"Nevertheless," pursued Tim, "you will, so please you, think no more of the haystack, but come on to the manor of Modbury; for sure I am that Master Oglander would blame me most severely were I to suffer you to go adrift like a lost creature."
Hartop answered very seriously and firmly: "Were there no other house in all England, my master, I should still refuse to take shelter in the manor of Modbury."
"And wherefore?" asked Timothy in surprise.
"Because," returned the old mariner, "it is in that same house that my bitterest enemy doth live—Jasper Oglander to wit."
"Pooh!" rejoined Timothy. "Jasper Oglander is dead these many years."
"Not so," declared Hartop. "You, indeed, and many others may believe him dead. But in this matter, at the least, I make no mistake; for hark ye, my friend, Jasper Oglander is as much alive at this moment as you or I. You and your young friend may not have known him—how should you?—but 'twas he whom you saw this very day coming ashore from the ship Pearl; he and his wife and his son. If you should see him again,—as I doubt not you will ere many hours be past,—you shall know him by the token that he hath an old knife-cut across his cheek: a cut that was dealt to him by one whom he sought to treacherously murder."
CHAPTER VI
TABLE-TALK AT MODBURY MANOR.