s
orders; and then hastened to the house where, by accident, that evening
he had noticed Raynor Royk was quartered.

Twenty minutes later he rode out of Northampton and crossed the Nene
with the fifty retainers behind him. To Dauvrey and Raynor Royk, he
repeated the Duke's order just as it had been given, deeming it well,
if he were incapacitated, that those next in command should know what
to do. Leaving five men on the south bank of the Nene, he dropped
bands of four at regular intervals along the road, with instructions to
patrol constantly the intervening distances on both sides of them. The
remaining five men he posted at the Roman highway, with orders not to
separate under any circumstances.

Leaving Raynor in charge of this detail, De Lacy and his squire jogged
slowly back toward Northampton. Hanging in an almost cloudless sky,
the full moon was lighting up with its brilliant uncertainty the
country around. The intense calm of the early morning was upon the
earth, and there was no sound but the tramp of their horses, varied, at
intervals, by the approach of one of the patrols or the passing of a
sentry post.

About midway to the Nene the squire's horse picked a stone. It stuck
persistently, and he swore at it under his breath as he tried to free
it. Presently it yielded, and he had raised his arm to hurl it far
away when a sharp word from De Lacy arrested him. They had chanced to
halt in the shadow of a bit of woodland which, at that point, fringed
the east side of the road. To the left, for some distance, the ground
was comparatively clear of timber, and crossing this open space, about
a hundred yards away, were two horsemen. They were riding at a rapid
trot, but over the soft turf they made no sound.

"There," said De Lacy, waving his hand.

The squire swung noiselessly into saddle.

"Shall we stop them?" he asked.

"Of course--be ready if they show fight."

Suddenly Dauvrey's horse threw up his head and whinnied. At the first
quaver, De Lacy touched Selim and rode out into the moonlight toward
the strangers, who had stopped sharply.

"Good evening, fair sirs," said he; "you ride late."

"Not so; we are simply up betimes," replied one, "and therefore, with
your permission, since we are in some haste, we will wish you a very
good morning and proceed."

"Nay, be not so precipitate. Whither away, I pray, at such strange
hours and over such strange courses?"

"What business is it of your