A loom of heavy white smoke floating upward from the glen! Nothing but that. A drift of smoke and anon the figure of a man seen between the trees! Another would hardly have remarked the circumstances, but Robert Forrester became awake in an instant and as vigilant as one who dreads that which his eyes discover.
"They are gypsies, by——" he said, "and they have come at this man's bidding."
He knew the meaning of their presence without words to tell him. They had come to demand the freedom of their old master, Georges Odin, whose son had carried them across the seas with him.
"I must answer them," the Earl said, "and if I answer them, what then! Will the other be silent?"
He turned away and shut the window violently, as though to shut the spectre out.
"He would kill me," he said; "the world is not big enough to hide me from Georges Odin."
CHAPTER XV
THE PRICE OF SALVATION
Evelyn met her father at the breakfast table on the following morning; but their brief conversation in no way enlightened her. The Earl, indeed, appeared to be entirely wrapped up in his own thoughts, and the few questions he put to her were far from being helpful.