of the all-seeing God he served. He bade them put aside
their grief for those whom they had lost. Soon, he said, their short
day done, the lost would be found again, made glorious, and with
them himself, who, loving them both on earth, would love them through
eternity.

Then, while their eyes grew blind with tears, and even the fierce archer
turned aside his face, Sir Andrew staggered to where he stood who in the
Land of Sunrise had been called Gateway of the Gods. Before him he bent
his grey and ancient head.

"O thou who dwellest here below to do the will of heaven, to thee I come
as once thou badest me," he said, and was silent.

Murgh let his eyes rest on him. Then stretching out his hand, he touched
him very gently on the breast, and as he touched him smiled a sweet and
wondrous smile.

"Good and faithful servant," he said, "thy work is done on earth. Now I,
whom all men fear, though I be their friend and helper, am bidden by the
Lord of life and death to call thee home. Look up and pass!"

The old priest obeyed. It seemed to those who watched that the radiance
on the face of Murgh had fallen upon him also. He smiled, he stretched
his arms upward as though to clasp what they might not see. Then down he
sank gently, as though upon a bed, and lay white and still in the white,
still snow.

The Helper turned to the three who remained alive.

"Farewell for a little time," he said. "I must be gone. But when we meet
again, as meet we shall, then fear me not, for have you not seen that to
those who love me I am gentle?"

Hugh de Cressi and Red Eve made no answer, for they knew not what to
say. But Grey Dick spoke out boldly.

"Sir Lord, or Sir Spirit," he said, "save once at the beginning, when
the arrow burst upon my string, I never feared you. Nor do I fear your
gifts," and he pointed to the grave and to dead Sir Andrew, "which of
late have been plentiful throughout the world, as we of Dunwich know.
Therefore I dare to ask you one question ere we part for a while. Why do
you take one and leave another? Is it because you must, or because every
shaft does not hit its mark?"

Now Murgh looked him up and down with his sunken eyes, then answered:

"Come hither, archer, and I will lay my hand upon your heart also and
you shall learn."

"Nay," cried Grey Dick, "for now I have the answer to the riddle, since
I know you cannot lie. When we die we still live and know; therefore I'm
content to wait."

Again tha