. His bell was silent, his staff no longer tapped the ground,
and he went before him with the swift and assured footsteps of a man who
sees. Next moment he had disappeared into a little thicket.

The lads, at the first glimpse, had crouched behind a tuft of gorse;
there they lay, horror-struck.

"Certain, he pursueth us," said Dick--"certain. He held the clapper of
his bell in one hand, saw ye? that it should not sound. Now may the
saints aid and guide us, for I have no strength to combat pestilence!"

"What maketh he?" cried Matcham. "What doth he want? Who ever heard the
like, that a leper, out of mere malice, should pursue unfortunates? Hath
he not his bell to that very end, that people may avoid him? Dick, there
is below this something deeper."

"Nay, I care not," moaned Dick; "the strength is gone out of me; my legs
are like water. The saints be mine assistance!"

"Would ye lie there idle?" cried Matcham. "Let us back into the open. We
have the better chance; he cannot steal upon us unawares."

"Not I," said Dick. "My time is come; and peradventure he may pass us
by."

"Bend me, then, your bow!" cried the other. "What! will ye be a man?"

Dick crossed himself. "Would ye have me shoot upon a leper?" he cried.
"The hand would fail me. Nay, now," he added--"nay, now, let be. With
sound men I will fight, but not with ghosts and lepers. Which this is, I
wot not. One or other, Heaven be our protection!"

"Now," said Matcham, "if this be man's courage, what a poor thing is
man! But sith ye will do naught, let us lie close."

Then came a single, broken jangle on the bell.

"He hath missed his hold upon the clapper," whispered Matcham. "Saints!
how near he is!"

But Dick answered never a word; his teeth were near chattering.

Soon they saw a piece of the white robe between some bushes; then the
leper's head was thrust forth from behind a trunk, and he seemed
narrowly to scan the neighbourhood before he once again withdrew. To
their stretched senses the whole bush appeared alive with rustlings and
the creak of twigs; and they heard the beating of each other's heart.

Suddenly, with a cry, the leper sprang into the open close by, and ran
straight upon the lads. They, shrieking aloud, separated and began to
run different ways. But their horrible enemy fastened upon Matcham, ran
him swiftly down, and had him almost instantly a prisoner. The lad gave
one scream that echoed high and far over the forest, he had one