“And that's none so far off,” snarled Mr. Green, who since the peppering of his eyes, had flung aside his usual cherubic air. “Oh, you may sneer, sir,” he mocked the prisoner. “But we have you fast. This letter was brought hither by you, and this one was to have been carried hence by you.”
“The latter, sir, was a matter for the future, and you can hardly prove what a man will do; so we'll let that pass. As for the former—the letter which you say I brought—you'll remember that you searched me at Maidstone—”
“And I have your admission that the letter was upon you at the time,” roared the spy, interrupting him—“your admission in the presence of that lady, as she can be made to witness.”
Mistress Winthrop rose. “'Tis a lie,” she said firmly. “I can not be made to witness.”
Mr. Caryll smiled, and nodded across to her. “'Tis vastly kind in you, Mistress Winthrop. But the gentleman is mistook.” He turned to Green. “Harkee, sirrah did I admit that I had carried that letter?”
Mr. Green shrugged. “You admitted that you carried a letter. What other letter should it have been but that?”
“Nay,” smiled Mr. Caryll. “'Tis not for you to ask me. Rather is it for you to prove that the letter I admitted having carried and that letter are one and the same. 'Twill take a deal of proving, I dare swear.”
“Ye'll be forsworn, then,” put in her ladyship sourly. “For I can witness to the letter that you bore. Not only did I see it—a letter on that same fine paper—in my husband's hands on the day you came here and during your visit, but I have his lordship's own word for it that he was in the plot and that you were the go-between.”
“Ah!” chuckled Mr. Green. “What now, sir? What now? By what fresh piece of acrobatics will you get out of that?”
“Ye're a fool,” said Mr. Caryll with calm contempt, and fetched out his snuff-box. “D'ye dream that one witness will suffice to establish so grave a charge? Pah!” He opened his snuff-box to find it empty, and viciously snapped down the lid again. “Pah!” he said again, “ye've cost me a whole boxfull of Burgamot.”