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his

enemies, it was the only protection he had; Theirry, knowing that he

must have the key upon him, saw the end and was prepared to fight it

finely.

 

“What are ye going to do now?” he challenged.

 

For answer one of them leant across the table and seized Dirk by the

arm, swinging him easily into the centre of the room, another caught

his mantle.

 

A yell of “Search him!” rose from the others.

 

Dirk bent his head in a curious manner, snatched the key from inside

his shirt and flung it on the floor; instantly they let go of him to

pick it up, and he staggered back beside Theirry. “Do not let them

touch me,” he said. “Do not let them touch me.”

 

“Art a coward?” answered Theirry angrily. “Now we are utterly lost…

.”

 

He thrust Dirk away as if he would abandon him; but that youth caught

hold of him in desperation.

 

“Do not leave me—they will tear me to pieces.” The students were

rushing through the unlocked door shouting for lights; the priest

caught up the lamp and followed them; the two were left in darkness.

 

“Ye are a fool,” said Theirry. “With some cunning the key might have

been saved…”

 

A horrid shout arose from those in the inner room as they discovered

the remains of the incantations…

 

Theirry sprang to the window, Dirk after him. “Theirry, gentle

Theirry, take me also—can see I am helpless! A—ah! I am small and

pitiful, Theirry!”

 

Theirry had one leg over the windowsill.

 

“Come, then, in the fiend’s name,” he answered. A hoarse shout told

them the students had found the little image of Joris; those still on

the stairway saw them at the window. “The warlocks escape!”

 

Theirry helped Dirk on to the window-ledge; the night air blew hot on

their faces and they felt warm rain falling on them; there was no

light anywhere.

 

The students were yelling in a thick fury as they discovered the

unholy unguents and implements. They turned suddenly and dashed to the

window. Theirry swung himself by his hands, then let go.

 

With a shock that jarred every nerve in his body he landed on the

balcony of the room beneath. “Jump!” he called up to Dirk, who still

crouched on the windowsill.

 

“Ah, soul of mine! Ah, I cannot!” Dirk stared through the darkness in

a wild endeavour to discern Theirry.

 

“I am holding out my arms! Jump!”

 

The students had knocked over the lamp and it had checked them for the

moment; but Dirk, looking back, saw the room flaring with fresh lights

and seething figures pushing up to the window.

 

He closed his eyes and leapt in the darkness; the distance was not

great; Theirry half caught him; he half staggered against the balcony.

 

A torch was thrust out of the window above them; frenzied faces looked

down.

 

Theirry pushed Dirk roughly through the window before them, which

opened on to the library, and followed.

 

“Now—for our lives,” he said.

 

They ran down the dark length of the chamber and gained the stairs;

the students, having guessed their design, were after them—they could

hear the clatter of feet on the upper landing. How many stairs, how

many before they reach the hall!

 

Dirk tripped and fell, Theirry dragged him up; a breathless youth

overtook them; Theirry, panting, turned and struck him backwards

sprawling. So they reached the hall, fled along it and out into the

dark garden.

 

A minute after, the pursuers bearing lights, and half delirious with

wrath and terror, surged out of the college doors.

 

Theirry caught Dirk’s arm and they ran; across the thick grass,

crashing through the bushes, trampling down the roses, blindly through

the dark till the shouts and the lights grew fainter behind them and

they could feel the trunks of trees impeding them and so knew that

they must have reached the forest.

 

Then Theirry let go of Dirk, who sank down by his side and lay sobbing

in the grass.

CHAPTER VIII THE CASTLE

Theirry spoke angrily through the dark.

 

“Little fool, we are safe enough. They think the Devil has carried us

off. Be silent.” Dirk gasped from where he lay.

 

“Am not afraid. But spent…they have gone?”

 

“Ay,” said Theirry, peering about him; there was no trace of light

anywhere in the murky dark nor any sound; he put his hand out and

touched the wet trunk of a tree, resting his shoulder against this

(for he also was exhausted) he considered, angrily, the situation.

 

“Have you any money?” he asked.

 

“Not one white piece.”

 

Theirry felt in his own pockets. Nothing.

 

Their plight was pitiable; their belongings were in the college,

Probably by now being burnt with a sprinkling of holy water—they were

still close to those who would kill them upon sight, with no means of

escape; daylight must discover them if they lingered, and how to be

gone before daylight?

 

If they tried to wander in this dark likely enough they would but find

themselves at the college gates; Theirry cursed softly.

 

“Little avail our enchantments now,” he commented bitterly.

 

It was raining heavily, drumming on the leaves above them, splashing

from the boughs and dripping on the grass; Dirk raised himself feebly.

 

“Cannot we get shelter?” he asked peevishly. “I am all bruised, shaken

and wet—wet—” “Likely enough,” responded Theirry grimly. “But unless

the charms you know, Zerdusht’s incantations and Magian spells, can

avail to spirit us away we must even stay where we are.” “Ah, my

manuscripts, my phials and bottles!” cried Dirk. “I left them all!”

“They will burn them,” said Theirry. “Plague blast and blight the

thieving, spying knaves!” answered Dirk fiercely.

 

He got on to his feet and supported himself the other side of the

tree.

 

“Certes, curse them all!” said Theirry, “if it anything helps.”

 

He felt anger and hate towards the priest and his followers who had

hounded him from the college; no remorse stung him now, their action

had swung him violently back into his old mood of defiance and hard-heartedness; his one thought was neither repentance nor shame, but a

hot desire to triumph over his enemies and outwit their pursuit.

 

“My ankle,” moaned Dirk. “Ah! I cannot stand…”

 

Theirry turned to where the voice came out of the blackness.

 

“Deafen me not with thy complaints, weakling,” he said fiercely. “Hast

behaved in a cowardly fashion tonight.”

 

Dirk was silent before a new phase of Theirry’s character; he saw that

his hold on his companion had been weakened by his display of fear,

his easy surrender of the key. “Moans make neither comfort nor aid,”

added Theirry.

 

Dirk’s voice came softly.

 

“Had you been sick I had not been so harsh, and surely I am

sick…when I breathe my heart hurts and my foot is full of pain.”

 

Theirry softened.

 

“Because I love you, Dirk, I will, if you complain no more, say nought

of your ill behaviour.” He put out his hand round the tree and touched

the wet silk mantle; despite the heat Dirk was shivering.

 

“What shall we do?” he asked, and strove to keep his teeth from

chattering. “If we might journey to Frankfort—”

 

“Why Frankfort?”

 

“Certes, I know an old witch there who was friendly to Master Lukas,

and she would receive us, surely.”

 

“We cannot reach Frankfort or any place without money…how dark it

is!”

 

“Ugh! How it rains! I am wet to the skin…and my ankle …”

 

Theirry set his teeth.

 

“We will get there in spite of them. Are we so easily daunted?”

 

“A light!” whispered Dirk. “A light!”

 

Theirry stared about him and saw in one part of the universal darkness

a small light with a misty halo about it, slowly coming nearer.

 

“A traveller,” said Theirry. “Now shall he see us or no?”

 

“Belike he would show us on our way,” whispered Dirk.

 

“If he be not from the college.”

 

“Nay, he rides.”

 

They could hear now, through the monotonous noise of the rain, the

sound of a horse slowly, cautiously advancing; the light swung and

flickered in a changing oval that revealed faintly a man holding it

and a horseman whose bridle he caught with the other hand.

 

They came at a walking pace, for the path was unequal and slippery,

and the illumination afforded by the lantern feeble at best.

 

“I will accost him,” said Theirry.

 

“If he demand who we are?”

 

“Half the truth then—we have left the college because of a fight.”

 

The horseman and his attendant were now quite close; the light showed

the overgrown path they came upon, the wet foliage either side and the

slanting silver rain; Theirry stepped out before them.

 

“Sir,” he said, “know you of any habitation other than the town of

Basle?”

 

The rider was wrapped in a mantle to his chin and wore a pointed felt

hat; he looked sharply under this at his questioner.

 

“My own,” he said, and halted his horse. “A third of a league from

here.”

 

At first he had seemed fearful of robbers, for his hand had sought the

knife in his belt; but now he took it away and stared curiously,

attracted by the student’s dress and the obvious beauty of the young

man who was looking straight at him with dark, challenging eyes.

 

“We should be indebted for your hospitality—even the shelter of your

barns,” said Theirry. The horseman’s glance travelled to Dirk,

shivering in his silk.

 

“Clerks from the college?” he questioned.

 

“Yea,” answered Theirry. “We were. But I sorely wounded one in a fight

and fled. My comrade chose to follow me.”

 

The stranger touched up his horse.

 

“Certes, you may come with me. I wot there is room enow.”

 

Theirry caught Dirk by the arm.

 

“Sir, we are thankful,” he answered.

 

The light held by the servant showed a muddy, twisting path, the

shining wet trunks, the glistening leaves either side, the great brown

horse, steaming and passive, with his bright scarlet trappings and his

rider muffled in a mantle to the chin; Dirk looked at man and horse

quickly in silence; Theirry spoke.

 

“It is an ill night to be abroad.”

 

“I have been in the town,” answered the stranger, “buying silks for my

lady. And you—so you killed a man?”

 

“He is not dead,” answered Theirry. “But we shall never return to the

college.”

 

The horseman had a soft and curiously pleasing voice; he spoke as if

he cared nothing what he said or how he was answered.

 

“Where will you go?” he asked.

 

“To Frankfort,” said Theirry.

 

“The Emperor is there now, though he leaves for Rome within the year,

they say,” remarked the horseman, “and the Empress. Have you seen the

Empress?”

 

Theirry put back the boughs that trailed across the path.

 

“No,” he said.

 

“Of what town are you?”

 

“Courtrai.”

 

“The Empress was there a year ago and you did not see her? One of the

wonders of the world, they say, the Empress.”

 

“I have heard of her,” said Dirk, speaking for the first time. “But,

sir, we go not to Frankfort to see the Empress.”

 

“Likely ye do not,” answered the horseman, and was silent.

 

They cleared the wood and were crossing a sloping space of grass, the

rain full in their faces; then they again struck a well-worn path, now

leading upwards among scattered rocks.

 

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