nd then at her father.
I thought her eye, as it rested upon me, was not without some
sympathetic feeling. I adored her. All the same I wished to kill her
father. It is very curious when one wishes to kill the father of the
woman one adores. But I suppose the situation was made more possible
for me by the fact that it would have been extremely inexpedient to
have killed the Earl in his sick bed. I even grinned at him.

"If you remember my father, your lordship," said I amiably, "despite
your trying hard to forget him, you will remember that he had a
certain native wit which on occasion led him to be able to frustrate
his enemies. It must have been a family trait, for I seem to have it.
You are an evil old man! You yourself stole my papers!"

CHAPTER VI

At first I thought that my speech had given the aged Earl a stroke. He
writhed on his bed, and something appeared at his lips which was like
froth. His lovely daughter sprang to him with a cry of fear and woe.
But he was not dying; he was only mad with rage.

"How dare you? How dare you?" he gasped. "You whelp of Satan!"

"'Tis me that would not be fearing to dare anything," I rejoined
calmly. "I would not so. I came here with a mind for fair words, but
you have met me with insult and something worse. We cannot talk the
thing. We must act it. The papers are yours, but you took them from me
unfairly. You may destroy them. Otherwise I will have them back and
discover what turned you into a great rogue near the end of your
days."

"Hearken!" screamed the Earl. "Hearken! He threatens." The door into
the parlour flew open, and Lord Strepp and Colonel Royale appeared on
the threshold, their faces blank with wonder.

"Father," cried the young lord, stepping hastily forward, "whatever is
wrong?"

"That!" screamed the Earl, pointing a palsied finger at me. "That! He
comes here and threatens _me_,--a peer of England."

The Lady Mary spoke swiftly to her brother and the Colonel.

"'Tis a sick man's fancy," she said. "There have been no threats.
Father has had a bad day. He is not himself. He talks wildly. He--"

"Mary!" yelled the Earl as well as he was able. "Do you betray me? Do
you betray your own father? Oh, a woman Judas and my daughter!"

Lord Strepp and Colonel Royale looked as if their minds were coming
apart. They stared at Lady Mary, at the Earl, at me. For my part I
remained silent and stiff in a corner, keeping my eye upon the swords
of the other g