"You would have gone without a word?"
Barbara hesitated.
"I—I could not bear that Ralph should be taken," she muttered, shy even then, of confessing her fear for his capture too.
He looked down at her for a moment with deep pain in his eyes:
"I see," he said gently; "I—I understand."
She knew that he did not understand but she could not tell him so, and indeed he gave her no time. In an instant he was alert, ready for action.
"No time to lose, Mistress Barbara," he said cheerily. "We must be out of this directly. I'll give your friend a quarter of an hour to tell his tale and return with the guard."
"But how! Where?" she cried desperately. "Ralph can't travel yet."
"He must. You don't know, Mistress Barbara, what can be done when it's a case of do it or hang. Come."
They hurried upstairs, summoned Mistress Fytch, and quickly told their story.