ed. But now I ran and
got to cover in a thicket close to the rear of the house. A bad place
enough, but I must chance it.

I could hear shouts now from the courtyard. I looked round for a way to
escape, but to reach the woods I had now a long bit of open ground to
cover, and was puzzled. Then overhead I heard a bird rustle, and I
looked up, and at once a thought came to me. The tree was an old,
gnarled ash, and the leaves on it were thick for the time of year.
Moreover, the branches were so large that surely in the fork I could
find a hiding place. And being so close to the hall, search would be
with little, if any, care.

So with a little difficulty I climbed up, and there, sure enough, found
the tree hollow in the fork, so that if I crouched down none could see
me from below, while, lying flat against a great branch, I could safely
see something of what might be on hand.

I was hardly sure of this when men began to spread here and there about
the place, but mostly going in the direction of the woods. I heard
Matelgar's voice, harsh and loud, promising reward to him who should
bring in the outlaw, dead or alive, and presently saw him stand clear of
the palisading, about a bowshot from me.

He was red enough now, but his hand played nervously with his sword
hilt, and once when men shouted in the wood, he clutched it. Clearly I
had terrified him, and if he deemed me, as it seemed, a ghost at first
sight, the token of the arrow had undeceived him, and little rest would
he have now, night or day, while I was yet at large.

So I laughed to myself, and watched him till he went back.

Presently the men straggled in, too. One party, having made a circle,
came close by me, and they were laughing and saying that the thane had
seen a ghost.

"Moreover," said another, "we saw him cross the court slowly enough, and
when we got to the gate--lo! he was gone."

Then one said that he had heard the like before, and their voices died
away as he told the story.

Soon after this the horns were blown to recall all the men, and I knew
that Matelgar must needs, even were it a ghost who brought the war
arrow, lead his following to the sheriff's levy.

Aye, and the following that should be mine as well. The message I had
brought should have been to me as a king's thane, and I myself should
have sent one to Matelgar to bid him come to the levy, even as he would
now send to the other lesser thanes and the franklins round about, in my