Page:Stevenson and Quiller-Couch - St Ives .djvu/58

 the lawyer. "Suppose by some contingency, at which I make no guess, and on which I offer no opinion"

But here I interrupted him. "One word ere you go further. I am under no parole," said I.

"I understood so much,'^ he replied, "although some of you French gentry find their word sit lightly on them." "Sir, I am not one of those," said I. "To do you plain justice, I do not think you one," said he. Suppose yourself, then, set free and at the bottom of the rock," he continued, "although I may not be able to do much, I believe I can do something to help you on your road. In the first place I would carry this, whether in an inside pocket or my shoe." And he passed me a bundle of bank notes.

"No harm in that," said I, at once concealing them.

"In the second place," he resumed, "it is a great way from here to where your uncle lives—Amersham Place, not far from Dunstable; you have a great part of Britain to get through; and for the first stages, I must leave you to your own luck and ingenuity. I have no acquaintance here in Scotland, or at least "(with a grimace) "no dishonest ones. But farther to the south, about Wakefield, I am told there is a gentleman called Burchell Fenn, who is not so particular as some others, and might be willing to give you a cast forward. In fact, sir, I believe it's the man's trade: a piece of knowledge that burns my mouth. But that is what you get by meddling with rogues; and perhaps the biggest rogue now extant, M. de Saint- Yves is your cousin, M. Alain."

"If this be a man of my cousin's," I observed, "I am perhaps better to keep clear of him?"

"It was through some papers of your cousin's that wee came across his trail," replied the lawyer. "But I am