hut; he seemed to avoid even looking within; but merely took
the empty jug of the day before and went away again. He was an old, bent
man, with a face like a limestone cliff, grey and weather-beaten; he
lived half the year up here in the wild Peak country, caring for a few
sheep, and going down to the village not more than once or twice a week.
There was a little spring welling up in a hollow not fifty yards away
from the hut, which itself stood in a deep, natural rift among the high
hills, so that men might search for it a lifetime and not come across
it.

Robin's daily round was very simple. He had leave to make a fire by day,
but he must extinguish it at night lest its glow should be seen, so he
began his morning by mixing a little oatmeal, and then preparing his
dinner. About noon, so near as he could judge by the sun, he dined;
sometimes off a partridge or rabbit; on Fridays off half a dozen tiny
trout; and set aside part of the cold food for supper; he had one good
loaf of nearly black bread every day, and the single jug of small beer.

The greater part of the day he spent within the hut, for safety's sake,
sleeping a little, and thinking a good deal. He had no books with him;
even his breviary had been forbidden, since David, as a shrewd man, had
made conditions, first that he should not have to speak with any
refugee, second, that if the man were a priest he should have nothing
about him that could prove him to be so. Mr. Maine's beads, only, had
been permitted, on condition that they were hidden always beneath a
stone outside the hut.

After nightfall Robin went out to attend to his horse that was tethered
in the next ravine, over a crag; to shift his peg and bring him a good
armful of cut grass and a bucket of water. (The saddle and bridle were
hidden beneath a couple of great stones that leaned together not far
away.) After doing what was necessary for his horse, he went to draw
water for himself; and then took his exercise, avoiding carefully,
according to instructions, every possible skyline. And it was then, for
the most part, that he did his clear thinking.... He tried to fancy
himself in a fortnight's retreat, such as he had had at Rheims before
his reception of orders.

* * * * *

The evening of the twenty-fifth of July closed in stormy; and Robin, in
an old cloak he had found placed in the but for his own use, made haste
to attend to what was necessary, and hurried