y? Who can call his
honor his own, when a crown is counted a more sacred thing than a man's
soul?" He paused in silence again and then added almost
banteringly--yet with a note of earnestness, too--"Come, boy, the young
have wary eyes and swift feet. Can you not flee and escape from the
wrath and fear of your uncle the King?"

But Arthur shook his head. "I think when your work is done, dear
Hubert," he said, "the fear of the king and his wrath will trouble me
no more."

Hubert frowned darkly. "That is an old man's creed," he cried. "It is
monstrous that a child should welcome death!"

He turned away from Arthur and fixed his blank eyes in the direction of
Everychild. And presently he lifted his trembling hand to his brow,
and there was the light of a terrible vision in his eyes. He began to
speak like one in a dreadful dream--

"Methinks I see the face of Everychild!" he mused. "Methinks that
always the face of Everychild shall gaze upon me with horror and
contempt because I slew this gentle lad. Nay, by my faith, I will not!"

He thrust Arthur from him. "Go your way!" he cried. "Though there
were a thousand King Johns, it shall also be said that there was one
Hubert de Burgh. If heaven has set no bounds to duty, then I owe a
duty to myself as well as to the king. And if a child must needs teach
me that there are things more terrible than death, then let me learn a
lesson from this child who has the soul of a prince, though he may
never wield the scepter of a king. Go free, boy. King John may have a
thousand murderers, but it shall also be said of him that he had for
chamberlain one who was a man."

With the tread of a soldier, undaunted and unashamed, he left the room.

For a moment Arthur lifted his face with an expression of intense
relief; but little by little his eyes darkened again and his head
drooped.

"He has spared me--yet to what end?" he mused. "I have escaped for the
moment, yet in a few days--on what day none may tell--a new jailor, a
poisoned cup, a summons up a broken stairway in the dark, a ride on the
river in a mist . . . Ah, woe is me! How shall I really escape?"

He stood disconsolate a moment, and then it seemed he saw Everychild
for the first time: Everychild, who came toward him, slowly yet with
assurance.

"You shall come with me," said Everychild.

And the prince replied indulgently, "With you, Everychild? But whither
are you going?"

"I fare forth to find th