mitive young animal, with the
instinct of his kind to join with the hunter against the hunted. People
began to gather, quickly, clamoring with question and theory; and upon
these Valerius scowled, biting his nails in fury. The girl raised
herself, crouching close beneath the cross, and looked around her like a
trapped thing, crying:

"A priest! Is there no Christian priest here who will tell this man that
I be safe from him in sanctuary?"

Valerius pulled Nicanor to him.

"Go thou and find one," he said harshly; "for while she sticketh to this
cross I dare not lay finger upon her lest I be torn limb from limb by
fools. He can but give her up; for she is bought and paid for, and it is
not hers to say whether she finds her master to her liking. And quick
with thee, that I may get her where she cannot fly again."

So Nicanor went swiftly through the nearest gate into the yard of the
church, and looked about him for a priest. And it seemed to him that the
more hasty grew his search, the less was it rewarded, for he was in a
desperate hurry to get back and see what followed. Presently, ahead of
him, he saw a priest, whom he knew as Father Ambrose, and he ran to him,
shouting:

"Holy Father, a slave hath claimed sanctuary at the cross by the Street
of the Black Dog, and asketh for a priest to confirm her right."

The good Father kilted up his gown, and together they ran through the
nearest byway to that street. And then, quite suddenly, as they reached
the end of it, Nicanor felt with a shock that he must have mistaken the
place. For although the cross was there, and the wall, and the street
was the Street of the Black Dog, yet there was no sign of the girl, nor
of Valerius, nor of any of those who had gathered to look on. So that
Nicanor turned to Father Ambrose with a face of pure fright, and
stammered:

"But I left them here, upon this spot! Or else I am sure bewitched!"

He looked to right and left and back to Father Ambrose. Father Ambrose
shook his head and said passively:

"It may be that they have arranged the matter among themselves. Let us
return."

He walked off, placid and unstirred; and Nicanor touched the cross to
make sure that it was real and no delusion, and looked into the sky and
around upon the clustered houses, and spoke no word at all. But he knew
quite surely that the matter had not been arranged.

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THE GARDEN OF DREA