e spoke, and walking
slowly up to my companion. 'You can take this as a gift to Mistress
Ruth,' he said, presenting the weapon in his left hand, 'and this!' he
added, plucking a knife from his belt and burying it in my poor friend's
side.

It was done in an instant--so suddenly that I had neither time to spring
between, nor to grasp his intention before the wounded man sank gasping
on the ground, and the knife tinkled upon the pathway at my feet. The
villain set up a shrill cry of triumph, and bounding back in time to
avoid the savage sword thrust which I made at him, he turned and fled
down the road at the top of his speed. He was a far lighter man than I,
and more scantily clad, yet I had, from my long wind and length of limb,
been the best runner of my district, and he soon learned by the sound of
my feet that he had no chance of shaking me off. Twice he doubled as a
hare does when the hound is upon him, and twice my sword passed within a
foot of him, for in very truth I had no more thought of mercy than if
he had been a poisonous snake who had fastened his fangs into my friend
before my eyes. I never dreamed of giving nor did he of claiming it.
At last, hearing my steps close upon him and my breathing at his
very shoulder, he sprang wildly through the reeds and dashed into the
treacherous morass. Ankle-deep, knee-deep, thigh-deep, waist-deep, we
struggled and staggered, I still gaining upon him, until I was within
arm's-reach of him, and had whirled up my sword to strike. It had been
ordained, however, my dear children, that he should die not the death of
a man, but that of the reptile which he was, for even as I closed upon
him he sank of a sudden with a gurgling sound, and the green marsh scum
met above his head. No ripple was there and no splash to mark the spot.
It was sudden and silent, as though some strange monster of the marshes
had seized him and dragged him down into the depths. As I stood with
upraised sword still gazing upon the spot, one single great bubble rose
and burst upon the surface, and then all was still once more, and the
dreary fens lay stretched before me, the very home of death and of
desolation. I know not whether he had indeed come upon some sudden pit
which had engulfed him, or whether in his despair he had cast himself
down of set purpose. I do but know that there in the great Sedgemoor
morass are buried the bones of the traitor and the spy.

I made my way as best I could through the oo