They had spent the preceding day together after the sitting was over, and though Logie had opened his heart no more, and their talk had been of the common interests of men's lives, it had strengthened Archie's resolve to end the situation and to save himself while there was yet time. There was nothing for it but flight. He had told the judge that he would try to return, but he did not mean to enter the gates of Balnillo again, not while the country was seething with Prince Charlie's plots; perhaps never. He would remember James all his life, but he hoped that their ways might never cross again. And, behind that, there was regret; regret for the friend who might have been his, who, in his secret heart, would be his always. He could, even now, hardly realize that he had been actually turned from his purpose. It seemed to him incredible. But there was one thing more incredible still, and that was that he could raise his hand to strike again at the man who had been stricken so terribly, and with the same weapon of betrayal. It would be as if James lay wounded on a battle-field and he should come by to stab him anew. The blow he should deal him would have nothing to do with the past, but Archie felt that James had so connected him in mind with the memory of the woman he resembled--had, by that one burst of confidence, given him so much part in the sacred kingdom of remembrance wherein she dwelt--that it would be almost as if something from out of the past had struck at him across her grave. Archie sighed, weary and sick with Fate's ironic jests. There were some things he could not do. The two men had avoided politics. Though Flemington's insinuations had conveyed to the brothers that he was like-minded with themselves, the Prince's name was not mentioned. There was so much brewing in James's brain that the very birds of the air must not hear. Sorry as he was when Flemington met him with the news of his unexpected recall, he had decided that it was well the young man should go. When this time of stress was over, when--and if--the cause he served should prevail, he would seek out Archie. The "if" was very clear to James, for he had seen enough of men and causes, of troops and campaigns and the practical difficulties of great movements, to know that he was spending himself in what might well be a forlorn hope. But none the less was he determined to see it through, for his heart was deep in it, and besides that, he had the temperament that is attracted by forlorn hopes.