I was able to collect myself within a minute or two, and—“Mark me,” I said firmly, “I will give you up, Wilmer, I will give you up still, if you depart one jot from what I tell you. You will remain in this room for twenty-four hours. By that time Major Wemyss will have done his work, and as the time of the attack has been advanced by a night, what you may have communicated to your people should not change the issue. To-morrow I will release you, and give you two hours start. You will be wise to avail yourself of it, for at the end of that time I shall see Lord Rawdon, make a clean breast of it, and take the consequences. I shall be dismissed, and if I get my deserts I shall be shot; in any case my name will be disgraced. But if I am not to give you up, there is no other way out of the pit in which you have caught me.” He thought for a moment. Then “I will give you,” he said, “my word if you like, Craven, not to pass on any more—” “What, a spy’s word?” I cried—and very foolish it was of me to say it. But the man had brought so much evil on me that I longed to wound him. “No! I’ll have no truck with you and no bargain, Captain Wilmer. It shall be as I have said, exactly as I have said,” I repeated, “or I call in the nearest guard. That is plain speaking.” He shrugged his shoulders. “As you please, my friend,” he said. “But why not open Rawdon’s eyes as to me—when I’m gone? and say no more?” “And leave myself in your power?” I cried. “No! I tell you I will make no bargain with you and have no truck! That way traitors are made!” “I will swear if you like, Major—” “No,” I replied angrily, “if I do this, I will pay for it.” He shrugged his shoulders once more. “Well! it’s your difficulty,” he said dryly, relapsing into his earlier manner. “And it is for you to get out of it.” “Yes,” I said, “and I shall get out of it in my own way and on my own terms.” He did not answer and I turned to go, but I cast my eyes round the place, before I left him. A glance was enough to assure me that a man of his size could not pass through the window, while there was no other way from the room except through the guarded door. I went down to Paton. I must secure his help for I had still something to do. Naturally a lively soul, he was agog with curiosity, which the trouble in my face did not lessen. “What is the trouble, Major?” he asked, taking my arm, and drawing me apart. “And where’s old Snuff and Sneeze?” “He’s in my room and he’s going to stay there,” I said. Then I told him a part of the truth; that I had a clue to a spy, a man in the camp at this moment. I added that I believed Burton also knew the man and might be tempted to warn him, if he were free to do so. That if Burton attempted to leave the house, therefore, he must be arrested; but that I aimed at avoiding this if possible, as I did not wish to estrange the man. “I leave you on guard,” I said. “I depend on you, Paton.” “But I’m on duty, Major,” he objected, “in an hour.”