ing to the brothers as
they were breaking their fast.

Lionel should have kept his bed that day, but dared not, lest the fact
should arouse suspicion. He had a little fever, the natural result both
of his wound and of his loss of blood; he was inclined to welcome rather
than deplore it, since it set a flush on cheeks that otherwise must have
looked too pale.

So leaning upon his brother's arm he came down to a breakfast of
herrings and small ale before the tardy sun of that December morning was
well risen.

Nicholas burst in upon them with a white face and shaking limbs. He
gasped out his tale of the event in a voice of terror, and both brothers
affected to be shocked, dismayed and incredulous. But the worst part of
that old man's news, the true cause of his terrible agitation, was yet
to be announced.

"And they do zay," he cried with anger quivering through his fear, "they
do zay that it were you that killed he, Sir Oliver."

"I?" quoth Sir Oliver, staring, and suddenly like a flood there burst
upon his mind a hundred reasons overlooked until this moment, that
inevitably must urge the countryside to this conclusion, and to this
conclusion only. "Where heard you that foul lie?"

In the tumult of his mind he never heeded what answer was returned by
Nicholas. What could it matter where the fellow had heard the thing; by
now it would be the accusation on the lips of every man. There was one
course to take and he must take it instantly--as he had taken it once
before in like case. He must straight to Rosamund to forestall the
tale that others would carry to her. God send he did not come too late
already.

He stayed for no more than to get his boots and hat, then to the stables
for a horse, and he was away over the short mile that divided Penarrow
from Godolphin Court, going by bridle and track meadow straight to his
goal. He met none until he fetched up in the courtyard at Godolphin
Court. Thence a babble of excited voices had reached him as he
approached. But at sight of him there fell a general silence, ominous
and staring. A dozen men or more were assembled there, and their eyes
considered him first with amazement and curiosity, then with sullen
anger.

He leapt down from his saddle, and stood a moment waiting for one of
the three Godolphin grooms he had perceived in that assembly to take his
reins. Seeing that none stirred--

"How now?" he cried. "Does no one wait here? Hither, sirrah, and hold my
horse."