end, "for we are friends, I
know." And so he went into the wood. It was a wood of very ancient
trees, and the dark leaves roofed over the grassy track making a
tunnel. The heavens too grew dark above, and Paullinus heard the drops
patter upon the leaves. Generally he loved well enough to walk in the
woodways, but here it seemed different. He would have liked a
companion. Something sinister and terrible seemed to him to hide
within those gloomy avenues, and the feeling grew stronger every
moment. But he said to himself some of the simple hymns with which he
often cheered his way, and felt again that he was in the hands of God.

Presently he passed a little forest pool that was one of the marks of
his way. Upon the further bank he was surprised to see a man sitting,
with a rod or spear in his hand, looking upon the water. He was glad
to see another man in this solitude, and hailed him cheerfully, asking
if he was in the right way. The man looked up at the sound. Paullinus
saw that he was of middle age, very strong and muscular--but
undoubtedly he had an evil face. He scowled, as though he were vexed
to be interrupted, and with an odd and angry gesture of the hand he
stepped quickly within the wood and disappeared. Paullinus felt in his
mind that the man wished him evil, and went on his way somewhat
heavily. And now the sun began to go down and it was darker than ever
in the forest; Paullinus came to a place where the road forked, and
thinking over his note of the way, struck off to the left, but as he
did so he felt a certain misgiving which he could not explain. He now
began to hurry, for the light failed every moment, and the colour was
soon gone out of the grass beneath his feet, leaving all a dark and
indistinguishable brown. Soon the path forked again, and then came a
road striking across the one that he had pursued of which he did not
think he had been told. He went straight forward, but it was now grown
so dark that he could no longer see his way, and stumbled very sadly
along the wet path, feeling with his hand for the trees. He thought
that he must by this time have gone much further than the distance
between the villages, and it was clear to him that he had somehow
missed the road.

He at last determined that he would try to return, and went slowly
back the way that he had come, till at last the night came down upon
him. Then Paullinus was struck with a great fear. There were wolves in
those forests he knew, t