ng into the little
court where the well was, and straightway came to its mouth,
casting stones down it, as no idle man can help doing. The
sacristan crept to the furthest corner of our little den and sat
there trembling, while I and the other monk listened with set teeth
to the words that came down to us. Nor will I say that I was not
somewhat frightened also, for it seemed to me that the voices were
unknown to me. They were Rorik's men, therefore, and not our
crew--who likely enough would but have jeered at me had they found
me hiding thus.

"Halfden's men have drunk all the ale in the place, and that was
not much," said one man; "let us try the water, for the dust of
these old storehouses is in my throat."

Then he began to draw up the bucket, and it splashed over us as it
went past our doorway.

"There is naught worth taking in this place," growled another man.
"Maybe they have hove their hoards down the well!"

Now at that the sacristan gave a stifled groan of terror, and I
clutched my axe, ready for need.

"All right, go down and see!" answered one or two, but more in jest
than earnest.

Then one dropped a great stone in, and waited to hear it bubble
from the bottom, that he might judge the depth. Now no bubbles
came, or so soon that they were lost in the splash, and the prior
took some of the crumbling mortar from the cell walls, and cast it
in after a few moments. And that was a brave and crafty thing to
do, for it wrought well.

"Hear the bubble," said the Dane; "the well must be many a fathom
deep--how long it seemed before they came up!"

So they drank their fill, saying that it was useless to go down
therefore, and anyhow there would be naught but a few silver
vessels.

"I have seen the same before," said one; "and moreover no man has
luck with those things from a church."

No man gainsaid him, so they kicked the bucket down the well and
went away.

Now I breathed freely again, and was about to whisper to the prior
that his thought of making what would pass for bubbling was good;
but more Danes came. And they were men of Halfden's ship; so we
must wait and listen, and this time I thought that surely we were
to be found. For the men began to play with one another as they
drank from the bucket; pushing each other's heads therein, and the
helm of one fell off and fled past us to the bottom; and some words
passed pretty roughly. And after they had done quarrelling they
crowded over the trapdoor,