shed them away, and we
had naught to guide us. The turf held no footmarks of men, and it
was not plain how the cart had come to this place; for men had been
hauling timber and fagots hence, so that tracks were many, and some
new. All round us was wooded, and it seemed most likely that
somewhere among the bushes they had found a place; and so for half
an hour we went to and fro, but never a sign of upturned ground did
we see.

"They brought the cart far from the place," said I presently.

And at that moment from the palace courtyard the horns called men
to their supper, and I started to find how near we were to the
walls. We had wandered onward as we searched, and it is a wonder we
had seen no man. But perhaps it was because this place was mostly
deserted, being out of the way to anywhere, that Gymbert chose it.
The traffic of the palace went along the road to Fernlea and the
ford of the host there, away from here. The carting of the wood cut
during winter was over now, and it was too near the palace for the
deer to be sought in these woods.

"Selred will be waiting me, and all men else will be within the
walls," I said. "I must go to him. Will you bide here and search,
or risk coming with me, comrade?"

"I come with you, of course," Erling answered. "The search can
wait. There is moonlight enough for us to carry it on again this
night, if we will, between these showers."

It rained again as we went through the thickets. Under cover of the
driving squalls we might pass unseen to where the little copse we
sought came close to the river. And we cloaked ourselves against
the shower, pulling the hoods over our helms. None, if we were
seen, would take us for aught but belated men hurrying to the hall.

Unseen, so far as we could tell, we came to the edge of the little
copse and entered it. The whole breadth of it lay between us and
the palace; and under its trees was pretty dark, for the sun had
set. We turned into the path where I had walked with Hilda, and I
half hoped to see the priest there, but it was lonely. Down that
path we hurried and turned the corner, but an arrow shot from the
ramparts, and again I saw no one coming.

"We must bide and wait," I said. "He will come when the men are in
hall."

"I don't like it," Erling answered, speaking quietly. "You were to
meet him at the same time as before; yet he cannot have come. None
would wonder at a priest staying out after the supper call, but
maybe men might