She had spoken with an angry rapidity that for the moment confounded the stranger; but at this point he lifted himself with an insolent air, and said, “The goods be bought and paid for, madam; and, in faith, I will not buy them back again.”

“In faith, then, I will send for Sir Thomas Swaffham.  A magistrate is he, and Captain Hyde’s friend.  Not one penny of my money shall you have; for, indeed, your goods I will not wear.”

She pointed then to the various articles which Lettice had brought back; and, with the shrug of a man who accepts the inevitable, he replaced them in his pack, and then ostentatiously counted back the money Katherine had given him.  She examined every coin, and returned a crown.  “My piece this is not.  It may be false.  I will have the one I gave to you.—­Lettice, bring here water in a bowl; let the silver and gold lay in it until morning.”

[Illustration:  She stood in the gray light by the window]

And, turning to the pedler, “Your cap take from the floor, and go.”

“Of a truth, madam, you be not so cruel as to turn me on the fens, and it a dark night.  There be bogs all about; and how the road do lay for the next house, I know not.”

“The road to my house was easy to find; well, then, you can find the road back to whoever it was sent you here.  With my servants you shall not sit; under my roof you shall not stay.”

“I have no mind to go.”

“See you the mastiff at my feet?  I advise you stir him not up, for death is in his jaw.  To the gate, and with good haste!  In one half-hour the kennels I will have opened.  If then within my boundaries you are, it is at your life’s peril.”

She spoke without passion and without hurry or alarm; but there was no mistaking the purpose in her white, resolute face and fearless attitude.  And the pedler took in the situation very quickly; for the dog was already watching him with eyes of fiery suspicion, and an occasional deep growl was either a note of warning to his mistress, or of defiance to the intruder.  With an evil glance at the beautiful, disdainful woman standing over him, the pedler rose and left the house; Katherine and the dog so closely following that the man, stooping under his heavy burden, heard her light footsteps and the mastiff’s heavy breathing close at his heels, until he passed the large gates and found himself on the dark fen, with just half an hour to get clear of a precinct he had made so dangerous to himself.

For, when he remembered Katherine’s face, he muttered, “There isn’t a mossel o’ doubt but what she’ll hev the brutes turned loose.  Dash it! women do beat all.  But I do hev one bit o’ comfort—­high-to-instep as she is, she’s heving a bad time of it now by herself.  I do think that, for sure.”  And the reflection gave him some gratification, as he cautiously felt his steps forward with his strong staff.

[Illustration:  Chapter heading]