he had suppressed; and as Dick turned and left the room, he was filled

with admiration for that rugged fortitude.

"And yet," he thought, "of what use is courage without wit? Had his

hands been clean, he would have spoken; his silence did confess the

secret louder than words. Nay, upon all sides, proof floweth on me. Sir

Daniel, he or his men, hath done this thing."

Dick paused in the stone passage with a heavy heart. At that hour, in

the ebb of Sir Daniel's fortune, when he was beleaguered by the archers

of the Black Arrow and proscribed by the victorious Yorkists, was Dick,

also, to turn upon the man who had nourished and taught him, who had

severely punished, indeed, but yet unwearyingly protected his youth? The

necessity, if it should prove to be one, was cruel.

"Pray Heaven he be innocent!" he said.

And then steps sounded on the flagging, and Sir Oliver came gravely

towards the lad.

One seeketh you earnestly," said Dick.

"I am upon the way, good Richard," said the priest. "It is this poor

Carter. Alack, he is beyond cure."

"And yet his soul is sicker than his body," answered Dick.

The Black Arrow