"On my word of sacred honour, I will set you free." "A snap of my finger for your sacred honour, Otho Killigrew," I cried, suiting the action to the word. "Indeed, I very much doubt if you dare to give such evidence as might set me free. Your family is too deeply implicated." "Trust Otho Killigrew for that," he replied scornfully; "I always play to win." "Look you," I said at length, "assuming that the charges you have brought against me are not shown to be worthless before the assizes, and reckoning that an order does not come from Hugh Boscawen to set me at liberty, I might on certain conditions be inclined to make a promise." "What?" he cried eagerly. "I expect that in the ordinary course of things my trial will come off in about a month," I said. "Well, if I am brought to trial, and you give such evidence as will set me free, then when I am out of all danger I might tell you what I know." "You do not trust me?" "Not a whit." "Yet you expect me to trust you." "A Trevanion never yet broke his word, while the promises of the Endellion Killigrews are as brittle as pie-crust." I thought I was fairly safe in making this promise. I should in this case insure my liberty; at any rate, I should give Otho a great incentive to do his best to prove my innocence. Moreover, I had but little to tell, even if I related all the suspicions to which I have referred, and which shall be set down in due order. And even if my information should be the means of placing the maid Nancy in Otho's power, I should be at liberty to act on her behalf. "A month, a month," he said at length, as if musing. "During which time I shall be within the boundary walls of Launceston Castle," I replied. "But if I go to Hugh Boscawen, and prevail upon him to give an order for your release before the trial?" "Of course the promise holds good," and I laughed inwardly as I thought how little I could tell him. "You will tell me where Mistress Nancy Molesworth is?" he cried. "I will tell you where I took her," I replied. "And why you took her away from Endellion?" "Yes." For a few seconds he hesitated as if in doubt. "In three days I will return with an order for your release," he cried. After he had gone, I almost repented for what I had done, for I felt afraid of Otho Killigrew. He played his cards in such a manner that I did not know what he held in his hand. I realized that by telling him who it was that employed me, I might give him an advantage, the full meaning of which I could not understand. True, I should be at liberty before telling him, and thus I had fancied I should be free to take action in the maid's defence. But on consideration I could not but remember that his fertile brain might conceive a dozen things whereby, although I might be free from the charge of treason, I could still be made powerless to render service.