"Which I have won," he repeated. "When the assizes come off I shall have to appear against you. I have only to repeat the evidence I gave to Boscawen, and you will swing."
"Possibly yes, probably no," was my reply.
"What do you mean?"
"Look you," I said boldly; "when I set out for Endellion I imagined the kind of men I had to contend with; when I entered your house I took the measure of your whole tribe. I knew that the Killigrews of Falmouth, before that branch of the family died out, were honest loyal gentlemen, but I saw that the Killigrews of Endellion were——" I stopped.
"What?" he asked.
"I will reserve my opinion," I replied; "but I can tell you this, I did not go like a lamb to the slaughter."
"It seems to me that you did," he replied with a sneer. "True, you seemed to win for a time, and you succeeded in taking away my affianced wife. But what is the result of it? You are in the county jail for treason, and the hangman's rope is dangling over your head."
"As far as that is concerned," I replied jauntily, for I determined to put a bold face on the matter, "my neck is as safe as yours, as you will find out in good time. As for the maid, she is where you will never get her."
"Do not be too sure," he replied; "we have not earned the title of sleuthhounds for nothing."
My breath came freer as he said this. I believed that he was ignorant of the maid Nancy's whereabouts. Probably he had come to me in order to obtain information.