Once the fellow they call Slippery Seal came boldly to
the shop asking news of you from the apprentice; but the lad had
the wit to reply that he thought you had ceased to lodge here.
Nevertheless I have seen one or another of them skulking about
since then, and it may be they will suspect that you may choose
today for a visit to us."
"And what do they watch me for?" asked Tom, with heightened colour,
but looking at Cale with an air of something almost like defiance,
though his heart misgave him the while.
"Nay, Tom, that is a question you should be able to answer better
than I. If there be no cause of offence against you, why, then, do
as you will, and go where you will. Yet men have ere now been haled
to prison and to the gallows for sins that have been less theirs
than those who set them on."
Tom's face was very grave. He was not afraid of adventure and
peril; but the thought of prison and disgrace--to say nothing of a
felon's death--seemed to paralyze the beating of his heart with a
numb sense of horror. Truly, if this sort of danger dogged his
steps, the sooner he was out of the country the better for himself!
But he would see Rosamund once more, and spend one happy day in her
company. If he went out into the streets, it had better be after
the summer dusk had fallen, when Cale took his daughter home.
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