"Dear only knows, my chuck; but--mercy me! there's Lionel!" "Who's Lionel?" asked Dick. "He's my sister's son," she explained, "and a man of my Lord Newcastle's." She whisked out of the room, and returned in a minute with a handsome young man in the Newcastle livery. To him she explained Dick's case, whilst the boy stood anxiously by her side. "Simple as swallowing," said Lionel cheerfully at the end of the tale. "Supposing, of course, my young gentleman doesn't mind a bit of masquerading?" "I don't mind anything," Dick assured him hastily. "What you want, sir," said the cheerful young man, "is to stand where the courtiers do pass; but that, sir, mustn't be on the road. You'd have no chance in the throng and amongst the soldiers. You should see them one by one to recognize your friend, eh?" "Go on! Go on!" Dick begged. "Why, then," said Lionel, "to work that, sir, you must be got into His Majesty's lodgings. Now, to-night I am on duty in a passage looking into the hall that the King crosses on his way to Her Majesty's supper-room. My Lord Newcastle sups with Their Majesties to-night, with Prince Rupert, and the Earl of Lumley, and a number of other peers and gentlemen. I'm to wait in this passage, taking with me a lad with a torch, to attend my master home. Now, if the young gentleman isn't above it, and will drop a cloak over his braveries and carry a torch, I'll take him with me instead of one of my Lord's pages. He can go into the town with me unmolested. Now, sir?" "To-night?" said Dick sadly. "Not till to-night?" "Why no," said Lionel. "I'm taking a holiday, you see, sir." He winked at the landlady. "And Susan, you see, sir--Susan--" "Susan's no daughter of me if she looks at you again," interposed the landlady, "should you fail to see the young gentleman through!" Lionel protested that he would. They might depend on him for that. It was Dick's only chance of penetrating that net-work of formalities and customs that surround a king. This was his only hope. He must pass the intervening hours as best he might, and wait patiently for evening. Lionel was a good-natured youth, and Dick's pale-faced anxiety touched him. "See you, sir," he said kindly, "I'll do my best. You shall have every chance. We'll take our stand early, before the supper-hour. We'll be there before His Majesty comes in from the gardens, where he'll be walking if the evening's fine. If your friend's not with him then, we'll hope he'll be there as he goes to supper, and if not then, we'll trust he may be when the King returns. We'll find him, never fear!" "You're a good man, Lionel," said Dick, shaking hands with him heartily. "I'll never forget you. If they--if I fail, you mustn't think I still don't thank you, for I shall. There! There's my purse. Take it all!" He thrust his purse into the young man's hand. Lionel tossed it up to the ceiling, caught it cleverly, and handed it back.