"Then good-night. I have much to do ere midnight. But I can trust you? And you can trust your men?"
"To be sure. They will do aught that I tell them."
"Mind, if you betray me or fail me——" this was spoken in a threatening voice.
"I will see that my part is done, if you do yours."
"And I will."
The men separated. Their words conveyed but little meaning to me. That together they had concocted some plan concerning Nancy I was sure.
I saw Otho stand still, as if thinking deeply, after young Peter Trevisa had gone; then he made his way towards the shrubbery through which I had come early that morning. Silently I followed. I ill liked the part I was playing, but I thought of my love, and determined that I would do all a man could. For my love grew stronger each hour, even although I had no hope that she I loved cared aught for me. How my heart hungered for some token of a possible affection for me no words of mine can write. Again and again I tried to comfort myself with the thought that did she not care for me more than ordinary she would never have braved the dangers of helping me to escape from Launceston Castle, that she would not have been so anxious for my welfare. But I remembered again how she had told me that what she had done for me she would have done for any one who rendered a service. Nevertheless, I knew that if she could never care for me, I had still given my life to her, and that until my limbs lay cold in death I must seek to serve her. For when a man who is past thirty really loves for the first time, it is love forever. True, I loved my country, and I had espoused the cause of liberty and truth, because I could not help it, but Nancy's welfare was more to me than these.
Thus I could not help following Otho Killigrew, and although my wound pained me, I knew that strength would not fail.
Presently Otho walked down the very path along which I had come, and made his way towards the door which Nancy had thought secret. Evidently he knew the road well, for he hesitated not. Having reached the door, he knocked three times, just as Mistress Nancy had told me to knock. What did this mean? How did any one know of this?
I did not spend much time in surmising concerning the matter, for I knew that Otho would have many ways of finding out things unknown to most men.