"Aye! I thought at first that maybe he'd been thrown; I scoured the Heath for half a mile around, but ... the mist was so thick in the hollow, and there was not a sound.... I'd have needed a blood-hound to track the rascal down."
An exclamation of intense disappointment escaped from the lips of Lady Patience and of Beau Brocade.
"Do you know who it was, John?" queried the latter.
"No doubt of that, Captain. It was Sir Humphrey Challoner right enough."
"Sir Humphrey Challoner!" cried Patience, in accents of hopeless despair, "the man who covets my fortune now holds my brother's life in the hollow of his hand."
Excitedly, defiantly, she once more turned to Beau Brocade.
"Nay, sir," she said, "an you wish me to believe that you had no part in this villainy, get those letters back for me from Sir Humphrey Challoner!"
He drew himself up to his full height, his pride at least was equal to her own.
"Madam! I swear to you..." he began. He staggered and would have fallen, but faithful Stich was nigh, and caught him in his arms.
"You are hurt, Captain?" he whispered, a world of anxiety in his kindly eyes.