And when I say 'mole,' open
the door softly and not over wide."
Humphrey, who with Hugo was now within the hut, promised to obey, and
the old man, closing the door after him, departed with the horses.
At once Humphrey put out the smoking embers of the fire burning on the
earthen floor in the centre of the hut. "If any knock and see the smoke
and hear no answer, will they not break in the door?" he said.
The old man had been gone but a short time when a tramp of horses was
heard. The riders paused before the door of the hut as Humphrey had
done, and one of them knocked heavily upon it with his stick. But there
was no answer. Again there came a knock and a cry, "Open, old
Bartlemy!"
Meanwhile, old Bartlemy had come creeping cautiously back, and from
behind a screen of vines which hung from an oak beheld them. "Ay, ye
may knock and cry," he muttered craftily; "but which one of ye hath a
mole near the end of his nose? Not one of ye. Therefore I will have
none of ye. And ye may be gone."
"The old rascal groweth deaf," said one of the riders.
"Nay," answered the second. "There cometh no smoke out of the roof.
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