"A very good kind of madness, however," said the other, patting Dick's shoulder. "Now, my lord, will you be so good as to relieve Dent, sending a special messenger from us to the officer commanding, to come as he is, and on peril of our displeasure to alter a rag of his apparel." "Ah, he said it would make you laugh!" Dick observed. The gentleman laughed heartily. "So it does," he said gaily. "So he is Giles, is he? A stable-man, eh?" "Yes, sir," said Dick, "So be it, then," said Giles's master. "And now, will you stay with my Lord Newcastle here till Giles comes?" "May I not ride with the troops to bring him in?" Dick requested. He did not understand the ways of these gentlemen, and was very much afraid of being left alone with any one of them. "By no means," said the gentleman in tawny, shaking his head. "If we find no Giles at Dent, if we find you've been romancing, the Provost-Marshal will want you, youngster. The whipping-post"--he rolled his eyes,--"the stocks, then chased out of the camp." "Nephew," said the gentleman in black, "I beg you will desist. Sir Richard Chester stands in no danger of such things." Lord Newcastle came up to Dick with a friendly smile. "Now, sir, will you go with me?" Dick hung back, and the gentleman in tawny laughed. "He mislikes you, my lord. Hey! he shall choose amongst us. Dick, my gallant, wilt come with me?" "Not I, sir," said Dick promptly, stepping to the side of Giles's master. "I will go with you," he said, taking his hand. Half the people in the room sprang forward as if to drag him back, but the gentleman seemed more pleased than otherwise. He waved back the one in tawny. "Eh, Nephew?" he said; "you cannot say his choice is a bad one. Do not follow me, I thank you." And holding Dick's hand, he walked slowly out of the room. CHAPTER VIII DICK'S DISAPPEARANCE As Dick and his new friend crossed the meadow that divided the farm from Lumley Manor, everyone they met saluted. The people looked after Dick with marked wonder that did not escape him, tired and confused as he felt. He thought Giles's master must be some great lord or other, and that these men wondered at his condescension towards himself. "They don't know who I am," he thought, "nor what Giles and I have done."