“This man is my prisoner,” McGillivray tersely explained. “He is to be watched closely, but no harm is to come to him unless he is caught outside his cabin. If he manages to get out of his cabin, if only a foot from the door, he is to be killed. You, Polcher, will be responsible for him. You can command what guards you may find necessary. I give him into your charge, and see to it you can produce him when I send for him.” “Rest easy, your Majesty, that he shall be produced when wanted,” Polcher joyously promised. “Take him away.” Sevier fell in between the warriors and was led out-doors. Polcher walked behind him with drawn pistol. Without glancing back the borderer said— “You’d like mighty well to have me make a bolt for it.” “I’d love to have you,” hissed Polcher. “And some one we both know is a big fool to bother with you for a second. You thought you held the whip-hand after I killed Old Thatch. You reckoned you was through with me when I quit Jonesboro on the jump. But all scores come to a reckoning sometime, and here you are in Little Talassee; and before Winter comes I’ll be back on the Nolichucky burning a few of our old friends. But I promise you Bonnie Kate shall not burn.” With a low groan Sevier gripped his fingers till the nails cut the flesh. Maddened with rage, he still had mind enough to know Polcher was endeavouring to force him into open violence. Then the pistol at his head would crack and the tavern-keeper would be exonerated for killing a refractory prisoner. “Remember this, Polcher. You’re to die by the noose, and I’m going to be the hangman,” whispered Sevier. “Bah!” laughed Polcher scornfully. It was the cabin Jackson had been imprisoned in that they took him to. As he was passing through the doorway a servant, sent by McGillivray, came running up with a roll of blankets. Polcher considered this forethought to be a sign of weakness in the emperor and hurled the roll viciously at the borderer’s head and swung the door and dropped the heavy bar. Pausing outside at the window he softly gibed: “McGillivray is a mad fool. After he clears the way Spain will rule through men like me. I tell you this as I’m positive you won’t repeat it to the emperor. And when I am ruler I shall find a bonnie wife in Bonnie Kate. That is, if I decide to marry her.” Sevier bent and found one of the two knives Jackson had concealed under his pallet of straw and glided cat-like to the window, the knife held behind him. Never suspecting he held a weapon, yet rendered uneasy by the awful anger raging in the blue eyes, Polcher gave ground and saved his life. Keeping the weapon behind him, Sevier contented himself with saying— “You will pay for everything when you pay for your neck.”