The Lion's Skin by Rafael Sabatini Read Free Book Online Page B

scornful smile and a curling lip. "You'll disinherit me?" quoth he in mockery. "And of what, pray? If report speaks true, you'll be needing
to inherit something yourself to bear you through your present straitness." He shrugged and produced his snuff-box with an offensive simulation of nonchalance. "Ye cannot cut the entail," he
reminded his almost apoplectic sire, and took snuff delicately, sauntering windowwards.
    "Cut the entail? The entail?" cried the earl, and laughed in a manner that seemed to bode no good. "Have you ever troubled to ascertain what it amounts to? You fool, it wouldn't keep you
in—in—in snuff!"
    Lord Rotherby halted in his stride, half-turned and looked at his father over his shoulder. The sneering mask was wiped from his face, which became blank. "My lord——" he began.
    The earl waved a silencing hand, and turned with dignity to Hortensia.
    "Come, child," said he. Then he remembered something. "Gad!" he exclaimed. "I had forgot the parson. I'll have him gaoled! I'll have him hanged if the law will help me. Come forth, man!"
    Ignoring the invitation, Mr. Jenkins scuttled, ratlike, across the room, mounted the window-seat, and was gone in a flash through the open window. He dropped plump upon Mr. Green, who was
crouching underneath. The pair rolled over together in the mould of a flower-bed; then Mr. Green clutched Mr. Jenkins, and Mr. Jenkins squealed like a trapped rabbit. Mr. Green thrust his fist
carefully into the mock-parson's mouth.
    "Sh! You blubbering fool!" he snapped in his ear. "My business is not with you. Lie still!"
    Within the room all stood at gaze, following the sudden flight of Mr. Jenkins. Then Lord Ostermore made as if to approach the window, but Hortensia restrained him.
    "Let the wretch go," she said. "The blame is not his. What is he but my lord's tool?" And her eyes scorched Rotherby with such a glance of scorn as must have killed any but a shameless man. Then
turning to the demurely observant gentleman who had done her such good service, "Mr. Caryll," she said, "I want to thank you. I want my lord, here, to thank you."
    Mr. Caryll bowed to her. "I beg that you will not think of it," said he. "It is I who will remain in your debt."
    "Is your name Caryll, sir?" quoth the earl. He had a trick of fastening upon the inconsequent, though that was scarcely the case now.
    "That, my lord, is my name. I believe I have the honor of sharing it with your lordship."
    "Ye'll belong to some younger branch of the family," the earl supposed.
    "Like enough—some outlying branch," answered the imperturbable Caryll—a jest which only himself could appreciate, and that bitterly.
    "And how came you into this?"
    Rotherby sneered audibly—in self-mockery, no doubt, as he came to reflect that it was he, himself, had had him fetched.
    "They needed another witness," said Mr. Caryll, "and hearing there was at the inn a gentleman newly crossed from France, his lordship no doubt opined that a traveller, here today and gone for
good tomorrow, would be just the witness that he needed for the business he proposed. That circumstance aroused my suspicions, and——"
    But the earl, as usual, seemed to have fastened upon the minor point, although again it was not so. "You are newly crossed from France?" said he. "Ay, and your name is the same as mine. 'Twas
what I was advised."
    Mr. Caryll flashed a sidelong glance at Rotherby, who had turned to stare at his father, and in his heart he cursed the stupidity of my Lord Ostermore. If this proposed to be a member of a
conspiracy, Heaven help that same conspiracy!
    "Were you, by any chance, going to seek me in town, Mr. Caryll?"
    Mr. Caryll suppressed a desire to laugh. Here was a way to deal with State secrets. "I, my lord?" he inquired, with an assumed air of surprise.
    The earl looked at him, and from him to Rotherby, bethought himself, and started so overtly that Rotherby's eyes grew narrow, the lines of his mouth tightened. "Nay, of course not; of