f the wooded
country round Chad giving him many advantages. Edred wandered forth
a little way to meet him on his return, and was presently aware of
a cowled figure standing close against a great beech tree, and so
motionless and rigid was the attitude that the boy had to look
somewhat closely to be certain that it was not a part of the tree
trunk itself.

He paused and examined the figure with an intense curiosity not
unmixed with suspicion. His own light footfall did not appear to
have been heard, and the motionless figure, partly concealed behind
the tree, remained in the same rigid attitude, as though intently
watching some approaching object.

For a moment a superstitious thrill ran through the boy's frame. He
had heard stories of ghostly visitants to these woods, some of
which wore the garb of the monks of the neighbouring priory; but he
had never seen any such apparition, and would not have thought of
it now had it not been for the peculiar and unnatural quietude of
this figure. As it was, he paused, gazing intently at it, wondering
if indeed it were a being of flesh and blood.

He was just summoning up courage to go forward and salute it, when
it moved forward in a gliding and cautious fashion. Edred felt
ashamed of his momentary thrill of fear, for he recognized at once
the awkward gait and rolling step of Brother Fabian, and knew that
his preceptor's bitterest foe was lingering in the precincts of his
home.

Resolved not to be seen himself, the boy sprang up a neighbouring
tree as lightly as a squirrel, and from that vantage ground he saw
that his brother Julian was approaching, and that the monk had
stepped out to greet the lad. He heard the sound of the nasal
tones, so different from the refined accents of Brother Emmanuel.

"Peace be with thee, my son."

Julian stopped short, and slightly bent the knee. He looked up into
Brother Fabian's face with a look which Edred well knew, and which
implied no love for his interlocutor. A stranger, however, would be
probably pleased at the frank directness of the gaze, not noting
the underlying hardihood and defiance.

"Alone, my son?" questioned the brother. "Methought I saw thee not
long since with thy father and brother and the servants. How comes
it thou art now alone?"

"I saw thee not," answered Julian, without attempting to reply to
the question.

"Belike no. I was telling my beads out here in the forest. Thou
didst pass me by all unknowing; but I wa