“You are stark, staring mad!”
“Thank you, squire. If I should happen to shoot you accidentally, that’ll let me off.”
James Roque did not think it wise to reply, but drove off hurriedly.
“My friend,” said Penrose, offering his hand, “you have done me a great favor. But for you that man would have carried me to an asylum.”
“What is his object?”
“Unfortunately I am rich and he is poor. As a near relative, he wants to get control of my property. Your brave interference has saved me.”
“Don’t mention it! There wasn’t anything brave about it. The whole pack of them are cowards. Have those doctors ever seen you before?”
“Never.”
“Yet after a mere glance they are ready to pronounce you insane. I don’t believe they are doctors at all.”
“Nor I. They are tools of my cousin. But nothing is easier than to throw a sane man into an asylum on the evidence of such creatures.”