nd clumsy coracle, such as were used by fishermen, was
paddling, the only vessel abroad. In it sat two persons, the boatman and
Eldris. She sat huddled forlornly in the coracle's bottom, shivering in
her long black cloak.

Two carts creaked from the high-road down to the marsh-ford on the
northern side of the island, and labored through, their drivers muffled
to the eyes in cloaks with heavy hoods drawn close around their faces.
On the island itself men appeared at intervals in the alleys between the
houses. There were few camp-fires on the beach, showing that those who
had come had nearly all found shelter within the houses. The air was
keenly cold and very still, so that sounds carried clearly; but,
unaccountably, there were few sounds. At this, the busiest time of the
day, Thorney seemed strangely silent.

The coracle grounded gently on the beach, almost at the moment that the
carts entered the ford on the opposite side of the island. Eldris
stepped ashore, gave a bit of money to the boatman, who spat on it and
cursed. She asked faintly:

"Canst tell me, friend, where might be the wine-shop of one Nicodemus?"

But the man, plainly considering that he had given good measure for the
wage he had received, was surly.

"Near the end of this street that runs straight back from the beach to
the other side," he answered briefly, and heaved his boat of bull's hide
and wicker to his back, and went off, waiting for no further
questioning. Eldris looked after him in half resentful reproach, and
started up the street which cut across the island from ford to ford,
walking slowly like one faint and weary from long continued exertion. In
all the length of the street she saw no one who might direct her to the
wine-shop. It was deserted, save for stray prowling dogs that nosed and
shivered among heaps of refuse. Lights showed through chinks from behind
closed doors of houses; there was a smell of cooking in the air; at
times a low-pitched growl of talk or muffled boisterous laughter reached
her.

Dusk was deepening fast and the cold was bitter. Eldris stumbled on
toward the end of the street, her eyes searching the houses on either
hand. When but three remained between her and the open strip of beach on
the marsh side, she paused irresolute. One was a low and vulgar place,
its door fast closed, no light to be seen about it. The second was a
half burnt ruin, where cattle had been stalled. The third seemed of
somewhat better clas