se went, "the devil sat
astride of his neck," which meant that some one of his blind wounds was
aching more sorely than usual.

His clerk sat beside him, with account-books and parchment spread upon
the table, and the head squire, Walter Blunt, a lad some three or four
years older than Myles, and half a head taller, black-browed, powerfully
built, and with cheek and chin darkened by the soft budding of his
adolescent beard, stood making his report.

Sir James listened in grim silence while Gascoyne told his errand.

"So, then, pardee, I am bid to take another one of ye, am I?" he
snarled. "As though ye caused me not trouble enow; and this one a cub,
looking a very boor in carriage and breeding. Mayhap the Earl thinketh I
am to train boys to his dilly-dally household service as well as to use
of arms."

"Sir," said Gascoyne, timidly, "my Lord sayeth he would have this one
entered direct as a squire of the body, so that he need not serve in the
household."

"Sayest so?" cried Sir James, harshly. "Then take thou my message back
again to thy Lord. Not for Mackworth--no, nor a better man than he--will
I make any changes in my government. An I be set to rule a pack of boys,
I will rule them as I list, and not according to any man's bidding.
Tell him, sirrah, that I will enter no lad as squire of the body without
first testing an he be fit at arms to hold that place." He sat for a
while glowering at Myles and gnawing his mustaches, and for the time
no one dared to break the grim silence. "What is thy name?" said he,
suddenly. And then, almost before Myles could answer, he asked the head
squire whether he could find a place to lodge him.

"There is Gillis Whitlock's cot empty," said Blunt. "He is in the
infirmary, and belike goeth home again when he cometh thence. The fever
hath gotten into his bones, and--"

"That will do," said the knight, interrupting him impatiently. "Let him
take that place, or any other that thou hast. And thou, Jerome," said he
to his clerk, "thou mayst enter him upon the roll, though whether it be
as page or squire or bachelor shall be as I please, and not as Mackworth
biddeth me. Now get ye gone."

"Old Bruin's wound smarteth him sore," Gascoyne observed, as the two
lads walked across the armory court. He had good-naturedly offered to
show the new-comer the many sights of interest around the castle, and in
the hour or so of ramble that followed, the two grew from acquaintances
to friends with