that they meant to hang you with in the
morning--and I'll fix him up so that he'll neither stir nor speak till
some one lets him loose."

In a quarter of an hour Maurice returned.

"The next thing, Neal, is to get you out of this town. It's full of
soldiers, and there are sentries at every turn, but I've got the word
for the night, and I think we'll be able to manage."

He walked round the room peering carefully at the drunken men who lay on
the floor.

"'Here's a fellow that's about your size, Neal. He seems to be a captain
of some sort, a yeomanry captain by the look of him. I'm hanged if it
isn't our friend Twinely again. We'll take the liberty of borrowing
his uniform for you. There'll be a poetic justice about that, and he'll
sleep all the better for having these tight things off him."

He knelt down and stripped Captain Twinely.

"Now then, quick, Neal. Don't waste time. Daylight will be on us before
we know where we are. Take your own things with you in a bundle. Change
again somewhere when you get out of the town, you'll be safer travelling
in your own clothes. Take some food with you. Here, I'll make up a
parcel while you dress. I'll stick in a bottle of wine. Now you're
right. Walk boldly past the sentries. If you're challenged curse the man
that challenges you. The word for the night is 'Clavering.' Travel by
night as much as you can. Keep off the main roads. Strike straight for
home. It'll be a queer thing if you can't lie safe round Dunseveric for
a few days till we get you out of the country."

CHAPTER XV

Lord Dunseveric and Maurice breakfasted together at eight o'clock on the
morning of Neal's escape. They sat in the room where Lord O'Neill lay,
and had a table spread for them beside the window. It was impossible
to eat a meal in any comfort elsewhere in the inn. Indeed, but for
the special exertions of the master and his maid it would have been
difficult to get food at all. Maurice was triumphant and excited. Since
Neal had not been brought back it was reasonable to suppose that he had
made good his escape out of the town, and there was every hope that he
would get safe to the coast. Once there he had friends enough to feed
him, and hiding-places known to few, and almost inaccessible to soldiers
or yeomen.

Lord Dunseveric asked no questions about Maurice's doings in the night.
He felt perfectly confident that Neal had got off somehow. The details
of the business he would hear later on