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Updated: April 30, 2025
Instantly the port-oars held and backed, and the galley, swinging round on her heel, headed up-stream again, passing within fifty yards of Constans's hiding-place. The boy's bow was in his hand, but he had not attempted to fit an arrow to the string. "It will come the time," he said, under his breath. Constans stared gravely after the Black Swan as she drove along.
But the face of the old man gave no sign, no one could have guessed whether he now believed all or believed nothing. Certainly he was proving himself an astonishingly apt pupil, his years of practical experience with the machines admirably supplementing Constans's theoretical knowledge. It was not until mid-day that he gave the order to shut down the engines, and Constans was at liberty.
Constans's heart gave a great bound, for who but Esmay carried her small head with so irresistible a grace. She held out her hands as Quinton Edge reached her side, but he crushed her into his arms and kissed her on the lips. They walked slowly along the terrace, turned the corner of the eastern portico, and disappeared.
"Nanna but just now told me a prisoner Arcadia House you will go to her?" "Yes," said Constans. But Ulick had followed the direction of his eyes and seen that they rested on Quinton Edge. "At once; it must be now else too late." Constans did not answer. "Now!" reiterated Ulick, insistently. "I cannot." "Yes." "I will not." "Yes." Constans's voice was hard; he rose to his feet.
Since then there had been no real intimacy between the families, although the breach had been outwardly healed and formal civilities infrequently passed. A poor prospect, it would seem, for the success of Constans's appeal. But blood is blood, and there was literally no one else to whom he could turn in this his extremity. He let the knocker fall.
But Constans's brow was clouded as he followed in Quinton Edge's footsteps. Arcadia House, and why? There could be but one answer to that question after Nanna's message, conveyed to him through Ulick's dying lips. Esmay had disappeared, and yet had remained in Arcadia House. He, who knew Quinton Edge, would understand. Constans told himself grimly that he did understand.
The rest hour was over and Constans's place was at the tan-pit. How was the work to get done if everybody shirked their part of the common task? A message in a bottle. What foolery was this? Nevertheless, Messer Hugolin extended his hand to receive the roll, and, removing the waxed string that bound it, knit his brows over the enclosure half a dozen sheets of writing.
Constans felt the blood singing in his ears, then a weight suddenly lifted from his brain; his eyes cleared and the fierce joy of conflict captured him. He forced his way to the front, gaining foothold on the barricade. Ten feet away stood Quinton Edge, and Constans's heart was glad. At last! A hand caught at the skirt of his doublet, and impatiently he jerked himself loose.
A black suspicion gathered in Constans's mind as he looked upon her mute agony and misinterpreted it. "What is it?" he asked, with rising anger, but she answered no word. The memory of the ancient betrayal rushed back upon him. "Perhaps another bracelet of carbuncles?" She shrank back as though from a blow.
Piers Major, of the River Barony, spoke decidedly, yet withal not unkindly, for he had been blood-brother to Constans's father, and he liked the boy for his own sake. Constans had gone; to him last of all; unconsciously he had been counting upon his support, whatever else failed, and to be repulsed in this quarter was bitter indeed.
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