"
Up they went; Hugo nimbly and Humphrey clumsily and slowly, as became
his years and experience, as William Lorimer would have said if he had
seen him. Barely had they reached complete cover, and the rustling they
made had just ceased, when the tramp of two approaching horses was
heard. The sky was now overcast with clouds in spite of the
prognostications of the owls, and the rain began to descend heavily, so
that the two riders sought refuge beneath the tree. Hugo and Humphrey
looked at each other and then down upon the horsemen, who were the two
spies, Walter Skinner and Richard Wood.
"I had thought to have come up with them ere this," said Walter
Skinner. "They had not more than half an hour the start of me."
"Have no fear," replied Richard Wood, who was a tall and determined-
looking man. "They have most like gone on to Selby on the north side of
the river. We shall catch them there."
[Illustration: Humphrey and Hugo in the Oak Tree]
"Thou saidst there is no one to watch the castle?" inquired Walter
Skinner.
"Ay, I said it," returned Richard Wood. "Why, who should there be when
Sir Thomas hath taken the other two and gone off to get a troop
together against Robert Sadler's return? There be thirty men-at-arms
within the castle, and all will fight to the death if need be, and none
more fiercely than William Lorimer.
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