Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/29

 through. And I call you to witness that ’tis not so much for the meddling of your own fingers as to secure the weapons out of my own reach, and for the sake of these insolent suspicions.”

“I do you wrong, Ryder,” said the Bishop gravely, “I do you wrong. But I will have none of these detestable things about me.” And he pushed them from him with a little grimace of disgust.

“Why, then, let us begin,” I urged. “And if you will take my mare, I will put us both upon the proper way to a comfortable retirement.”

“And my Lord Petersham,” said the Bishop, with a twinkle in his eye, “must wait?”

“Faith, and he must,” I answered, “until our stomachs are filled, when I will myself conduct you upon the road.”

“Captain Ryder,” said the Bishop, lurching clumsily out of the carriage, “I am much in your debt for your insistence.”

The darkness had now fallen pretty thick, and the snow lay deep and soft underfoot;