"The devil I know or care, your Grace!" Cassel answered. "Except that I came into your house with no good-will, and if I could have found the door should not have outstayed my welcome."
"I believe it," said my lord drily, "if I believe nothing else. But you have lost the throw. And that being so, may I beg that you will descend again? I am loth to use force in my own house, Mr. Cassel, and to call the servants would prejudice your case. If you are wise, therefore, I think that you will see the wisdom of retiring quietly."
"Have no fear, I will go," the man answered with sufficient coolness. "I should not have come up, but that I saw that Square-toes there smuggle out the girl, and as no one was looking it seemed natural to follow."
"Oh!" said the Duke, flashing a glance at me that loosened my knee-joints. "He smuggled her out, did he?"
"He could not do much less," the conspirator answered. "She saved his life yesterday."
"Ay, when Ferguson would have hung him like a dog! And not far wrong either! But mum! I am talking. And save him or no, I did not think the creature had the spunk to do the thing. No, I did not."
"Ah!" said my lord, looking at him attentively.
"No, and as for the wench, your Grace----" and with the word Cassel dropped his voice, "she is no more than a child. You have enough. It is all over. _Sacré nom de Dieu_, let her go, my lord. Let the girl go."
The Duke raised his eyebrows. "I see no girl," said he, slowly. "Of whom are you talking, Mr. Cassel?"
I do not know who was more astonished at that, Cassel or I. True, the girl was gone; for a moment before, the Duke's back being half-turned, she had slipped into a doorway a couple of paces away, and there I could hear her breathing even now. But that my lord had failed to detect the movement I could no more believe than that he had failed to see the girl two minutes before, when, as clearly as I ever saw anything in my life, I had seen him examine her features.
Nevertheless, "I see no girl," he repeated coolly. "But I see you, Mr. Cassel; and as the alarm maybe given at any moment, and I do not choose to be found with you, I must beg of you to descend at once. Do you, sir," he continued, addressing me sharply, "go with him, and when you have taken him back to the hall bring me the key of the door."