"'Tis a fair return thou art making for his hospitality." "I wonder not at thy surprise." "Surprise! I feel none. 'Tis what I should look for in one of thy name and race. If I was once deceived in thee, I know thee now for what thou art." "What am I?" "A traitor." "Harsh words, my lady! Couldst not choose some gentler name?" "Nay, if I called thee aught else, 'twould be _murderer_." Ingle turned pale. "By what token?" "By that Iscariot badge on thine arm." The man looked down in bewilderment. "Ay, that point convicts thee. 'Tis as though the finger of the Lord were laid upon that emerald tag, and His voice said, 'Thou art the man.'" "Who told thee?" "No man told me; but murder will out, though the deed be wrought in the blackness of midnight and the body of the victim lie hid in the shadows of the forest." "'Tis false. Thou dost but babble to gain time." "'Tis true. Thy very pallor and trembling proclaim it true. Thou didst slay an unarmed man, alone and unprotected in the wilderness. Worse than that, thy victim was a priest of Holy Church, whose very garb should have been sacred to thee." Ingle reddened and spoke more sullenly. "There be many sins heavier than the taking off of a Jesuit." "Ay, there be heavier sins. Shall I name thee one?" "An it please thee." "Then I count it a heavier sin than the committing of a crime to let another be charged with thy deed, and still baser when thou thyself dost egg on his accusers. Thou _Judas_!" Ingle's look darkened, and he grasped her wrist still more firmly. "Thou hast had thy say. Now I will have mine. I will teach thee to call me by a new name." Elinor's lip curled with scorn. "Yes," he went on, "I will show thee what I am, and first of all I am thy master." "A moment since thou wert my slave." "Ay, both slave and master in one; and I am come to take thee with me to a place where thou shalt know me under both guises." "Never!" With her left hand Elinor Calvert pulled a dagger from her belt; but before she had time to use it, Ingle loosed her other hand and seizing Cecil cried, "When thou wouldst see thy boy again, seek the world through for Ralph Ingle." He was gone before Elinor could utter a word; and when she would have rushed after him her limbs seemed made of lead, her outstretched arms fell nerveless at her side, her knees tottered under her, and with her child's shriek of terror ringing in her ears, his pleading eyes still straining toward hers, she fell to earth in a dead swoon. As she fell, Margaret Brent turned the corner of the street, and seeing her believed her wounded, and rushed toward her with open arms, while from the other side Richard Ingle advanced, brandishing a pistol in one hand and a torch in the other. He and Margaret Brent met above the prostrate form. "So you are here," he said; "I thought you were at Kent Fort, and I meant to seek you there. I killed that precious brother of yours."