its side as it may
have fallen, but it was dragged back from under the door somewhat.
There were the cushions I had noted also--one lying on the stone
floor of the pit, and the other on the seat of the chair. But there
was no sign of the king--none but a stain of red on the cushions
and on the floor, and on the blade of a sword which lay beside that
terrible pool. And the sword was the king's own.

Then said Sighard, and his voice came hoarse and broken:

"Our king is slain! Hounds of Mercians, tell us who has wrought
this!"

One answered him from dry lips:

"We cannot tell. It is a shame on the house of Offa, and on the
very name of Mercia. Kill us if you will, for we are niddering."

He plucked his sword from his belt and threw it on the floor. The
thane who had gone into the council chamber was on his feet and
staring at us through the open doors, and Erling was ready to fall
on him if he cried out. But the third Mercian, whose name was
Witred, did not lose his senses thus.

"True enough," he said, looking fearlessly at the angry group
before him. "But it were better to follow this passage and see if
we may not overtake those who have been here.

"Bide here, paladin and priest, and keep our way back clear with my
comrade yonder, and let us go quickly. If they slay us--maybe that
is no loss, but at least we have done what we should."

Without another word Sighard leaped into that awesome pit, and
Witred followed him. Then went our three thanes, and Selred and I
stood alone in the room. I handed the torch down to the last man,
and so saw that from the place where the chair was set a low
stone-arched passage led westward into darkness. It was some work
of the old Romans, no doubt, for no Saxon ever made such
stonework--strong and heavy as rock itself.

The light flashed from somewhat on the wall also, as it seemed,
drawing my eyes to it.

"Yonder is a spear set," I said to the thane, as he took the light
from me; "hand it to me."

He took it from where it rested against the wall and gave it me,
turning at once to follow our comrades. Then I knew the spear well
enough, for I had seen it over close to me once before. It was
Gymbert's boar spear.

CHAPTER XII. HOW QUENDRITHA THE QUEEN HAD HER WILL.

Slowly the footfalls of our comrades died away down the low
passage, and then the last flicker of their torch passed from the
stone walls of that terrible pit, leaving Selred and myself alone
in the col