e
fireside and made him sit.

"Listen," he said, as he dropped into the chair opposite. "There is a
fine ship standing in the road below, off Smithick. You'll have seen
her. Her master is a desperate adventurer named Jasper Leigh, who is
to be found any afternoon in the alehouse at Penycumwick. I know him of
old, and he and his ship are to be acquired. He is ripe for any venture,
from scuttling Spaniards to trading in slaves, and so that the price be
high enough we may buy him body and soul. His is a stomach that refuses
nothing, so there be money in the venture. So here is ship and master
ready found; the rest I will provide--the crew, the munitions, the
armament, and by the end of March we shall see the Lizard dropping
astern. What do you say, Lal? 'Tis surely better than to sit, moping
here in this place of gloom."

"I'll...I'll think of it," said Lionel, but so listlessly that all Sir
Oliver's quickening enthusiasm perished again at once and no more was
said of the venture.

But Lionel did not altogether reject the notion. If on the one hand
he was repelled by it, on the other he was attracted almost despite
himself. He went so far as to acquire the habit of riding daily over
to Penycumwick, and there he made the acquaintance of that hardy and
scarred adventurer of whom Sir Oliver had spoken, and listened to
the marvels the fellow had to tell--many of them too marvellous to be
true--of hazards upon distant seas.

But one day in early March Master Jasper Leigh had a tale of another
kind for him, news that dispelled from Lionel's mind all interest in
the captain's ventures on the Spanish Main. The seaman had followed the
departing Lionel to the door of the little inn and stood by his stirrup
after he had got to horse.

"A word in your ear, good Master Tressilian," said he. "D'ye know what
is being concerted here against our brother?"

"Against my brother?"

"Ay--in the matter of the killing of Master Peter Godolphin last
Christmas. Seeing that the Justices would not move of theirselves, some
folk ha' petitioned the Lieutenant of Cornwall to command them to
grant a warrant for Sir Oliver's arrest on a charge o' murder. But the
Justices ha' refused to be driven by his lordship, answering that they
hold their office direct from the Queen and that in such a matter they
are answerable to none but her grace. And now I hear that a petition be
gone to London to the Queen herself, begging her to command her Justices