g."

"Night is upon us, too," said the minister, "and this place hath the
look of the very valley of the shadow of death. If the spirits walk, it
is hard upon their time--and I prefer to walk elsewhere."

"Cease your laughter, madam," I said. "Should a boat be coming up this
stream, you would betray us."

I went over to Diccon, and in a silence as grim as his own cut the rope
which bound his hands, which done we all moved through the deepening
gloom to where we had left the horses, Jeremy Sparrow going on ahead to
have them in readiness. Presently he came hurrying back. "The Italian is
gone!" he cried.

"Gone!" I exclaimed. "I told you to tie him fast to the saddle!"

"Why, so I did," he replied. "I drew the thongs so tight that they cut
into his flesh. He could not have endured to pull against them."

"Then how did he get away?"

"Why," he answered, with a rueful countenance, "I did bind him, as I
have said; but when I had done so, I bethought me of how the leather
must cut, and of how pain is dreadful even to a snake, and of the
injunction to do as you would be done by, and so e'en loosened his
bonds. But, as I am a christened man, I thought that they would yet hold
him fast!"

I began to swear, but ended in vexed laughter. "The milk's spilt. There
's no use in crying over it. After all, we must have loosed him before
we entered the town."

"Will you not bring the matter before the Governor?" he asked.

I shook my head. "If Yeardley did me right, he would put in jeopardy his
office and his person. This is my private quarrel, and I will draw no
man into it against his will. Here are the horses, and we had best be
gone, for by this time my lord and his physician may have their heads
together again."

I mounted Black Lamoral, and lifted Mistress Percy to a seat behind me.
The brown mare bore the minister and the negress, and Diccon, doggedly
silent, trudged beside us.

We passed through the haunted wood and the painted forest beyond without
adventure. We rode in silence: the lady behind me too weary for speech,
the minister revolving in his mind the escape of the Italian, and I with
my own thoughts to occupy me. It was dusk when we crossed the neck
of land, and as we rode down the street torches were being lit in the
houses. The upper room in the guest house was brightly illumined, and
the window was open. Black Lamoral and the brown mare made a trampling
with their hoofs, and I began to whistle a gay old