ease.

"Come with me to Dethick!" said Anthony again. "I tell you--"

"Well?"

"There'll be time enough to tell you when you come. But I promise you
occupation enough."

He paused, as if he would say more and dared not.

"You must tell me more," said the lad slowly. "What kind of occupation?"

Then Anthony did a queer thing. He first glanced at the door, and then
went to it quickly and threw it open. The little lobby was empty. He
went out, leaned over the stair and called one of his men.

"Sit you there," he said, with the glorious nonchalance of a Babington,
"and let no man by till I tell you."

He came back, closed the door, bolted it, and then came across and sat
down by his friend.

"Do you think the rest of us are doing nothing?" he whispered. "Why, I
tell you that a dozen of us in Derbyshire--" He broke off once more. "I
may not tell you," he said, "I must ask leave first."

A light began to glimmer before Robin's mind; the light broadened
suddenly and intensely, and his whole soul leapt to meet it.

"Do you mean--?" And then he, too, broke off, well knowing enough,
though not all of, what was meant.

* * * * *

It was quiet here within this room, in spite of the village street
outside. It was dinner-time, and all were within doors or out at their
affairs; and except for the stamp of a horse now and again, and the
scream of the wind in the keyhole and between the windows, there was
little to hear. And in the lad's soul was a tempest.

He knew well enough now what his friend meant, though nothing of the
details; and from the secrecy and excitement of the young man's manner
he understood what the character of his dealings would likely be, and
towards those dealings his whole nature leaped as a fish to the water.
Was it possible that this way lay the escape from his own torment of
conscience? Yet he must put a question first, in honesty.

"Tell me this much," he said in a low voice. "Do you mean that this ...
this affair will be against men's lives ... or ... or such as even a
priest might engage in?"

Then the light of fanaticism leaped to the eyes of his friend, and his
face brightened wonderfully.

"Do they observe the courtesies and forms of law?" he snarled. "Did
Nelson die by God's law, or did Sherwood--those we know of? I will tell
you this," he said, "and no more unless you pledge yourself to us ...
that we count it as warfare--in Christ's Name yes--but war