"Nonsense! There's only one authority around here. Father thinks he's it, but he isn't. I am. You're my prisoner now. Give me your word you won't try to escape—"
"Escape!" Pierce smiled broadly. "I don't much care if I never get out.
Prisons aren't half as bad as they're pictured."
"Then come!"
CHAPTER XXV
"You really must do something for this boy Pierce Phillips." Mrs.
Cavendish spoke with decision.
The newspaper which the colonel was reading was barely six weeks old, therefore he was deeply engrossed in it, and he looked up somewhat absentmindedly.
"Yes, yes. Of course, my dear," he murmured. "What does he want now?"
"Why, he wants his liberty! He wants this absurd charge against him dismissed! It's a shame to hold a boy of his character, his breeding, on the mere word of a man like Count Courteau."
Colonel Cavendish smiled quizzically. "You, too, eh?" said he.
"What do you mean by that?"