velous teller of wonderful
tales, and whiled away the time with jests and quips, mile after mile,
till Nick forgot both road and time, and laughed until his sides
were sore.

Yet slowly, as they rode along, it came home to him with the passing of
the land that this was country new and strange. So he began to take
notice of this and that beside the way; and as he noticed he began to
grow uneasy. Thrice had he come to Coventry, but surely never by a road
like this.

Yet still the master-player joked and laughed and pleased the boy with
little things--until Nick laughed too, and let the matter go. At last,
however, when they had ridden fully an hour, they passed a moss-grown
abbey on the left-hand side of the road, a strange old place that Nick
could not recall.

"Are ye sure, Master Carew," he ventured timidly--

At that the master-player took on so offended an air that Nick was sorry
he had spoken.

"Why, now," said Carew, haughtily, "if thou dost know the roads of
England better than I, who have trudged and ridden them all these years,
I'll sit me down and learn of thee how to follow mine own nose. I tell
thee I know the road thou art to ride this day better than thou dost
thyself; and I'll see to it that thou dost come without fail to the very
place that thou art going. I will, upon my word, and on the remnant of
mine honour!"

But in spite of this assurance, and in spite of the master-player's
ceaseless stream of gaiety and marvels, Nick became more and more
uneasy. The road was certainly growing stranger and stranger as they
passed. The company, too, instead of ambling leisurely along, as they
had done at first, were now spurring ahead at a good round gallop, in
answer to a shrill whistle from the master-player; and the horses were
wet with sweat.

They passed a country village, too, that was quite unknown to Nick, and
a great highway running to the north that he had never seen before; and
when they had ridden for about two hours, the road swerved southward to
a shining ford, and on a little tableland beyond he saw the gables of a
town he did not know.

"Why, Master Carew!" he cried out, half indignant, half perplexed, and
thoroughly frightened, "this is na the Stratford road at all. I'm going
back. I will na ride another mile!"

As he spoke he wheeled the roan sharply out of the clattering file with
a slash of the rein across the withers, and started back along the hill
past the rest of the company, who