Then, looking hard at me, he added,
"Have you ridden from London in that disguise?"

"No," said I, "this gown was lent me by a friend to protect me against
annoyance from the wild men of the town."

His face suddenly turned pale and passionate.

"Then where is the cloak your master speaks of in this letter?"

"The cloak!" I knew from the very first there would be trouble about
that, and I was glad now I had left it behind in the safe keeping of my
comrade at the inn.

"What is my cloak to you?" said I, not relishing the tone of his voice,
"I have given it away to my friend."

"Fool and jackass!" said he, gnashing his teeth, "do you know you have
ruined me and your master by this?"

"No, I do not," said I, "and as for the foul names you call me, take
them back on the instant, or I swear I will ram them down your mouth!"

He took no notice whatever of my wrath, but went on, breaking in on his
speech every now and then with Welsh words which I took to be curses.

"You must get it back at any price," said he. "Lose not a moment!
Where is this friend? Who is he? If he resist you, you must slay him,
so as you get it back. If it fall into the hands of an enemy, you and
I, ay and your master, and all that belongs to you will perish. Ah, the
folly of the man to trust such a missive to this thick-headed blunderer!
What time lost, what labour wasted, what peril run, what ruin on our
holy cause!"

I was well out of temper by this time, and, but that he looked so
miserable and ill-fed, I would have rattled his bones a bit. At last:

"That cloak," said he, coming up to me, "contained papers sent by your
master to me; which, if they be found on any one's person, mean Tyburn.
Do you understand that?"

"Yes," said I, beginning to see the drift of his coil, "and if you had
told me so at first, I had been half-way back to get it by this time.
Heaven is my witness, you are welcome to the cloak if that is what it
contains; and I doubt not my friend will give it up to do you a
pleasure."

"Hasten!" cried he, with tears of vexation in his eyes, "there is not a
moment to be lost--nay, I will go with you. Where did you leave it?
Come!"

"Nay," said I, remembering it for the first time, "I am not very sure
where it was. 'Twas at a river-side inn, about four miles from here."

"And who is your friend? Is he a true man?"

"I know not that either," said I. "He is a valiant man, and hath a dirk
at his girdle; and I p