widened and filled
with light. And again at her motion Nicanor came back to her. He looked
at her, and his own eyes were as she had seen them once before, when
upon a day she had told him that the name men called him was the
silver-tongued.

"Once thou didst tell that tale to me," he said, "and day or night it
hath never left me since. When it is ended, and I have found this thing
I seek, then I'll tell it thee."

He took up his speech again, and she hung upon his words, unafraid to
watch him since his eyes were turned from her.

"So there was a gray rat within this my dungeon cell; and at such times
when the light faded and I was back therein, I coaxed and fed him, and
taught him how to fight. Eh, he was a gallant beast, and his scar is yet
upon my hand. He, my gaunt gray rat, and this little Christ of thine
were all that kept my brain from madness those days when I sat in
darkness. And in time, I, with others, was sent off to the mines, and
there we labored until word came that men were needed to help our lord,
who was attacked in his household by barbarians. But I was left behind
when these were started, wounded by one with whom I had a quarrel about
this same gray rat. When I reached our lord's house, it was empty,
sacked and spoiled, and stationarii patrolled it. So I came onward to
Londinium and here again was I left behind. Our lord hath left the
country, and we are free to live or die as we may. I had no plan for
thee when I bade thee to come hither, for there was no time for planning
with Hito's jaws agape for thee." He rose to his feet and stood looking
down upon her. "Now we be both alone, and there is but one thing for it
that I can see. Thou must come with me. I cannot promise thee ease nor
even safety, but what I have, thou shalt have also."

"With thee!" Eldris repeated below her breath, and turned her face from
him. It flushed and was radiant; love brimmed over in her eyes. Was she
the one who might find her place in that stern, deep heart of his,--she
who might learn the spell which would soothe those bitter moods of his
to stillness? Her eyes glowed and drooped. And then, slowly, across her
face there fell a shadow, and the shadow was of the cross. She knew
nothing of evasion; as her heart, so her lips spoke.

"With thee!" she breathed again. A sob caught her throat. In her turn
she rose and faced him. "Ah, I would so gladly--so gladly! But--I can go
with thee in but one way, and that way as thy