By this we had reached the Secretary's own door. “Fortune favor you with the Paspaheghs!” he said, with another mighty yawn. “As for me, I'll to bed. Do you ever dream, Captain Percy? I don't; mine is too good a conscience. But if I did, I should dream of an Italian doctor.”
The door shut upon his red face and bright eyes. I walked rapidly on down the street to the minister's house. The light was very pale as yet, and house and garden lay beneath a veil of mist. No one was stirring. I went on through the gray wet paths to the stable, and roused Diccon.
“Saddle Black Lamoral quickly,” I ordered. “There's trouble with the Paspaheghs, and I am off with Master Rolfe to settle it.”
“Am I to go with you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “We have a dozen men. There's no need of more.”
I left him busy with the horse, and went to the house. In the hall I found the negress strewing the floor with fresh rushes, and asked her if her mistress yet slept. In her soft half English, half Spanish, she answered in the affirmative. I went to my own room and armed myself; then ran upstairs to the comfortable chamber where abode Master Jeremy Sparrow, surrounded by luxuries which his soul contemned. He was not there. At the foot of the stair I was met by Goodwife Allen. “The minister was called an hour ago, sir,” she announced. “There's a man dying of the fever at Archer's Hope, and they sent a boat for him. He won't be back until afternoon.”
I hurried past her back to the stable. Black Lamoral was saddled, and Diccon held the stirrup for me to mount.
“Good luck with the vermin, sir!” he said. “I wish I were going, too.”
His tone was sullen, yet wistful. I knew that he loved danger as I loved it, and a sudden remembrance of the dangers we had faced together brought us nearer to each other than we had been for many a day.
“I don't take you,” I explained, “because I have need of you here. Master Sparrow has gone to watch beside a dying man, and will not be back for hours. As for myself, there's no telling how long I may be kept. Until I come you are to guard house and garden well. You know what I mean. Your mistress is to be molested by no one.”