looked at it as though wondering why
a sight so usual should draw their eyes. Then after a few irresolute
moments the groups on the footpaths separated and went their ways
without bidding each other good night. As they went many of them made
the sign with their fingers that these Italians believed could avert
evil, which gave them the appearance of all pointing at the boat or its
occupants. Those in the balconies did the same thing and disappeared
through the open window-places.

More than any of the wonderful things that he had done, perhaps, this
effect of the Eastern stranger's presence struck terror and foreboding
to Hugh's heart.

At length they came to the end of that little street where they had
hired the boat, for, although none had told him the way, thither their
dread steersman brought them without fault. The lad David laid down
his oars and mounted the steps that led to the street, which was quite
deserted, even the bordering houses being in darkness.

"Hugh de Cressi and Richard the Fatherless," said Murgh, "you have seen
wonderful things this night and made a strange friend, as you may think
by chance, although truly in all the wide universe there is no room for
such a thing as chance. Now my counsel to you and your companion is
that you speak no word of these matters lest you should be set upon as
wizards. We part, but we shall meet again twice more, and after many
years a third time, but that third meeting do not seek, for it will be
when the last grains of sand are running from the glass. Also you may
see me at other times, but if so, unless I speak to you, do not speak
to me. Now go your ways, fearing nothing. However great may seem your
peril, I say to you--fear nothing. Soon you will hear ill things spoken
of me, yet"--and here a touch of human wistfulness came into his inhuman
voice--"I pray you believe them not. When I am named Murgh the Fiend
and Murgh the Sword, then think of me as Murgh the Helper. What I do is
decreed by That which is greater than I, and if you could understand it,
leads by terrible ways to a goal of good, as all things do. Richard the
Archer, I will answer the riddle that you asked yourself upon the ship
at Calais. The Strength which made your black bow an instrument of doom
made you who loose its shafts and me who can outshoot you far. As the
arrow travels whither it is sent, and there does its appointed work, so
do you travel and so do I, and many another thing, seen and u