the morning.'

'Weren't you afraid?' said Una.

'Why? There were no Christians in the boat. At sunrise I made my
prayer, and cast the gold--all--all that gold--into the deep sea! A
King's ransom--no, the ransom of a People! When I had loosed hold of
the last bar, the Lord commanded the tide to return me to a haven at
the mouth of a river, and thence I walked across a wilderness to Lewes,
where I have brethren. They opened the door to me, and they say--I had
not eaten for two days--they say that I fell across the threshold,
crying: "I have sunk an army with horsemen in the sea!"'

'But you hadn't,' said Una. 'Oh, yes! I see! You meant that King
John might have spent it on that?'

'Even so,' said Kadmiel.

The firing broke out again close behind them. The pheasants poured
over the top of a belt of tall firs. They could see young Mr Meyer, in
his new yellow gaiters, very busy and excited at the end of the line,
and they could hear the thud of the falling birds.

'But what did Elias of Bury do?' Puck demanded. 'He had promised money
to the King.'

Kadmiel smiled grimly. 'I sent him word from London that the Lord was
on my side. When he heard that the Plague had broken out in Pevensey,
and that a Jew had been thrust into the Castle to cure it, he
understood my word was true. He and Adah hurried to Lewes and asked me
for an accounting. He still looked on the gold as his own. I told
them where I had laid it, and I gave them full leave to pick it up...
Eh, well! The curses of a fool and the dust of a journey are two
things no wise man can escape... But I pitied Elias! The King was
wroth with him because he could not lend; the Barons were wroth too
because they heard that he would have lent to the King; and Adah was
wroth with him because she was an odious woman. They took ship from
Lewes to Spain. That was wise!'

'And you? Did you see the signing of the Law at Runnymede?' said Puck,
as Kadmiel laughed noiselessly.

'Nay. Who am I to meddle with things too high for me? I returned to
Bury, and lent money on the autumn crops. Why not?'

There was a crackle overhead. A cock-pheasant that had sheered aside
after being hit spattered down almost on top of them, driving up the
dry leaves like a shell. Flora and Folly threw themselves at it; the
children rushed forward, and when they had beaten them off and smoothed
down the plumage Kadmiel had disappeared.

'Well,' said Puck calmly, 'what did you