail and--well, you need
not return here."

"I shall not fail, sir," cried Kenneth. "What man can do to accomplish
the journey within twenty-four hours, I will do."

He would have stopped to thank Joseph for the signal favour of thi