n they lit tapers from a little Roman lamp that burned all night
in the passage and entered the room. Dick walked at once to the
window-place, looked and laughed a little.

"The arrow has missed," he said, "or rather," he added doubtfully, "the
target is gone."

"What target?" asked Hugh wearily, for now he desired sleep more than
he had ever done in all his life. Then he turned, the taper in his hand,
and started back suddenly, pointing to something which hung upon his
bed-post that stood opposite to the window.

"Who nails his helm upon my bed?" he said. "Is this a challenge from
some knight of Venice?"

Dick stepped forward and looked.

"An omen, not a challenge, I think. Come and see for yourself," he said.

This is what Hugh saw: Fixed to the post by a shaft which pierced it
and the carved olivewood from side to side, was the helm that they had
stripped from the body of Sir Pierre de la Roche; the helm of Sir Edmund
Acour, which Sir Pierre had worn at Crecy and Dick had tumbled out of
his sack in the presence of the Doge before Cattrina's face. On his
return to the house of Sir Geoffrey Carleon he had set it down in the
centre of the open window-place and left it there when they went out to
survey the ground where they must fight upon the morrow.

Having studied it for a moment, Dick went to the door and called to
David.

"Friend," he said, standing between him and the bed, so that he could
see nothing, "what was it that just now I told you was in my mind when
yonder Murgh asked me at what target he should shoot with my bow on the
Place of Arms?"

"A knight's helm," answered David, "which stood in the window of your
room at the ambassador's house--a knight's helmet that had a swan for
its crest."

"You hear?" said Dick to Hugh; "now come, both of you, and see. What is
that which hangs upon the bed-post? Answer you, David, for perchance my
sight is bewitched."

"A knight's helm," answered David, "bearing the crest of a floating swan
and held there by an arrow which has pierced it through."

"What was the arrow like which I gave this night to one Murgh, master?"
asked Dick again.

"It was a war shaft having two black feathers and the third white but
chequered with four black spots and a smear of brown," answered Hugh.

"Then is that the same arrow, master, which this Murgh loosed from more
than a mile away?"

Hugh examined it with care. Thrice he examined it, point and shaft and
feathers. Then in