"No, my friend; if you know that story you must know that I was
Ormerod of Foxcroft House."
Master Juggins was suddenly all animation.
"I know it well," he returned. "You and Charles, your elder brother,
were both out in the '19. Charles died in Scotland, and you escaped
with the remnants of the expedition to France."
"And Foxcroft House was sequestrated to the Crown," I amended
bitterly.
"The Hampshire branch have it now," went on Master Juggins. "They
toadied it through the Pelhams."
"Yes, ---- them!"
I had forgotten my surroundings, forgotten the dingy cobbles of
Mincing Lane, forgotten the strange circumstances under which I had
met this strange person who seemed so intimately versed in my family
history. My thoughts were back for the moment in the soft green
Dorset countryside of my boyhood. I lived over again the brave days
at Foxcroft when Charles had been master and I his lieutenant. But
the moment passed, the memories faded, and my eyes saw again the drab
buildings of the alley and the odd figure of my deliverer--whom I had
first delivered.
"And you, sir," I said. "May I ask how it happens you know so much
concerning the fortunes of a plain Dorset family?"
He seemed not to hear me, standing there in a brown study, and I
spoke to him again sharply.
"Yes, yes; I heard," he answered, almost impatiently. "I was--But
this is no place for discussion. Come with me to my house. I live
in Holborn, not many minutes' walk from here."
Some trace of my feelings must have been revealed in my attitude--my
face he could not have seen in the darkness--for he continued:
"You need not fear me, Master Ormerod. I mean you no harm. I could
not do harm to your father's son."
"But you?" I asked. "Who are you, sir?"
He chuckled dryly.
"You know my name," he answered, "and you heard the watch acknowledge
my civic dignity. For the rest--if you have spent much time in
Dorset you should know a Dorset voice."
"I do that," I assented heartily, "and 'tis grateful to my ears."
"Then be content with that, sir, for a few minutes. Come, let us be
on our way. I have reasons for not wishing to invite a second attack
upon us."
He set off at a great pace, his head buried in his cloak collar, and
I walked beside him, puzzled exceedingly.