wo seamen. The soldiers
carried their swords, and Black Simon bore a brown biscuit-bag over
his shoulder. Under his direction the rowers skirted the dangerous
surf which beat against the cliffs until they came to a spot where an
outlying reef formed a breakwater. Within was a belt of calm water and a
shallow cover with a sloping beach. Here the boat was dragged up and the
seamen were ordered to wait, while Simon and Aylward started on their
errand.

With the assured air of a man who knows exactly where he is and whither
he is going, the man-at-arms began to clamber up a narrow fern-lined
cleft among the rocks. It was no easy ascent in the darkness, but Simon
climbed on like an old dog hot upon a scent, and the panting Aylward
struggled after as best he might. At last they were at the summit and
the archer threw himself down upon the grass.

"Nay, Simon, I have not enough breath to blow out a candle," said he.
"Stint your haste for a minute, since we have a long night before us.
Surely this man is a friend indeed, if you hasten so to see him."

"Such a friend," Simon answered, "that I have often dreamed of our next
meeting. Now before that moon has set it will have come."

"Had it been a wench I could have understood it," said Aylward. "By
these ten finger-bones, if Mary of the mill or little Kate of Compton
had waited me on the brow of this cliff, I should have come up it and
never known it was there. But surely I see houses and hear voices over
yonder in the shadow?"

"It is their town," whispered Simon. "There are a hundred as
bloody-minded cutthroats as are to be found in Christendom beneath those
roofs. Hark to that!"

A fierce burst of laughter came out of the darkness, followed by a long
cry of pain.

"All-hallows be with us!" cried Aylward. "What is that?"

"As like as not some poor devil has fallen into their clutches, even as
I did. Come this way, Samkin, for there is a peat-cutting where we may
hide. Aye, here it is, but deeper and broader than of old. Now follow me
close, for if we keep within it we shall find ourselves a stone cast off
the King's house."

Together they crept along the dark cutting. Suddenly Simon seized
Aylward by the shoulder and pushed him into the shadow of the bank.
Crouching in the darkness, they heard footsteps and voices upon the
farther side of the trench. Two men sauntered along it and stopped
almost at the very spot where the comrades were lying. Aylward could see
their