He
is doubtless from home for the night."
Old Bartlemy hastily glanced toward the roof of the hut. He had left a
smouldering fire, and now no fire was there. "The false priest hath put
it out," he said joyfully. "Now know I that he hath luck with him, and
I will serve him faithfully. Ay, knock!" he continued. "Knock thy fill.
I did but now hear thee call me 'old rascal,' though I have helped thee
to thy desires many times, for which thou didst pay me by ever
threatening to bring the ranger upon me for the game I take to keep me
alive. Thou wantest naught of old Bartlemy but to further thine own
schemes."
There was silence a moment, and then the first speaker said, "The
priest of Oundle hath cheaply bought his altar cloth if we find not
these two. We know they be between St. Albans and London. And we do
know they be, for the present, gone from the Watling Street, for the
carter from London whom we did meet did tell us that he had met them
not on the way. Therefore go thou to London by way of the Ermine
Street, while I go down by the Watling Street. They may be now straying
about in the wood, but we shall have them on one road or the other as
they go into the city.
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