He was himself again, and calm, for all that his face was haggard beyond its wont.
"Hogan, where is the boy ?" "I have detained him in the inn.

Will you see him now ?" "At once, Hogan.

I am convinced." The Irishman crossed the chamber, and opening the door he called an order to the trooper waiting in the passage.
Some minutes they waited, standing, with no word uttered between them.
At last steps sounded in the corridor, and a moment later Kenneth was rudely thrust into the room.

Hogan signed to the trooper, who closed the door and withdrew.
As Kenneth entered, Crispin advanced a step and paused, his eyes devouring the lad and receiving in exchange a glance that was full of malevolence.
"I might have known, sir, that you were not far away," he exclaimed bitterly, forgetting for the moment how he had left Crispin behind him on the previous night.

"I might have guessed that my detention was your work." "Why so ?" asked Crispin quietly, his eyes ever scanning the lad's face with a pathetic look.
"Because it is your way, I know not why, to work my ruin in all things.
Not satisfied with involving me in that business at Castle Marleigh, you must needs cross my path again when I am about to make amends, and so blight my last chance.