"Kill yerself! 'Deed you will, Marse Le! Drinkin' so much strong coffee an' a-puckerin' ob yer stummick up, 'stead o' fillin' ob it out wid bread and meat! Kill yerse'f! 'Deed yer will!" said Martha, as at last she cleared the table and left the room. "Yes, sah! Dere he is in de little parlor!" Le heard her say, as she passed through the hall, to some one at the front door. And in another moment the room door was thrown open, and Roland Bayard appeared. "Well?" demanded Le, excitedly, as he started up to meet his friend. "Well, I can't find the sneak! I believe he has cut and run, that's what I believe!" exclaimed Roland, snatching his hat from his head, flinging it angrily on the floor, and throwing himself into a chair. "What!" cried Le, facing him. "I say the beat has beat a retreat!" "What do you mean?" inquired Le. Then Roland, having recovered his breath, told Le the story of his fruitless adventure at the Calvert House. "He keeps out of the way on purpose; but he shall not escape me!" exclaimed Le, drawing his breath hard. "I only came to report to you and take orders for the next step," said Roland. "He still retains his room at the Calvert?" inquired Le. "Oh, yes! And all his effects are there." "Then, dear boy, go back at once to the Calvert, and stay there until he returns, and then give him my note. Take up your lodgings at the house, if need be, until you discharge your mission," said Le. "Yes--yes--certainly--with pleasure--but----" "But what?" "If you could lend me the loan of a strong pair of boots, or, better still, a good saddle horse, it might help the cause a little," replied Roland, laughingly extending both his feet to exhibit his own battered "Wellingtons." "What a beast I am!" cried Le, smiting his forehead with his open palm in self-disgust. "You have walked all this distance in my cause, while I have a dozen horses turning to stone for want of exercise in the stables there." And he snatched up an iron hand bell, that might have served for a country church or a steamboat, and rang it loudly. Old Luke put in his gray head at the door. "Saddle Jasper for Mr. Bayard, and bring him around to the door." "Yes, sah! Yere's two ge'men axing for yer, Marse Le," said the old man. "Two gentlemen? Who are they? Let them come in," said Le. And, even as he spoke, two men entered the parlor, and, each laying a hand on the shoulder of the youth, said: "You are my prisoner! Yield quietly. It will be best." CHAPTER XXXIII THE ARREST Leonidas Force and Roland Bayard indignantly threw off the detaining hands, and stared haughtily at their captors. "Take it easy, young gentlemen, and you shall be treated as such," said old Tom Bowen, a grave, gray-haired, most respectable old man, an elder in the church and county constable for many years.