y further warning there
had come a tiny indeterminate tapping against his panel. He held his
breath and listened. It came again. Then fearlessly he drew back the
bolts, slid the panel open and shut his eyes, dazzled by the light.

He crawled out at last, spent and dusty. There was looking at him only
the little red-eyed maid whom he had tried to comfort at some far-off
hour in his life. Her face was all contorted with weeping, and she had a
great smear of dust across it.

"What time is it?" he said.

"It ... it is after two o'clock," she whispered.

"They have all gone?"

She nodded, speechless.

"Whom have they taken?"

"Mr. FitzHerbert ... the priests ... the servants."

"Mr. FitzHerbert? They found him, then?"

She stared at him with the dull incapacity to understand why he did not
know all that she had seen.

"Where did they find him?" he repeated sharply.

"The master ... he opened the door to them himself."

Her face writhed itself again into grotesque lines, and she broke out
into shrill wailing and weeping.

CHAPTER IV

I

Marjorie was still in bed when the news was brought her by her friend.
She did not move or speak when Mistress Alice said shortly that Mr.
FitzHerbert had been taken with ten of his servants and two priests.

"You understand, my dear.... They have ridden away to Derby, all of them
together. But they may come back here suddenly."

Marjorie nodded.

"Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam were in the chimney-hole of the hall,"
whispered Mistress Alice, glancing fearfully behind her.

Marjorie lay back again on her pillows.

"And what of Mr. Alban?" she asked.

"Mr. Alban was upstairs. They missed him. He is coming here after dark,
the maid says."

* * * * *

An hour after supper-time the priest came quietly upstairs to the
parlour. He showed no signs of his experience, except perhaps by a
certain brightness in his eyes and an extreme self-repression of manner.
Marjorie was up to meet him; and had in her hands a paper. She hardly
spoke a single expression of relief at his safety. She was as quiet and
business-like as ever.

"You must lie here to-night," she said. "Janet hath your room ready. At
one o'clock in the morning you must ride: here is a map of your journey.
They may come back suddenly. At the place I have marked here with red
there is a shepherd's hut; you cannot miss it if you follow the track I
have marked. There will be meat