ress."

He put so much hatred and scorn into his tones that Geoffrey flamed
up. "Take care!" he muttered angrily.

"That's right!" the prisoner said, laughing dryly. "Draw thy sword
and split our secret open. It will be a fine wedding-day thou'lt have
then. Our way out of this is plain enough. Did not the Baron say that
Father Anselm was to be present at the burning? He shall be present."

"Yes," said the youth. "But how to get out of the pit? And how can
there be a dragon to burn if thou art to be Father Anselm? And
how----" he stopped.

"I am full of pity for thy brains," said Sir Francis.

"Here's the pit!" said the voice of Sir Godfrey. "Bring him along."

"Hark!" said Sir Francis to Geoffrey. "Thou must go to Oyster-le-Main
with a message. Darest thou go alone?"

"If I dare?" retorted Geoffrey, proudly.

"It is well. Come to the pit when the Baron is safe in the house."

Now they were at the iron door. Here the ground was on a level with
the bottom of the pit, but sloped steeply up to the top of its walls
elsewhere, so that one could look down inside. The Baron unlocked the
door and entered with his cowslip wine, which (not being a very
potent decoction) began to be covered with threads of ice as soon as
it was set down. The night was growing more bitter as its frosty hours
wore on; for the storm was departed, and the wind fallen to silence,
and the immense sky clean and cold with the shivering glitter of the
stars.

Then Geoffrey led the Dragon into the pit. This was a rude and
desolate hole, and its furniture of that extreme simplicity common to
bear-pits in those barbarous times. From the middle of the stone floor
rose the trunk of a tree, ragged with lopped boughs and at its top
forking into sundry limbs possible to sit among. An iron trough was
there near a heap of stale greasy straw, and both were shapeless white
lumps beneath the snow. The chiselled and cemented walls rose round in
a circle and showed no crevice for the nails of either man or bear to
climb by. Many times had Orlando Crumb and Furioso Bun observed this
with sadness, and now Sir Francis observed it also. He took into his
chest a big swallow of air, and drove it out again between his teeth
with a weary hissing.

"I will return at once," Geoffrey whispered as he was leaving.

Then the door was shut to, and Sir Francis heard the lock grinding as
the key was turned. Then he heard the Baron speaking to Geoffrey.

"I shall take this