"I cannot be certain. I was masked, of course, but he said he thought he did. 'Twas at that moment he fired his pistol at me."
"The dirty scoundrel!"
"M'm—yes. 'Tis that which makes me think he did not know me. Damn it all, Miles, even Tracy would not do a thing like that!"
"Would he not? If ye ask me, I say that Tracy is game enough for any kind of devilry."
"But, my dear fellow, that is too black! He could not try to kill in cold blood a man he had hunted with, and fenced with-and—and—no man could!"
O'Hara looked extremely sceptical.
"Because ye could not yourself, is not to say that a miserable spalpeen like Belmanoir could not."
"I don't believe it of him. We were always quite friendly—if it had been Robert now—But I am not going to believe it. And don't say anything to these people, O'Hara, because they do not know Devil. I gather from what Miss Betty says, that he calls himself Everard. He met the girl—Diana—at Bath; you know his way. She'd none of him: hence the abduction."
"Heavens, but 'tis a foul mind the man's got!"
"Where women are concerned, yes. Otherwise—'tis not such a bad fellow, Miles."