"You are forgetting yourself, Sir Denzil," said Eager hotly. "The boy has given his solemn promise in return for his life. Would you have him break it?" And he caught the descending stick with a hand that ached for days afterwards, twisted it deftly out of the trembling old hand, and held it in safe keeping.
"Kennet!" shouted Sir Denzil, "throw this ---- parson out!" And Kennet came from an adjoining room and looked doubtfully at Eager.
"Kennet will think several times before he tries it," said Eager quietly, swinging the stick in his hand.
And then Eager, eyeing the old man keenly, saw that the fit had passed and reason had resumed her sway.
"Your stick, sir!" and he handed it to him with a bow.
"Your servant, sir!" and the stick was flung into a corner, and a shaking hand dived down into a deep-flapped pocket after its necessary snuff-box. "Kennet, leave us! You've been drinking. And you, boy--damme, but you're a good plucked one! Of the right stock, surely. Go down and get something to eat--and here's a guinea for you." And Jim, who had never seen a guinea in his life, gripped it tight in his dirty paw as a remarkable curiosity, and went out agape, with squirming shoulders.
The old white hand shook so much that the snuff went all awry, and brown-powdered the waxen face in quite a humorous fashion.
"Mr. Eager, I apologise--and that is not my habit. But you must acknowledge that the provocation was great."
"Not if you had considered the matter. Would you have a Carron break his pledged word?"
"Ay!" said the old man, following his own train of thought, "a true Carron! Surely that is our man! . . . Well, what do you advise next?"