Master Pory roared with
drunken laughter. "Cup and lip missed that time!" he cried.
The man who had thrown the stone was Jeremy Sparrow. For one
instant I saw his great figure, and the wrathful face beneath his
shock of grizzled hair; the next he had made his way through the
crowd of gaping menials and was gone.
My lord stared foolishly at the stains upon his hands, at the fallen
goblet and the stone beside it. "Cogged dice," he said thickly, "or I
had not lost that throw! I'll drink that toast by myself to-morrow
night, when the ship does n't rock like this d - d floor, and the sea
has no stones to throw. More wine, Giles! To my Lord High
Admiral, gentlemen! To his Grace of Buckingham! May he shortly
howl in hell, and looking back to Whitehall see me upon the King's
bosom! The King 's a good king, gentlemen! He gave me this ruby.
D' ye know what I had of him last year? I" -
I turned and left the door and the house. I could not thrust a fight
upon a drunken man.
Ten yards away, suddenly and without any warning of his
approach, I found beside me the Indian Nantauquas. "I have been
to the woods to hunt," he said, in the slow musical English Rolfe
had taught him. "I knew where a panther lodged, and to-day I laid
a snare, and took him in it. I brought him to my brother's house,
and caged him there. When I have tamed him, I shall give him to
the beautiful lady.
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