Balmerino fumed, but he had no answer for that. He could only say,—
“I thought him sure to join, but I can answer for his silence with my life.”
“’T will be more to the point that we do not answer for his speech with our lives,” grumbled Leath.
The Frenchman leaned forward eagerly. “You thought heem to be at heart of us, and you were meestaken; you theenk heem sure to keep our secret, but how are we to know you are not again meestaken?”
“Sure, that’s easy,” broke out O’Sullivan scornfully. “We’ll know when the rope is round our gullets.”
“Oh, he won’t peach, Sully. He isn’t that kind. Stap me, you never know a gentleman when you see one,” put in Creagh carelessly.
The young Highlander Macdonald spoke up. “Gentlemen, I’m all for making an end to this collieshangie. By your leave, Lord Balmerino, Mr. Creagh and myself will step up-stairs with this gentleman and come to some composition on the matter. Mr. Montagu saved my life last night, but I give you the word of Donald Roy Macdonald that if I am not satisfied in the end I will plant six inches of steel in his wame for him to digest, and there’s gumption for you at all events.”
He said it as composedly as if he had been proposing a stroll down the Row with me, and I knew him to be just the man who would keep his word. The others knew it too, and presently we four found ourselves alone together in a room above.
“Is your mind so set against joining us, Kenn? I have got myself into a pickle, and I wish you would just get me out,” Balmerino began.
“If they had asked me civilly I dare say I should have said ‘Yes!’ an hour ago, but I’ll not be forced in.”