cellent
substitute for a dust shoot. It could be got at from this place
without difficulty, and Edred shot down his rubbish without any
trouble through a funnel-like piece of wood he and his brothers had
contrived for the purpose many years before. Then he stood quite
still at the aperture whence the soft breeze came blowing in, lost
in thought.

"It doth get very hot here in the summer days," he remarked, "and
in especial at this end of the room, where it abuts upon the leads.
It is cooler yonder, but then it is also darker. The air and the
light come in at this side, but so does the heat likewise. And how
thirsty one gets, too! My throat is parched and dry. I mind me how
poor Warbel suffered in like manner when he was here. Food could be
brought in without trouble. I will amass even now by slow degrees
some of those hard oaten cakes that keep good for weeks, and some
salted venison that would last the winter through.

"But water--how could that be brought? Suppose that we too were
watched; suppose we dared not go through the secret door? What
would become of the prisoner?

"I must talk to Bertram and Julian about that. Bertram has a
wonderful gift for getting out of such difficulties; he has a
marvellous quick wit. We never thought in old days how the water
was to be conveyed; we thought a few bottles of wine would last a
lifetime. But to die of thirst would be worse than to face one's
foes. I shall not really rest till I have thought how such a danger
might be guarded against."

Edred left the place with a thoughtful air. He gained their own
long sleeping room without adventure. Nobody was ever there at this
hour of the day, and he sat down on his bed to think and plan.

There his brothers found him later when they came rushing up
tumultuously to find him.

"Ha! thou art there. We have been seeking thee everywhere. What
hast thou been doing, brother?"

"I have been up to the room," answered the boy. "I have been making
it all ready. I was something disturbed by what chanced
yester-afternoon. I told thee of Brother Fabian and his evil
looks?"

The other two nodded.

"Yes, verily; but they be brothers of one fraternity. Surely one
Benedictine would not hurt another?"

"I know not that. I was talking this day with Warbel. He has been
about in the world. He has seen priests and monks accused of heresy
the one by the other; and none are so fearfully persecuted as those
who wear the tonsure, if men do but s