Sally Salisbury and
Archibald Dorrimore were working in two different directions, and the
ingenious Jeremy accommodated both. His scheming in Sally's interest had
turned out to his and to her satisfaction, but not so that on behalf of
Dorrimore. The captain had not reckoned upon Lavinia taking flight
before he and his employer arrived on the scene.
The plot of which she was the objective was common enough in those days
of free and easy lovemaking. Merely an abduction. Rofflash had an
intimate knowledge of Whitefriars, not then, perhaps, so lawless a place
as in the times of the Stuarts, but sufficiently lawless for his
purpose. Its ancient privileges which made it a sanctuary for all that
was vile and criminal had not been entirely swept away. Rofflash knew of
more than one infamous den to which Lavinia could be conveyed, and
nobody be the wiser.
The abduction plot had failed--for the present--and Rofflash, to pacify
Dorrimore, went on another tack. In this he was personally interested.
He saw his way to make use of Dorrimore to punish Vane for the
humiliation Vane had cast upon him when they encountered each other on
London Bridge. This humiliation was a double one. Vane had not merely
knocked him down, but had rescued Lavinia under his very nose.
The insult could only be washed out in blood, and the captain had been
nursing his wrath ever since. But he was as great a coward as he was a
braggart, and a fair fight was not to his taste.
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