how long i might have slept i know not, but the pallid sun that strove to pierce the fog-reek proclaimed high noon when master juggins waked me. he would not listen to my protestations of regret, but directed my attention to the pile of clothes he carried over his arm.

"see, we shall make a 'prentice lad of you," he said. "i have a youth downstairs of about your build, and these are his sunday clothes."

"but what will he do?" i asked.

"why, purchase new gear with a right merry heart."

"and must i in truth wear these!" i demanded with some disgust as i felt their coarseness of texture.

"aye, indeed, master harry."

his tone sobered.

"i have been abroad since rising," he continued, "and forgive me if i say 'twas well for you we met last night. your cousin is come up to london, frantic with fear lest you should succeed in replacing him, and he hath pulled wires right and left, so that all are convinced you are here for no less a purpose than the murder of the king."

i cursed with a fluency conferred by two languages.

"there is no hope of a pardon now," proceeded juggins. "i am not altogether without influence, and i had hoped— but 'tis doubly hopeless. if you were scots or irish, it might be done. but few of the english gentry besides you and master charles rose in the '19. you are a marked man, and with your cousin's interest against you 'twill be impossible even to gain a hearing for you."

"there is naught to do, then, save go back to france and the friends who now distrust me," i said bitterly.

"never say so," remonstrated master juggins with energy. "i have an idea of another course which may commend itself to you. come, don these poor garments, which will none the less cloak you with safety, and join me in granny's morningroom."

the coffee which the old lady poured us in blue-bordered china bowls put new life and hope in me. i settled back in my chair, heedless of my baggy breeches and woolen stockings, and puffed at the long clay pipe which juggins had filled for me.

granny juggins gave me an approving pat on the shoulder.

"that is well, master harry. worry never solved any difficulty. and now i must be going about my duties; but remember that what robert tells you hath my endorsement."

"and what is that?" i inquired in some curiosity as the door closed behind her.

he smoked in silence for several moments.

"i am resolved to take you fully into my confidence, master harry," he began at last, "and i should not do so if i doubted your discretion."

"i shall strive to justify your trust," i said.

"no doubt. 'tis a delicate matter."

he fell silent again.

"did it not seem strange to you that such an assault as you saw last night should have been made upon an ordinary merchant?" he asked suddenly.

"i thought they meant robbery."

"robbery! they never made a demand upon me. they meant murder."

"that is strange," i conceded.

"the truth is, lad," he went on, "i am at grips with a deadly enemy. 'tis a curious story, concerned with high politics, great spoils of trade, intrigues of church and state—mayhap the future of a continent. and as it happens robert juggins is at the hub of it.

"do you think you would like to play a hand—on england's behalf and to checkmate the very foreign influences which sickened you of the jacobite cause? there are reasons why i think you might be of aid to me. i need a strong arm combined with an agile mind, a mind used to french ways and the french tongue."

i would have answered, but he checked me.

"if you accept you must be prepared to fight your old friends, for the enemy i have spoken of is jacobite at heart and works under cover for the return of the pretender through the weakening of england and the paramount influence of france. remember that before you commit yourself.

"you must be prepared for no half-way measures. you have seen how my enemy fights. he does not stop at assassination. if you meet him weakly you will only insure your own death. on the other hand, if your efforts are successful you will have earned gratitude from the government which should secure your pardon."

"even as i told you last night, master juggins, i am for england now," i answered. "if such a plot as you speak of is under way, then surely 'tis for loyal englishmen to thwart it. count me with you, i pray."

"i will," he said quietly. "now hark to these facts. at the instance of myself and my associates in the company of merchant traders to the western plantations, the provincial government of new york several years ago secured the royal assent to a law prohibiting the sale of indian trading-goods to the french in canada.

"our object was twofold. the best and cheapest trading-goods are manufactured in england. if we can keep them to ourselves and compel the french to use more costly and less durable goods made on the continent we shall be able to underbid them with the indians. so the fur-trade will come more and more into our hands."

"is that so important?" i asked curiously.

"'tis all-important, lad."

juggins leaned forward and tapped me on the knee.

"north america," he went on, "is the richest land in all the world—how rich it is or how vast no man knows. 'twill require centuries to exploit it. since first we colonized there we have contended with france, not only for further power, but for the actual right to breath. our two countries can not agree to divide this domain, limitless though it be. sooner or later one must oust the other."

"but the fur-trade?" i insisted, my curiosity now fully aroused.

"aye; the fur-trade is the key to it all. the english settled along the more southerly seaboard, with fertile lands, have devoted themselves mainly to farming. the french in canada, with an inclement climate, have been driven to spread out their settlements in order to find room for subsistence. the english power is limited, but compact; the french is spread all around us. both nations supplement their farming by trading with the savages for furs, and these furs are the principal export from new york to england.

"i said the fur-trade was the key. it is so, because neither the french nor we are yet sufficiently powerful to ignore the strength of the indian tribes. the fur-trade is the source of the savages for securing trade-goods. they will be bound closest to the country which gives them the best terms. if we can deprive the french of the ability to buy their goods as cheaply as we do, then we shall be able to trade to better advantage, with the indians and so increase their friendship for us. at the same time the volume of the provincial trade will be increased."

"i see," i answered. "but you spoke before of a two-fold object in depriving the french of the right to obtain trade-goods through new york?"

"so i did, and that brings me to the enemy whom i mentioned. heard you ever in paris of one murray—andrew murray!"

i shook my head.

"he hath connections with the french, and, too, with the jacobites; but they would be well covered, no doubt. murray owns the provincial fur company of new york, which is the largest of all the trading agencies. he hath set himself deliberately to drive out of existence all the independent traders and secure the entire trade for himself. the trade with the french in canada likewise is in his hands.

"before the provincial government passed the prohibitive law of which i spoke, he carried on this trade openly, and the french traders, helped by a government subsidy, more often than not underbid our traders—using english goods, mind you, for the purpose. and then the french traders would sell their skins in the london market at a lower price than our own traders could afford to charge.

"after the passage of the law, in spite of efforts to enforce it, murray contrived to build up a clandestine means of shipping goods to canada, and while the french are more pressed for cheap trade-goods than they were, nevertheless they are better off than they should be, and our traders are put at a disadvantage. now the time for which the law was passed is expired, and the provincial government hath enacted it again. it comes up this afternoon before the lords commissioners for trade and plantations, when murray will petition for its rejection."

"but surely he will lose," i objected.

juggins shook his head.

"i fear not. the best we can hope for is a compromise."

"yet you say he is in alliance with the french and the jacobites!"

"i say that, master harry, but i can not prove it. remember, even you, who have recently come from st. germain, had never heard of him. moreover, he is hand in glove with the pelhams and all the corrupt officials in whitehall. he hath buttered many a grasping hand, and if he can secure his operations a few years longer he will have laid the groundwork for england's overthrow in the new world.

"i leave to your imagination the effect upon our people at home of a disastrous war with france at this juncture. king george is scarce settled on his throne, and so good an excuse would pave the way for the stuarts' return."

"and murray?"

"so ambitious a man as he must have his object in view. he could ask a dukedom—whatever he willed."

"yes, that is true," i assented. "'tis a dangerous plot."

juggins looked at me keenly.

"you are still desirous to join in thwarting it!"

"more so than ever. but i see not how i can be of service to you."

"if the lords of trade have received the orders i expect, then you can be of great service to me and to your country. for myself, i stand in no worse plight than the loss of some small sums of money, which i can do without at need. my interest is impersonal, master harry, and 'tis because he knows it to be so that murray attempted my life last night."

"let me call him out," i urged impetuously.

juggins laughed.

"then would you climb tower hill in short order. no, lad, you are an humble 'prentice to master robert juggins."

he rose.

"come, you shall have your first lesson. you may attend me to the hearing before the lords of trade, and you shall carry me a bag of papers rather than a sword."

"but so i shall not aid you," i demurred.

"aye, but you shall. i wish you to observe what passes at the hearing, and to study murray. for if he wins his stay, as i fear he will, then it is my purpose to send you to new york for such evidence as will wreck his conspiracy."

"and i will go gladly," i said, a thrill of exultation in my heart at the bare thought of a man's part to play.

"i would i might go with you," sighed juggins. "but i am old and fat, and granny can ill spare me. no, it calls for youth and strength. but a truce to talk. let us to whitehall."

he collected some documents and maps, placed them in a green string-bag and gave it to me to carry.

"and remember," he cautioned me at the door, "do you keep at least two paces behind me. speak only when i speak to you and hold your head low and your shoulders stooped. slouch, if you can. if any address you look stupidly at them and mumble an answer. i will explain that you are slow-witted."

but none of the men who stopped master juggins during our walk deigned to notice the humble 'prentice lad who followed him. i avoided all scrutiny and reached whitehall with considerable more self-confidence than i had started with.

the lords of trade sat in a lofty chamber of a dirty, gray stone building over against the river. at one end was a dais with a long, closed-in desk across it. behind this nodded my lords in periwigged majesty, five of them, two fat and pompous, one small and birdlike, one tall and cadaverous and one who looked like nothing at all.

"that is tom pelham," whispered master juggins, pointing at the last as we took our seats.

but i had already transferred my gaze to an extraordinary creature who stood by a window on the opposite side of the room. it was a black man, squat and enormously broad, whose long, powerful arms reached almost to the floor. he had a square, woolly head, with little, pig-eyes that were studying the people in the room with a kind of animal cunning.

as i watched him, fascinated, his eyes found my face and he surveyed me, apparently without any human interest whatsoever, but as a wild beast might consider a fat stag when too full to care about a kill. he was dressed in a bright-red livery coat with gold lace, and the cocked hat which he held was covered with silver embroidery.

i felt juggins tugging at my arm.

"do you see him?" he whispered.

i shuddered involuntarily, whilst the beady, pig-eyes gloated over me.

"i never saw anything so hideous in my life," i answered.

juggins laughed, as his eyes followed mine.

"no, i meant not the negro. 'twas murray i spoke of. he sits several seats farther on."

i looked as directed and picked out a man who lounged back comfortably in a chair, talking with a group of merchants who seemed to hang on his words. he was elegantly clad, yet very quietly, rather in the fashion of a fine gentleman than a rich trader.

though sitting, he showed himself to be a large man of massive frame. his face was dead-white in complexion, with big features, strongly marked. he wore an immense periwig in the prevailing mode, and there was about him an air of pride and self-confidence. though he must have been middle-aged, he carried himself like a young man or a soldier.

"he is no enemy to be slighted," i said.

"no, he thrives upon opposition; but——"

a secretary rapped for order.

"to the king's most excellent majesty in council," he recited from a document he held, "the humble petition and representation of samuel baker, samuel storke, richard janeway and others, merchants of london, trading to new york, in behalf of themselves and the rest of the persons concerned in the new york trade; which petition, having been considered by his majesty's council, hath been referred, with his gracious consent, to the right hon. the lords commissioners for trade and plantations."

"you will note," whispered master juggins in my ear, "that the name of murray is not included in the list. that was the cleverest move he made. he appears here, not as the principal, which he is, but at the request of these merchants, who are his decoys, and ostensibly in their interest."

the secretary read on for some minutes, and then came to a stop, looking expectantly at their lordships, who promptly awoke from the naps they had been taking.

"you have heard the petition and reference of the council read," gabbled pelham in whining voice. "we will now hear arguments by the opposing sides. who opens?"

there was some hesitation.

"if it pleases your lordships," spoke up a merchant in the group surrounding murray, "we would have the opponents of the petition heard first."

"be it so. who appears against the petition?"

master juggins rose beside me. his arguments were substantially those he had used with me, bulwarked additionally by a mass of facts and statistics. he drew, too, upon several documents in the bag i carried, letters and statements from governor burnet of new york and other merchants of that province. when he sat down it seemed to me that no englishman who thought of his own country's interest could resist the logic of his appeal.

there was a smattering of applause, and then the same merchant who had spoken before introduced murray, with the remark that he had kindly consented to give his opinion, as he had recently come on a visit to london from the province of new york, where he was in residence.

"the gentleman who preceded me," began murray, "and who, i am told, once spent some time in our province many years ago, is unfortunately laboring under a misapprehension of the situation. it is not, my lords, as though we had the misfortune to be at war with france. through the grace of god, the two countries have now been for some years at peace with one another, and their subjects in the new world have striven not to be behind-hand in drawing closer the bonds of trade which in themselves are the best preventative of war."

"hear, hear," cried his supporters.

"there is no difficulty about this matter which we are discussing," he resumed. "we manufacture in this country more goods of a certain kind than we can consume ourselves. these goods are in great demand amongst the savage tribes which inhabit the interior of north america.

"both the french and our own traders have use for these goods in the fur-trade, which is growing to be of increasing worth to the london merchants. the french, by reason of their location on the shores of the great lakes, which stretch like inland seas across our wilderness, have access to the trade of many tribes which we do not reach.

"if we withhold from the french the goods they require for trading with these tribes they will seek them from the manufacturers of the low countries and germany. thus our merchants at home will be deprived of a profitable trade, and we provincials will not be bettered. also, the supply of furs for the london market, much of which comes from the french posts, will be reduced. it seems to me, your lordships, that this prohibitory legislation will only have crippling effects upon trade and hinder the good relations between france and england and their colonies."

he said much more in the same vein, whilst juggins twisted uneasily in his seat and the attending merchants and even their sleepy lordships hung upon his words. for he was a ready speaker. when he sat down there was hearty applause and pelham nodded his head as if to say—

"well done."

but our opponents were not through with us. the merchant who acted as master of ceremonies caused a start of surprize, in which i joined, by bringing forward a handsomely dressed gentleman, whose laced coat and gold-hilted sword showed conspicuously in such drab surroundings.

'twas raoul de veulle; yes, raoul de veulle, whose mad exploits and escapades, love-affairs and gambling-debts, had kept all paris gossiping these past three years and had just driven him into an exile, the facts concerning which had been mysteriously secret. i had known de veulle well—as a dim star of restricted orbit may know a bright planetary light whose radiance reaches beyond his immediate universe. once, in fact, we had come together, clashed over a question of honor in which—but i will tell of that in its place.

now de veulle stood before us, his handsome face smiling, bowing low before their interested lordships. in charming, broken english he repeated his brief message. he had been requested by his excellency the french ambassador to appear in this matter in answer to a plea offered by the petitioners to the ambassador for corroborative testimony to the justice of their assertions from a responsible french source.

he himself—he shrugged apologetically—as it happened was canadian-born; he was just starting upon his way to take up an appointment in the canadian government. he ventured to say he knew whereof he spoke. he agreed unhesitatingly with what monsieur murray had stated. on behalf of the french government and of the canadian authorities he begged to say that such legislation as new york wished to have perpetuated would have most unhealthy effects upon the trade and politics of their two countries. he thanked their lordships for their forbearance, made a second courtly bow and withdrew.

master juggins sprang to his feet, his honest face aflush.

"many of the assertions of master murray and——"

pelham waved him to his seat.

"we have heard enough," pronounced the whining voice. "you have no other first-hand witnesses from overseas!"

"no, your lordships," admitted juggins reluctantly.

"then further talk is fruitless," he went on, while his colleagues nodded their sleepy assent. "we are agreed that there seems to be some difference of opinion concerning this measure. were it not for the fact that his majesty's governor of new york appears to favor the bill, we should consider the case made out against it unanswerable. but in view of governor burnet's approval we are resolved that the matter shall be referred back to him with a request for a full report upon the issues raised, and pending the receipt of this report and a decision being reached his majesty's government will not take action in the premises.

"good relations with the government of his most catholic majesty must be preserved, and the utmost care should be maintained that no injustice be done, however unwittingly, to any of the subjects of the two countries.

"what is the next case for consideration?"

the petitioners, much gratified, flocked around murray and his ape-like servant, and i followed master juggins from the chamber and out into whitehall.

"the scoundrel!" he exclaimed. "but 'twas no more than i had expected."

"and what will happen next?" i asked.

"if i know governor burnet as well as i think i do, murray and his french friends will draw slight comfort from their triumph today."

"why? what can he do?"

"nothing official, 'tis true; but remember he is three thousand miles from london and therefore able to think for himself. with you to help him——"

i felt something brush against my coat sleeve and looked around. i had just time to see the back of a gaudy red coat and a woolly black head, crowned by an ornate cocked hat, disappearing in the crowd.

"do you see?" i said.

"aye," responded juggins grimly; "i might have known it. well, 'tis a lesson in time. we will not forget it."