Moreover, ye have scared up all the
water-fowl hereabouts, and they go screaming over our heads. What think
ye? If there be travellers near will they not hide close in the reeds
till ye and your noise be past?"
At this rebuke Richard Wood drew rein suddenly and gazed sharply about
him on all sides. Then he said, "Your caution shall be obeyed." And he
gave the command to his followers to be careful.
Herebald now returned to the side of Bernulf, and the two, gazing with
mirthful eyes into each other's faces, separated themselves a little
distance and pretended to examine the way narrowly. It was not for
nothing that they had served the merry Canon Thurstan for seven years.
That night, when all the camp was still, Bernulf slipped quietly forth
in the darkness. He was gone three hours, and in that time he blazed
such a trail as a madman might have taken. A bit of every fringe of
rush or reed he came to he broke; and he stamped with his foot in the
slimy mud on the edges of ponds and pools. "These fools," said he,
"know naught of the fens or the Broads, and they will believe all that
they see; for the broken bits and the footprints will speak to them of
the young lord and his serving-man, and they will listen and hasten on.
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