nd that swiftly? Malcolm and I
will get our arms."

She went to her cell, and Fergus hurried to call his brethren. We
two went to the cell which had been given us.

"Just as well not to put them on," I said. "We have a long pull
before us, and if armed men are seen in the boat we must be
chased."

The casket of gold was under the heather pillow of my bed, and I
dragged it out. From it we took what we could stow away on us in
one way or another, and then, with our war gear bundled in our
arms, went out.

Across the strait rose a thick smoke from the foot of the glen.
Heidrek's folk were burning the wretched huts for sport. All the
fisher people would have fled at their first coming.

"They are busy now," said Bertric grimly, nodding toward the signs
of pillage. "They will be here next."

Now Gerda came with a little bundle, wrapped in her blue cloak. She
was pale, and near to weeping as she looked on the hermits, who
were coming together from their work to the black cross in the
midst of their home. The old superior caught sight of me and called
to me in his still voice.

"So you must fly, my son," he said. "I would that we had had more
speech together. Give this to the lady who has listened to me so
patiently. Now, I have bidden Fergus and Phelim to go with you.
They can row, and that well, and you need help. Aye, I ken the ways
of the boatwork well enough. You will make them go with you, for
hardly will they obey me, now at the last."

Thereat those two brethren threw themselves at the feet of the old
man, and besought him to let them bide with the rest for that crown
of martyrdom which they might gain.

"No, my sons," he said sternly, and yet lovingly; "your lives may
yet be of use. Ours are done. Now you shall win more by saving the
lives of these friends of ours who came to us in need than by
losing your own."

Then he bent toward them, and spoke rapidly in the Latin tongue,
and I saw their faces change, and they rose up. Thereafter they had
no more to say of staying, though at the time I could not tell what
the words which wrought this change might be. Without another word
they took Bertric's arms and mine and Gerda's little pack, and
started for the shore, and as they went the old man smiled as if
content. Then he bent toward us.

"Go, my children," he said; "you have no moment to waste longer. It
has been good to speak with you."

Now I set that which he had given me in Gerda's hand. It was a
l