from his
face, and his robe had shifted from his side; and Ralph saw that his
side was swollen and bandaged, and then his eye fell upon the
gentleman's knee, which was bare, and it was all scurfed and scarred.
And he knew that he was in the hands of the Leper himself.

He drew back with a shudder, but the gentleman gathered his robe about
him, and said with a sudden sternness, "Nay, it were discourteous to
draw back now; and indeed I will compel you to come in." Then Ralph
knew that he was betrayed; but he bethought him of the little star
that he carried with him, and he took it out and held it before him,
and said, "Here is a token that I may not halt." And at that the
gentleman's face became evil, and he gnashed with his teeth, and moved
towards him, as though to seize him. But Ralph saw that he feared the
star. So he went backwards holding it forth; and as the Leper pressed
upon him, he touched him with the star; and at that the Leper cried
aloud, and ran within the house; and there came forth a waft of
doleful music like a dirge for the dead.

Then Ralph went into the wood and stood there awhile in dreadful
thought; but it came into his mind that there could be no turning
back, and that he must leave his precious coffer behind, "and
perhaps," he thought, "the Wise Man will let me adventure again." So
he went on with a sad and sober heart, but he thanked God as he went
for another danger hardly escaped.

And it grew darker now; so dark that he often turned aside among the
trees; till at last he came out on the edge of the forest, and knew
that he was near the end. In front of him rose a wide hillside, the
top of which was among the clouds; and he could see the track faintly
glimmering upwards through the grass; the forest lay like a black wall
behind him, and he was now deathly weary of his journey, and could but
push one foot before the other.

But for all his weariness he felt that it grew colder as he went
higher; he gathered his cloak around him, but the cold began to pierce
his veins; so that he knew that he was coming to the Grey Frost, and
how to escape from it he knew not. The grass grew crisp with frost,
and the tall thistles that grew there snapped as he touched them. By
the track there rose in several places tall tussocks of grass, and
happening to pass close by one of these, he saw something gleam white
amid the grass; so he looked closer upon it, and then his heart grew
cold within him, for he saw t