Chapter 30 - Page 2

indistinguishable; and,
where it once more plunged into the unbeaten snow upon the farther
side, Dick was surprised to see it narrower and lighter trod.
Plainly, profiting by the road, Sir Daniel had begun already to
scatter his command.

At all hazards, one chance being equal to another, Dick continued
to pursue the straight trail; and that, after an hour's riding, in
which it led into the very depths of the forest, suddenly split,
like a bursting shell, into two dozen others, leading to every
point of the compass.

Dick drew bridle in despair. The short winter's day was near an
end; the sun, a dull red orange, shorn of rays, swam low among the
leafless thickets; the shadows were a mile long upon the snow; the
frost bit cruelly at the finger-nails; and the breath and steam of
the horses mounted in a cloud.

"Well, we are outwitted," Dick confessed. "Strike we for Holywood,
after all. It is still nearer us than Tunstall - or should be by
the station of the sun."

So they wheeled to their left, turning their backs on the red
shield of sun, and made across country for the abbey. But now
times were changed with them; they could no longer spank forth
briskly on a path beaten firm by the passage of their foes, and for
a goal to which that path itself conducted them. Now they must
plough at a dull pace through the encumbering snow, continually
pausing to decide their course, continually floundering in drifts.
The sun soon left them; the glow of the west decayed; and presently
they were wandering in a shadow of blackness, under frosty stars.

Presently, indeed, the moon would clear the hilltops, and they
might resume their march. But till then, every random step might
carry them wider of their march. There was nothing for it but to
camp and wait.

Sentries were posted; a spot of ground was cleared of snow, and,
after some failures, a good fire blazed in the midst. The men-at-
arms sat close about this forest hearth, sharing such provisions as
they had, and passing about the flask; and Dick, having collected
the most delicate of the rough and scanty fare, brought it to Lord
Risingham's niece, where she sat apart from the soldiery against a
tree.

She sat upon one horse-cloth, wrapped in another, and stared
straight before her at the firelit scene. At the offer of food she
started, like one wakened from a dream, and then silently refused.

"Madam," said Dick, "let me beseech you, punish me not so cruelly.
Wherein I have offended you, I know not; I have, indeed, carried
you away, but with a friendly violence; I have, indeed, exposed you
to the inclemency of night, but the hurry that lies upon me hath
for its end the preservation of another, who is no less frail and