"Yet they be good men, and stanch and true. Thou hast said so thyself a score of times in my hearing, good Jacob. Why should I avoid them now? What have they done amiss?" Jacob passed his large hand across his face, and looked at Cuthbert with an expression of perplexity. "They are Papists," he said at last, in a slightly vague and inconclusive fashion. Cuthbert laughed aloud. "Why, that I know well; and I am not scared by the name, as some of your Puritan folk seem to be. Papists, after all, are fellow men--and fellow Christians too, if it comes to that. It was a Christian act of theirs to take to their home that hunted priest whom we rescued that foggy night, Jacob. Many would have made much ado ere they had opened their doors to one in such plight. Thou canst not deny that there was true Christian charity in that act." "Nay, nay, I would not try to deny it," answered Jacob, in his calm, lethargic way, still regarding Cuthbert with a look of admiration and curiosity, somewhat as a savage regards a white man, scarce knowing from moment to moment what his acts will be. "Yet for all that I would warn thee to keep away from that house. Men whisper that there be strange doings there. I know not the truth of what is spoken. But we walk in slippery places; it were well to take heed to our steps." Cuthbert returned Jacob's look with one equally tinged with curiosity. "Nay now, speak more openly. What dost thou mean, good Jacob? What do men say anent these Coles?" Jacob glanced round and instinctively lowered his voice. "It is not of the Coles alone that they speak; it is of the whole faction of the Papists. I know not what is said or what is known in high places; but this I know, that there be strange whispers abroad." Cuthbert's eyes lighted. A slight thrill ran through him. He recalled the words recently spoken to him by his whilom friends. But all he said was: "Verily men are ever whispering. It was the same cry when I was here a year agone, and no great thing has happened; wherefore this new fear?" Jacob shook his head. His answer was spoken in a slow, ponderous fashion.