the hearth was between me and the
Italian, then wheeled and found myself face to face with the King's late
favorite. Behind him was an open door, and beyond it a small inner room,
dimly lighted. He stood and looked at me with an insolence and a triumph
most intolerable. His drawn sword was in his hand, the jeweled hilt
blazing in the firelight, and on his dark, superb face a taunting smile.
I met it with one as bold, at least, but I said no word, good or bad.
In the cabin of the George I had sworn to myself that thenceforward my
sword should speak for me to this gentleman.

"You came," he said. "I thought you would."

I glanced around the hut, seeking for a weapon. Seeing nothing more
promising than the thick, half-consumed torch, I sprang to it and
wrested it from the socket. Diccon caught up a piece of rusted iron from
the hearth, and together we faced my lord's drawn sword and a small,
sharp, and strangely shaped dagger that the Italian drew from a velvet
sheath.

My lord laughed, reading my thoughts. "You are mistaken," he declared
coolly. "I am content that Captain Percy knows I do not fear to fight
him. This time I play to win." Turning toward the outer door, he raised
his hand with a gesture of command.

In an instant the room was filled. The red-brown figures, naked save for
the loincloth and the headdress, the impassive faces dashed with black,
the ruthless eyes--I knew now why Master Edward Sharpless had gone to
the forest, and what service had been bought with that silver cup. The
Paspaheghs and I were old enemies; doubtless they would find their task
a pleasant one.

"My own knaves, unfortunately, were out of the way; sent home on the
Santa Teresa," said my lord, still smiling. "I am not yet so poor that I
cannot hire others. True, Nicolo might have done the work just now, when
you bent over him so lovingly and spoke so softly; but the river might
give up your body to tell strange tales. I have heard that the Indians
are more ingenious, and leave no such witness anywhere."

Before the words were out of his mouth I had sprung upon him, and had
caught him by the sword wrist and the throat. He strove to free his
hand, to withdraw himself from my grasp. Locked together, we struggled
backward and forward in what seemed a blaze of lights and a roaring as
of mighty waters. Red hands caught at me, sharp knives panted to drink
my blood; but so fast we turned and writhed, now he uppermost, now I,
that for very