"I have your word for them."
"Yes," he answered; "but it is only a highwayman's word."
"I can trust it."
"These men can be demons when they like, Mistress Pemberthy."
Sophie did not think it worth while to inform the gentleman that her name was not Pemberthy; it could not possibly matter to him, and there was a difficulty in explaining the relationship she bore to the family.
"Why are you with such men as these?" she asked, wonderingly.
"Where should I be? Where can I be else?" he asked, lightly now; but it was with a forced lightness of demeanour, or Sophie Tarne was very much deceived.
"Helping your king, not warring against him and his laws," said
Sophie, very quickly.
"I owe no allegiance to King George. I have always been a ne'er-do-well, despised and scouted by a hard father and a villainous brother or two, and life with these good fellows here is, after all, to my mind. There's independence in it, and I prefer to be independent; and danger, and I like danger. A wronged man wrongs others in his turn, mistress; and it is my turn now."
"Two wrongs cannot make a right."