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'I? Why back whence I came. Back beyond the Broad. So if your lordship has any messages or letters for Fletchall or the Cunninghams or the Browns, or any other of the loyal folk up yonder, I'm the man to carry them.'

'Letters?' said Lord William, and he smiled. 'Yet if it were known you came with Kirkland...No, no. Besides, I have no letters for them.'

'If you had you'd find me as safe as the others that have carried for your lordship.'

'For me?' His lordship looked surprised. 'Nay, I have sent no letters. Who says I have?'

'It's what I'm supposing, your lordship. For how else should you correspond?'

'Certainly not by letters,' said his lordship, with the air of a man who knows his business.

'By word of mouth, then. There I'm your man. You'll have some message for them?'

'Why, nothing but to bid them keep the men in good order.'

'But you do not yet sanction them to take up arms?'

'Not yet. Not without they have ammunition in plenty, and think they're strong enough.'

The comely young face of Williams lengthened. 'They're not strong enough, nor have they ammunition in plenty. That I know. Besides, Drayton has been up there preaching sedition to them, and that has thinned their ranks.'