the monk by many hundred yards, the elder brother said, in low
tones and very cautiously:

"Have a care, Julian; methinks he is not going home. He is here as
a spy, I do not doubt. I saw him watching and spying like a
veritable messenger sent for such a purpose.

"O Julian, I was right glad at the answer thou gavest him about our
father. I trembled lest thou shouldst say he was bound for the
coast."

Both brothers had been too well trained in the creed which allows
and encourages the practice of speaking falsehood and even doing
evil in a good cause, to feel that any kind of shame attached to a
falsehood spoken to conceal from a crafty enemy a thing it would be
perilous to others for him to know. And indeed diplomatic falsehood
has never been eradicated from the world even since purer light has
shone in upon it. It is very hard to meet craft, falsehood, and
treachery by absolute frankness and truthful honesty. In the long
run it does sometimes prove to be the strongest weapon a man can
wield; but the temptation to meet craft by craft, deceit by deceit,
is strong in human nature, and until a much later date was openly
advocated as the only policy sane men could adopt when they dealt
with foes always eager to outwit them. And certainly these lads
would have felt themselves justified in going to far greater
lengths to save their father from suspicion, or their preceptor and
friend from peril.

"Then thou heardest all? I scarce know why I spoke as I did, for
our father has always been the friend of the brethren of Chadwater.
But the look in the man's eye made me cautious, and I minded a few
parting words spoken by Bertram. Tell me, Edred, what it is that is
stirring; I would know more."

"Verily it is that Brother Emmanuel stands in some peril from those
of his own community. He has written something they mislike, and
they mean to have him back to answer for it. Both he and our father
think that if once he enters Chadwater again he will never come
forth alive. Wherefore our father will not give him up to his
enemies, but will contrive for him to escape. That is what he has
gone to the coast for today; and when he knows that a vessel is
ready and about to sail, Brother Emmanuel must be spirited away in
the dead of the night; and when the prior comes to search for
him--as doubtless he will do when we can find him not--it will
puzzle him to lay hands upon him, for he will be away on the high
seas."

"Good!" cried Jul