"Ay, and that is not all," he continued. "I shall want to know a little more about that matter, my friend. And mind you, Mr. Price, the truth! The truth, or I will wring this tender ear of yours from your head. For the present, however, that matter may wait. I shall have it, when I want it. Now I have other work for you. Come into my room."
"I am going to the tavern," I said desperately. And I hung back. "Afterwards, Mr. Ferguson, I will----"
"Oh, to the tavern," he answered, mimicking me. "And for what?"
"My dinner," I faltered.
He burst into a volley of oaths, and seizing me again by the shoulder ran me into his room. "Your dinner, indeed, you dirty, low-born pedlar," he cried in a fury. "Who are you to dine at taverns when the King's business wants you? Stand you there, and listen to me, or by the God above me, you shall never take meat or drink again. Do you see this, you craven?" and he plucked out his horrible horse pistol, and flourished the muzzle in my face. "Mark it, and remember that I am Ferguson, the famous Ferguson, Ferguson the plotter, and no little person to be thwarted! And now listen to me."
I could have wept with rage and despair, knowing that with every moment this wretch kept me, my chance of fulfilling the appointment at Clerkenwell Gate was passing; and that if he detained me only one half hour longer, I must be late. To the pistol, however, and his scowling, truculent, blotched face that lacking the wig, which hung on a chair beside him, was one degree more ugly than its wont, there was no answer; and I said sullenly that I would listen.
"You had better," he answered. "Mark you, there is a gentleman coming to see me; and to his coming and to what he says to me I will have a witness. You follow me?"
"Yes," I said, looking round, but in vain, for a way of escape.
"And you are the witness. You shall go into that room, mark you, and you shall be as mute as a mouse! I put this little cupboard open, the back is thin and there is a crack in it; set your eye to that and you will see him. And look you, listen to every word, and note it; and keep still--keep still, or it will be the worse for you, Mr. Price!"
"Very well," I said obediently; hope springing up, as I thought I saw a way of escape. "And what time must I be here?"