"I saw you with him once at a small inn called 'The Jolly Waggoner.'"
Clegg bowed deferentially, but when he looked up his pale eyes seemed to glow strangely and his pallid cheek was slightly flushed.
"Yes, sir, Captain Danby sent for me to attend him there—I found him in bed exceedingly—unwell. He was—suffering, sir. He suffered quite a—good deal of—pain, sir—of pain."
Saying which, Clegg bowed us out into the street with a deeper obeisance than usual.
"Strange!" said Anthony, taking my arm. "You have probably forgotten this Danby, the fellow I had the pleasure of thrashing, Perry?"
"I shall never forget how you stood on him and wiped your boots,
Anthony."
"I did chastise him somewhat severely, I remember. But I learned something more of his villainy from Barbara, as we drove away, and I returned next day to give him another dose but found him in bed bandaged like a mummy and this Clegg fellow of yours beside him. I learned afterwards that he was friend to that same scoundrel Barbara's father was forcing the sweet soul to marry, damn him!"
"The world seems full of unhanged villains!" said I, through shut teeth.
"Oh, is it, begad?"
"It is!"