zy clinging mud to the
margin, and hastened back to where Reuben was lying. Bending over him
I found that the knife had pierced through the side leather which
connected his back and front plates, and that the blood was not only
pouring out of the wound, but was trickling from the corner of his
mouth. With trembling fingers I undid the straps and buckles, loosened
the armour, and pressed my kerchief to his side to staunch the flow.

'I trust that you have not slain him, Micah,' he said of a sudden,
opening his eyes.

'A higher power than ours has judged him, Reuben,' I answered.

'Poor devil! He has had much to embitter him,' he murmured, and
straightway fainted again. As I knelt over him, marking the lad's white
face and laboured breathing, and bethought me of his simple, kindly
nature and of the affection which I had done so little to deserve, I am
not ashamed to say, my dears, albeit I am a man somewhat backward in my
emotions, that my tears were mingled with his blood.

As it chanced, Decimus Saxon had found time to ascend the church tower
for the purpose of watching us through his glass and seeing how we
fared. Noting that there was something amiss, he had hurried down for
a skilled chirurgeon, whom he brought out to us under an escort of
scythesmen. I was still kneeling by my senseless friend, doing what an
ignorant man might to assist him, when the party arrived and helped me
to bear him into the cottage, out of the glare of the sun. The minutes
were as hours while the man of physic with a grave face examined and
probed the wound.

'It will scarce prove fatal,' he said at last, and I could have embraced
him for the words. 'The blade has glanced on a rib, though the lung is
slightly torn. We shall hear him back with us to the town.'

'You hear what he says,' said Saxon kindly. 'He is a man whose opinion
is of weight--

"A skilful leach is better far,
Than half a hundred men of war."

Cheer up, man! You are as white as though it were your blood and not his
which was drained away. Where is Derrick?'

'Drowned in the marshes,' I answered.

''Tis well! It will save us six feet of good hemp. But our position here
is somewhat exposed, since the Royal Horse might make a dash at us. Who
is this little maid who sits so white and still in the corner.'

''Tis the guardian of the house. Her granny has left her here.'

'You had better come with us. There may be rough work here ere all is
over