He repeated the rough question twice before his prisoner answered,
but at length Richard Devine raised a pale face which stern resolution
had already hardened into defiant manhood, and said "Dawes--Rufus Dawes."


* * * * * *


His new life had begun already: for that night one, Rufus Dawes,
charged with murder and robbery, lay awake in prison,
waiting for the fortune of the morrow.

Two other men waited as eagerly. One, Mr. Lionel Crofton; the other,
the horseman who had appointment with the murdered Lord Bellasis
under the shadow of the fir trees on Hampstead Heath.
As for Sir Richard Devine, he waited for no one, for upon reaching his room
he had fallen senseless in a fit of apoplexy.






BOOK I.--THE SEA. 1827.