gale coming," the king said, "and we must be back with
the ships."

Wulfnoth came out into the open and looked round.

"Aye; and tide will be high at the causeway. These spring tides run
wildly at this time of year," he said. "We must be going."

Then was no more delay, but the horns blew the recall, and the men
came in. We had lost none, but I do not think that many outlaws
were left.

They brought a farm horse, with baskets slung across its back in
the Sussex manner, and into them the gold was put. I looked down
into the vault as the men left it, and saw that Relf was there, and
that they had tried every great stone in the walls in search of
another chamber, but that there had not been one. And when he came
up I was about to draw up the ladder after him, and looked down for
the last time.

There at the ladder's foot sat the elvish toad, and it seemed to me
that it looked pitifully up at the light. How many years might it
have been without sunlight or touch of dew or cool green leaves
that it had loved? And I was fain to climb down and take it up in
my hand and set it free on the grass outside the house, where a
dock spread its broad leaves. It crawled under them in haste, and I
saw it no more. Then I found that Spray the smith was watching me,
and he said a strange thing.

"That is a good deed, master," he said. "I think that you shall
never be in prison."

"May I never be so," I answered, wondering.

"I am a forest-bred man," he said, "and I love all beasts," and
then he turned away, and went to the men who were waiting for the
earl's word.

And when all was ready Relf came to me and said that he would go to
his own place with his men, and that he would ask me to take word
to his wife and daughter that all was safe at home. The outlaws had
been too busy in the town to seek further for plunder, or had not
cared to do so at once. So he went, as we started, and I was
pleased with the chance of having speech with Sexberga.

Now there was a moaning overhead as we went through the woods along
the ridge above the valley, and hot breaths of air began to play in
our faces. The clouds raced above us more swiftly, and black masses
of scud drifted yet faster below them from across the hard black
backs of the downs to the westward. There was something strange in
the feeling of the weather that seemed to betoken more than a storm
of wind and rain, and we were silent and oppressed as we marched.

Now we came to the