The duke laughed aloud.
"That was worthy of Mistress Stair herself," he said, his eyes filled with laughter.
"It all comes to this in the end, John Montrose—if you know anything of women. If ye kill Dandy Carmichael you need never expect to see Nancy's face again. The boy is one of her first remembrances, and his father is almost as dear to her as I am myself. What kind of place are you making with her to kill one who, by all old ties, has become dear?"
"I've no intention of killing him," he said. "I intend to let him have a thrust at me with his sword, and then get him sent from the country for it."
I saw his plan in a minute.
"And suppose I tell Nancy what ye've just told me?" I cried.
He leaned across the table and touched me lightly on the shoulder.
"That is my power," he said, "my knowledge of people. I know your code, Lord Stair, and though I were the greatest scoundrel on earth, 'tis not in you to betray the confidence which I have reposed in you, even to help a friend."
CHAPTER XVI