Nothing, madam. You are right, of course. But I
would not speak before reaching Verney Manor."

"Very well."

Landless walked on, bitterly perplexed and chagrined. The strife and
danger of the night, the intoxicating sweetness of the morning hours
when he knew himself believed in and pitied by the woman beside him,
had driven certain things into oblivion. He had been dreaming, and now
he had been plucked from a fool's paradise, and dashed rudely to the
ground. Yesterday and the life and thoughts of yesterday, which had but
now seemed so far away, pressed upon him remorselessly. And to-morrow!
He did not want Roach to be taken. Always there would have been danger
to himself and his associates in the capture of the murderer, but now
when the vindictive wretch would assuredly attribute his disaster to the
man to whom the lightning flash had revealed his presence on the shores
of the bay, the danger was trebled. And it was imminent. He had little
doubt that another night would see Roach in custody, and he had no doubt
at all that the scoundrel would make a desperate effort to save his neck
by betraying what he knew of the conspiracy--and thanks to Godwyn's
lists he knew a great deal--to Governor and Council.

Patricia began to speak again. "It imports much that men should see that
there is no weakness in the arm the law stretches out to seize and
punish offenders. My father and the Governor and Colonel Ludlow believe
that there is afoot an Oliverian plot-- What is the matter?"

"Nothing, madam."

"You stood still and caught your breath. Are you ill, faint?"

"It is nothing, madam, believe me? You were saying?"

"Oh! the Oliverians! Nothing definite has been discovered as yet, but
there is thunder in the air, my father says, and I know that he and the
Governor and the rest of the council are very watchful just now. But
yesterday my father said that those few hundred men form a greater
menace to the Colony than do all the Indians between this and the South
Sea."

They walked on in silence for a few moments, and then she broke out.
"They are horrible, those grim, frowning men! They are rebels and
traitors, one and all, and yet they stand by and shake curses on the
heads of true men. They slew the best man, the most gracious sovereign;
they trampled the Church under foot, they made the blood of the noble
and the good to flow like water, and now when they receive a portion of
their deserts, they call themselves martyrs!