"I wasn't spying. I was only--taking a peep, just a little peep at--at the boat." "Boat?" "The _Queen Ruth_," Lawrence dear. "And since you set such store by honour bright and 'oughts,' and all that sort of thing all at once, what business had you to be abroad all in the dark when your father had bidden you go indoors?" She coloured a little. "I did go in," she answered after a moment's silence. "Only--only--" "Only you came out again, that's all," he said with a low mocking laugh. "Ruth, Ruth! what possessed you to do such a thing?" [Sidenote: Changed indeed.] "I was ill at ease, Lawrence," she said, colouring deeper still. "I feared--nay, I do not know what I feared. But I could not stay in the house. Its air stifled me. I could not breathe. I thought--I fancied--nay, something has seemed so amiss with everything--with father and you, Lawrence, with you for these long, long weeks past. I have fancied--" "Psha! Fancies indeed!" he cried with an impatient twitch of his lips, and turning from her, he stood and gazed with lack-lustre eyes into the water. "And you're not a bit like the old Lawrence. And all day yesterday you--never mind. Lawrence, what do those dreadful men want here?" [Sidenote: The bayonet.] He turned his face and gazed broodingly into hers, following the direction of her eyes as they fell again on the contents of the basket. "Bringing their horrid--what is the thing called?" "A bayonet," he answered curtly. "Their horrid bayonets here; and dropping them all over the place?" "Well," he said with a faint smile, "they didn't do that purposely, be sure. 'Twas an accident. A stupid, infernal--" "Oh, Lawrence! Fie, now! For shame, sir!" and Ruth's little hand shut up his lips. "An awkward little mistake, then," he went on, "of that clod-hopping--never mind names, Ruth." "Rumsey," said Ruth; "I heard father call him so--Colonel Rumsey." CHAPTER XI. "HE DIED FOR HIS KING." "Hush!" whispered Lawrence, gripping her fast by the arm, and looking hurriedly round. "And--well, what more did you hear? Tell me the truth now." "Lawrence," she said, timorously following his glance, "I want to tell it you. But 'twas all such a confusion. Just a word here and there; yet, oh, Lawrence! such fearful ones; of their own evil ways, and of--of killing--of killing! Oh! shake your head if you like; but they did, I tell you. And then some one said something about--think, Lawrence--about the king." "Ay?" "And of laying him low upon his own highway. Think of it;" and Ruth shivered in the bright sunshine. "They were full, it seems, of their merry jests, these roystering gentlemen," said Lee. "Nay, I like not such jests; and I'd not have you joining in them, nor my father neither," she said. "Oh! but he's their arch-jester," cynically laughed Lawrence. "We're a merry company, we boys, my dear."