It came to be
mid-afternoon and still he moved not, for he had ridden hard and had
been deprived of his rest the night before. His tethered horse at last
whinnied softly and then loudly. And, to the dismay of Hugo and
Humphrey, he was answered by their own horses in the thicket. But still
the king's man moved not.
"Would that I knew certainly that he sleepeth," said Humphrey,
anxiously. "For then we might come down and escape."
"Nay, nay," objected Hugo, earnestly. "Seest thou not how a little
sound goeth far here? The rustling of the leaves and rattling of the
boughs as we descend might awake him."
Humphrey looked at him. "Ay, poor mouse!" he said. "Mayhap thou art
right."
And now Walter Skinner stirred in his slumber. Once more his horse
whinnied loudly. Once more the horses in the thicket answered; and the
spy, broad awake, sprang to his feet. "Aha, Fortune!" he cried, "thou
art with me."
"Nevertheless," observed Humphrey, softly, "if thou hast not dreamed of
going up a ladder and climbing a tree, all may not go so well with thee
as thou thinkest."
Leaving his horse, the spy climbed the wooded hill, at the top of which
he paused just under the oak in which Hugo and Humphrey were concealed.
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