, with a step backward. »I am
equally obliged. But I must decidedly beg to be excused from anything of that
sort.«
    »You won't have a lawyer?«
    »No, sir.« Mr. George shook his head in the most emphatic manner. »I thank
you all the same, sir, but - no lawyer!«
    »Why not?«
    »I don't take kindly to the breed,« said Mr. George. »Gridley didn't. And -
if you'll excuse my saying so much - I should hardly have thought you did
yourself, sir.«
    »That's Equity,« my guardian explained, a little at a loss; »that's Equity,
George.«
    »Is it, indeed, sir?« returned the trooper, in his off-hand manner. »I am
not acquainted with those shades of names myself, but in a general way I object
to the breed.«
    Unfolding his arms, and changing his position, he stood with one massive
hand upon the table, and the other on his hip, as complete a picture of a man
who was not to be moved from a fixed purpose as ever I saw. It was in vain that
we all three talked to him, and endeavoured to persuade him; he listened with
that gentleness which went so well with his bluff bearing, but was evidently no
more shaken by our representations than his place of confinement was.
    »Pray think, once more, Mr. George,« said I. »Have you no wish, in reference
to your case?«
    »I certainly could wish it to be tried, miss,« he returned, »by
court-martial; but that is out of the question, as I am well aware. If you will
be so good as to favour me with your attention for a couple of minutes, miss,
not more, I'll endeavour to explain myself as clearly as I can.«
    He looked at us all three in turn, shook his head a little as if he were
adjusting it in the stock and collar of a tight uniform, and after a moment's
reflection went on.
    »You see, miss, I have been handcuffed and taken into custody, and brought
here. I am a marked and disgraced man, and here I am. My shooting-gallery is
rummaged, high and low, by Bucket; such property as I have - 'tis small - is
turned this way and that, till it don't know
