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his mutinous obstinacy he was delaying the whole procession and centring all attention
upon himself. Perhaps he. was not such a fool as he looked, John Landlord.
"Oh, the poor wretch! What will they do to him?" whispered Vada, wringing her
hands.
"Very little," chuckled Thur softly. '"I defy the Pope himself and all the Assembly
of Cardinals to extract a word of sense from him. "
"I found him not so."
"Oh, you have a power which His Holiness lacks," grinned Thur, and they stood
silently, watching the procession pass with never a glance in the direction where they
were concealed.
Thur unfastened his cloak and flung it to Olaf. "Muffle it over your head and hide
that green garb of yours," he commanded, and as Olaf obeyed Jan hastily removed his
blue hood. Then cautiously they emerged from their shelter and cantered for half a mile.
None pursued, and taking to the crown of the road they stretched into the hardest gallop
their horses could take.
- 34 -
Chapter V
MOON'S AID
They rode through the night, stopping neither to rest nor eat until dawn was
breaking. The moon was two days past its full, and never before had Thur appreciated
how important it was for the 'second luminary' to be favourably aspected in a natal
horoscope. With the happy knowledge that it was so aspected in his own, he looked to the
silver lady to aid him in this most dire extremity.
Nor did she fail him. She rose clear, and shone with splendour, and, if she
appeared later every night, she was but restricted by an immutable law and at least her
punctuality was unhindered by cloud. She guided them off the road, down grass tracks,
over fields and through belts of May woodland where her light could penetrate the
swinging branches as it could not - have done a month later when the foliage would be
heavier. Ever south-westward, she led their, through all that week of flight, and never did
she break her prormse of that first night, when, by dawn, she led them into a thick. belt of
woods, wherein safety promised, and there they dismounted.
"We must stay here till nightfall," said Thur. "Hey, Vada ..." and flung his arm
about her, for as she got to earth her knees gave way beneath her in sheer weariness and
she would have fallen. "Hey, wench, lean on me. We have tried you too far. Come! Bear
up! 'Tis but a short step before we rest and eat. Here, Jan, take her, help her. Lay her
down for awhile. I must first scout. You come with me, Olaf, " and Thur returned to the
roadside, where he selected a post from which he could see the road for more than a mile
each way, and was himself concealed. "One of us must always be watching here," he said.
"Why?" queried Olaf. "If we be inside the wood, none can see us."
"'Tis sure that you were never a soldier," laughed Thur. "A soldier ever wants to
know who pursueth! Men-at-arms I fear not, but if they send foresters, they will mark our
tracks where we left the road and be upon us in the woods as softly as they track game.
Or, if it be a sheriff with his mounted archers, they have ever smell-dogs with them who
can track us anywhere. But what I fear most is swift messengers, sent ahead of us to raise
the country against us. So, if you watch here, Olaf, keeping out of sight; and report to me
if any such should come, we must fly swiftly. I will relieve you presently."
- 35 -
With that he returned to Jan and Vada, who tried to struggle to her feet on his
approach, only to collapse into his arms again, saying with a wry smile, "If I can get
aught to eat, I will be all right," at which Jan clucked with annoyance at his own
carelessness. Vada had ridden at his side throughout the night, unspeaking, but tacitly
seeking his company, and he had been blind to her growing distress, nor would she voice
it, knowing their danger. Though Jan was unobservant and self-absorbed, he was kindly
disposed to all mankind, with the exception of the Fitz-Urse.
"Fool that I am," he said to Thur. "I forgot that she was but a woman."
"Her spirit will suffice for any danger, but her body is sick with hunger, I
misdoubt. We might have known had we stayed to think."
Jan hastened to Vada and, half-carried her along, murmuring words of
encouragement and self-reproach for his lack of understanding. Glancing down at her
face, more blanched than ever in the wan light, he saw tears glistening on her cheeks, for
the men's compassion had so moved and softened her, unused as she was to pity, that she
could not restrain them. And progressing in this way they came to a tiny glade almost
surrounded by great forest trees, with an outer scattering of bush. In the. middle was a
woodland pool, beside which grew a yew tree, and the ground was covered with orange
of dried beech leaves which the recent wind had whirled and driven into heaps.
"We cannot do better than this, Thur decided, "and if we build a fire from dry
wood beneath that yew, it will hide our smoke. Vada can rest here while we prepare
food." He laid her gently on a heap of leaves, and she lay with closed eyes, lids smarting
with driven-back tears. She could not shame her comrades or herself by this weakness
which had come upon her so suddenly, and she forced down, the sobs which convulsed
her throat, wondering at the inward storm which shook her and not in the least
understanding that it rose from the effects of excitement, fear, and apprehension of what
she very well knew awaited her if she was caught, or these men failed her. All these,
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