I haven't the slightest knowledge of what it was all about, but evidently our Spanish friend got the worst of it.

He planned to buy me in at the sale; but, fortunately for me, you gained possession ahead of him." "Do you mean to say that he told you all this ?" "It came out in a moment of anger." Fairfax looked at me incredulously.
"See here, Carlyle," he exclaimed bluntly, "I am not questioning your word, but it is a bit difficult for me to understand why a guest of mine should indulge in angry controversy with a government prisoner, sent overseas for sale as an indentured servant.

There must have been some unusual cause.

Haven't I a right to know what that cause was, without using my authority to compel an answer ?" I hesitated, but only for a moment.

He undoubtedly was entitled to know, and besides there was nothing involved I needed to conceal.
"It is my impression, sir, that Mistress Dorothy was the unconscious cause.