They have emptied it ere this, I make no doubt, and a single glass of it would set the hardest toper asleep for the round of the clock." An oath was Joseph's only answer--a curse it was upon his own folly and assurance.

A little while ago he had thought to have drawn so tight a net about this ruler, and here was he now taken in its very toils, well-nigh exhausted and in his enemy's power.
It occurred to him then that Crispin stayed his hand.

That he fenced only on the defensive, and he wondered what might his motive be.

He realized that he was mastered, and that at any moment Galliard might send home his blade.

He was bathed from head to foot in a sweat that was at once of exertion and despair.