aking on the quiet. It was twice repeated
ere they recognised its nature. It was the sound of a big man clearing
his throat; and just then a hoarse, untuneful voice broke into
singing:--

"Then up and spake the master, the king of the outlaws:
'What make ye here, my merry men, among the greenwood shaws?'
And Gamelyn made answer--he looked never adown:
'O, they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town!'"

The singer paused, a faint clink of iron followed, and then silence.

The two lads stood looking at each other. Whoever he might be, their
invisible neighbour was just beyond the ruin. And suddenly the colour
came into Matcham's face, and next moment he had crossed the fallen
rafter, and was climbing cautiously on the huge pile of lumber that
filled the interior of the roofless house. Dick would have withheld him,
had he been in time; as it was, he was fain to follow.

Right in the corner of the ruin, two rafters had fallen crosswise, and
protected a clear space no larger than a pew in church. Into this the
lads silently lowered themselves. There they were perfectly concealed,
and through an arrow loophole commanded a view upon the farther side.

Peering through this they were struck stiff with terror at their
predicament. To retreat was impossible; they scarce dared to breathe.
Upon the very margin of the ditch, not thirty feet from where they
crouched, an iron caldron bubbled and steamed above a glowing fire; and
close by, in an attitude of listening, as though he had caught some
sound of their clambering among the ruins, a tall, red-faced,
battered-looking man stood poised, an iron spoon in his right hand, a
horn and a formidable dagger at his belt. Plainly this was the singer;
plainly he had been stirring the caldron, when some incautious step
among the lumber had fallen upon his ear. A little farther off another
man lay slumbering, rolled in a brown cloak, with a butterfly hovering
above his face. All this was in a clearing white with daisies; and at
the extreme verge a bow, a sheaf of arrows, and part of a deer's
carcass, hung upon a flowering hawthorn.

Presently the fellow relaxed from his attitude of attention, raised the
spoon to his mouth, tasted its contents, nodded, and then fell again to
stirring and singing.

"'O, they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town,'"

he croaked, taking up his song where he had left it.

"'O, sir, we walk not here at all an evil t