pear--at midnight, at cock crowing, or in the morning; and
methinks whenever He may come, He would gladly find one soul
holding vigil and waiting for His appearing. Lock the door of the
chantry upon me, my father. Thou canst see that there is but the
one door by which we may come or go. If thou fearest to leave me
here, lock the door upon me until such time as it pleases thee to
release me."

The brother regarded the boy with perplexed looks, and slowly shook
his head, as though such an attitude of mind were wholly
incomprehensible. But he did not oppose his resolve. It would not
do to appear astonished at the idea of keeping vigil. He passed out
of the chantry muttering to himself, and Edred prostrated himself
before the altar, above which the solitary lamp burned clear and
bright, and offered up most earnest prayers for the safety of
Brother Emmanuel, for the failure and discomfiture of his foes, and
for his safe escape when the time was ripe into some country where
his enemies were not like to find him.

How the hours of the night passed he scarcely knew. He might
perhaps have slept at his post awhile, or have remained in a dreamy
and passive state; for it did not seem long before the morning sun
came glinting in at the eastern window, and the boy saw that the
day had come which was to be a momentous one to Chad.

Before very long, sounds of life about, and later on within the
house, warned him that he was not the only watcher now; and feeling
very drowsy and weary, he resolved to creep upstairs and share
Julian's couch for the remaining hours before the working day
should commence.

He had not been locked into the chantry. Perhaps Brother Fabian
felt a little shame in his suspicions, or perhaps he forgot to take
the precaution. The door yielded to his touch, and he found himself
at liberty to go where he would.

But before turning his steps to his room upstairs, he made an
expedition to an outhouse on what appeared to be a curious errand.
It was a dirty, neglected place, and was full of dust and flue and
cobweb. The boy began deliberately collecting masses of this flue
and web, and presently he swept up carefully a good-sized heap of
dust, which he as deliberately placed in a wooden box, and
proceeded to make in one end a number of small holes.

Carefully carrying away this strange load, and bearing it with
great secrecy, the boy mounted the stairs very softly, and put down
the handkerchief in which the flu