"Was it Trumball you saw, or the new Duke?" said he; and when I did not answer he roared out an oath, and snatching up the pistol which lay on the table beside him, levelled it at me. "Answer, will you? Do you think that I am to speak twice to such uncovenanted dirt as you? Whom did you see?" "No one," I stammered, trembling. "And why not?" he cried. "And why not, you spawn of Satan?" "I received your note," I said. "Oh, you received my note!" he whimpered, dropping his voice and mocking my alarm. "Your lordship received my note, did you? And if you had not got my note, you would have informed, would you? You would have informed and sent me to the gallows, would you? Answer! Answer, or----" "Yes!" I cried in an agony of terror; for he was bringing the pistol nearer and nearer to my face, while his finger toyed with the trigger, and at any moment might press it too sharply. "So! And you tell me that to my face, do you?" he answered, eyeing me so truculently, that I held up my hands and backed to the door. "You dare tell me that, do you? Come here, sirrah!" I hesitated. "Come here!" he cried. "Or by ---- I will shoot you! For the last time, come here!" I went nearer. "Oh, but I would like to see you in the boot!" he said. "It would be the finest sight! It would not need a turn of the screw to make you cry out! And mind you," he continued, suddenly seizing my ear in his great hand, and twisting it until I screamed, "in a boot of some kind or other I shall have you--if you play me false! Do yon understand, eh? Do you understand, you sheep in wolf's clothing?" "Yes!" I cried. "Yes, yes!" He had forced me to my knees, and brought his cruel sneering face close to mine. "Very well. Then get up--if you have learned your lesson. You have had one proof that I know more than others. Do not seek another. But, umph--where have I seen you before. Master Trembler?" I said humbly, my spirit quite broken, that I did not know. "No?" he answered, staring at me with his face puckered up. "Yet somewhere I have. And some day I shall call it to mind. In the meantime--remember that you are my slave, my dog, my turnspit, to fetch or carry, cry or be merry at my will. You will sleep or wake, go or come as I bid you. And so long as you do that--Richard Price, you shall live. But on the day you play me false, or whisper my name to living soul--on that day, or within the week, you will hang! Do you hear, hang, you Erastian dog! Hang, and be carrion: with Ayloffe, and many another good man, that would stint me, and take no warning!" CHAPTER XIV