and drink there. At night the shepherd
will come from the westwards; he is called David, and you may trust him.
You must lie there two weeks at least."

"I must have news of the other priests," he said.

Marjorie bowed her head.

"I will send a letter to you by Dick Sampson at the end of two weeks.
Until that I can promise nothing. They may have spies round the house by
this time to-morrow, or even earlier. And I will send in that letter any
news I can get from Derby."

"How shall I find my way?" asked Robin.

"Until it is light you will be on ground that you know." (She flushed
slightly.) "Do you remember the hawking, that time after Christmas? It
is all across that ground. When daylight comes you can follow this map."
(She named one or two landmarks, pointing to them on the map.) "You must
have no lantern."

They talked a few minutes longer as to the way he must go and the
provision that would be ready for him. He must take no mass requisites
with him. David had made that a condition. Then Robin suddenly changed
the subject.

"Had my father any hand in this affair at Padley?"

"I am certain he had not."

"They will execute Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam, will they not?"

She bowed her head in assent.

"The Summer Assizes open on the eighteenth," she said. "There is no
doubt as to how all will go."

Robin rose.

"It is time I were in bed," he said, "if I must ride at one."

The two women knelt for his blessing.

At one o'clock Marjorie heard the horse brought round. She stepped
softly to the window, knowing herself to be invisible, and peeped out.

All was as she had ordered. There was no light of any kind: she could
make out but dimly in the summer darkness the two figures of horse and
groom. As she looked, a third figure appeared beneath; but there was no
word spoken that she could hear. This third figure mounted. She caught
her breath as she heard the horse scurry a little with freshness, since
every sound seemed full of peril. Then the mounted figure faded one way
into the dark, and the groom another.

II

It was two weeks to the day that Robin received his letter.

* * * * *

He had never before been so long in utter solitude; for the visits of
David did not break it; and, for other men, he saw none except a
hog-herd or two in the distance once or twice. The shepherd came but
once a day, carrying a great jug and a parcel of food, and set them down
without the