eheld the new Beltane glaring down at him fierce-eyed and with great
mailed fist clenched to smite; but even so Black Roger gave not back,
only he drew dagger and strove to set it in Beltane's iron fingers.

"Take this," quoth he, "for, an ye would be free of Roger, first must
ye slay him, master." So Beltane took the dagger and fumbled with it
awhile then gave it back to Roger's hand.

"Roger!" muttered he, his hand upon his brow, "my faithful Roger! So,
men can be faithful--" saying which he sighed--a long, hissing breath,
and hid his face within his mittened hand, and turning, strode swiftly
upon his way. Now in a while, they being come into the forest, Roger
touched him on the arm.

"Master," said he, "whither do ye go?"

"Nay, it mattereth not so long as I can lie hid a while, for I must
sleep, Roger."

"Then can I bring thee to a place where none shall ever find thee--
Come, master!" So saying, Roger turned aside into the denser wood,
bursting a way through a tangle of brush, plunging ever deeper into the
wild until they came to a place where great rocks and boulders jutted
up amid the green and the trees grew scant. Day was breaking, and
before them in the pale light rose a steep cliff, whose jagged outline
clothed here and there with brush and vines loomed up before them,
barring their advance.

But at the foot of this cliff grew a tree, gnarled and stunted, the
which, as Beltane watched, Black Roger began to climb, until, being
some ten feet from the ground, he, reaching out and seizing a thick
vine that grew upon the rock, stepped from the tree and vanished into
the face of the cliff. But in a moment the leaves were parted and Roger
looked forth, beckoning Beltane to follow. So, having climbed the tree,
Beltane in turn seized hold upon the vine, and stumbling amid the
leaves, found himself on his knees within a small cave, where Roger's
hand met his. Thereafter Roger led him to the end of the cavern where
was a winding passage very rough and narrow, that brought them to a
second and larger cave, as Beltane judged, for in the dark his hands
could feel nought but space. Here Roger halted and whistled three
times, a melodious call that woke many a slumbering echo. And in a
while, behold a glow that grew ever brighter, until, of a sudden, a man
appeared bearing a flaming pine-torch, that showed a wide cave whose
rugged roof and walls glistened here and there, and whose rocky floor
ended abruptly in a yawnin