It signifies little where I lie."

Crispin smiled sadly, and sighed.

"You have no faith in me yet. But I shall earn it, or"--and his voice
fell suddenly--"or rid you of a loathsome parent. Hogan, can you find
him quarters?"

Hogan replied that there was the room he had already been confined in,
and that he could lie in it. And deeming that there was nothing to be
gained by waiting, he thereupon led the youth from the room and down
the passage. At the foot of the stairs the Irishman paused in the act of
descending, and raised the taper aloft so that its light might fall full
upon the face of his companion.

"Were I your father," said he grimly, "I would kick you from one end of
Waltham to the other by way of teaching you filial piety! And were you
not his son, I would this night read you a lesson you'd never live to
practise. I would set you to sleep a last long sleep in the kennels
of Waltham streets. But since you are--marvellous though it seem--his
offspring, and since I love him and may not therefore hurt you, I
must rest content with telling you that you are the vilest thing that
breathes. You despise him for a roysterer, for a man of loose ways. Let
me, who have seen something of men, and who read you to-night to the
very dregs of your contemptible soul, tell you that compared with you he
is a very god. Come, you white-livered cur!" he ended abruptly. "I will
light you to your chamber."

When presently Hogan returned to Crispin he found the Tavern
Knight--that man of iron in whom none had ever seen a trace of fear
or weakness seated with his arms before him on the table, and his face
buried in them, sobbing like a poor, weak woman.

CHAPTER XXII. SIR CRISPIN'S UNDERTAKING

Through the long October night Crispin and Hogan sat on, and neither
sought his bed. Crispin's quick wits his burst of grief once over--had
been swift to fasten on a plan to accomplish that which he had
undertaken.

One difficulty confronted him, and until he had mentioned it to Hogan
seemed unsurmountable he had need of a ship. But in this the Irishman
could assist him. He knew of a vessel then at Greenwich, whose master
was in his debt, which should suit the purpose. Money, however, would
be needed. But when Crispin announced that he was master of some two
hundred Caroluses, Hogan, with a wave of the hand, declared the matter
settled. Less than half that sum would hire the man he knew of. That
determined, Crispin unfolded his