"If you will stay in this room," he continued.
"We will not stir a step," cried Lady Greensleeves. "Make haste, for God's sake!"
"And if you will give me a handful of those yellow boys yonder," he added.
With a cry of joy, Greensleeves swept up a handful of the two little piles of gold, and held it out to him.
"Stay," said the brown lady, closing her palm over the gold in the other's hand. "He shall have it—when he brings the two gentlemen back to us, friends and unscathed."
"That's fair," said Ravenshaw; "so that you give it to me privately, ere they take note."
"Yes, yes!" panted the brunette; and "God's name, haste!" cried Greensleeves; and the captain, without another word, dashed out of the room, and down the stairs.
He ran through the garden behind the tavern, and so by a gate, which the gentlemen had left open, to the fields, which stretched northward to Clerkenwell and Islington. He descried the four gallants near at hand, where they had chosen a clean, level piece of turf. Fortunately, the many noises in the tavern, noises of music, laughter, gaming, and singing, had kept attention from being drawn to the tumult of this affair, and so no one had followed the four gentlemen out. The two who had tried to make peace had now fallen naturally into the place of seconds, and were finishing the preliminaries of the fight, while the adversaries stood with their doublets off, waiting for the time to begin. Just as their weapons met, with a musical ring of steel, the captain dashed in and struck up the rapiers with his own.
"Gentlemen, I am defrauded here," he said, as the combatants stood back in surprise. "I was the first to offend, in the house yonder, and the first to be offended. 'Tis my right to fight one of you first—I care not which—and, by this hand, you shall not proceed till my quarrel is settled!"
"Oh, pish, man!" said the little gallant; "we have no quarrel with you. Our fight is begun; I pray, stand aside, and let us have it out."