Part 4 (1/2)

Then he was gone Myles stood staring after his retreating figure with eyes open andthe ball of sheepskin balanced in his hand Gascoyne burst into a helpless laugh at his blank, stupefied face, but the next moment he laid his hand on his friend's shoulder

”Myles,” he said, ”thou wilt notdown his sheepskin and sat hiloomily down upon the side of the cot

”I said that I would sooner die than fetch water for them,” said he

”Aye, aye,” said Gascoyne; ”but that was spoken in haste”

Myles said nothing, but shook his head

But, after all, circu when he rose up through the dark waters of sleep it was to feel so him violently by the shoulder

”Come!” cried Gascoyne, as Myles opened his eyes--”come, time passeth, and we are late”

Myles, bewildered with his sudden awakening, and still fuddled with the fumes of sleep, huddled into his doublet and hose, hardly knohat he was doing; tying a point here and a point there, and slipping his feet into his shoes Then he hurried after Gascoyne, frowzy, half-dressed, and even yet only half-awake It was not until he was fairly out into the fresh air and saw Gascoyne filling the three leathern buckets at the tank, that he fully awakened to the fact that he was actually doing that hateful service for the bachelors which he had protested he would sooner die than render

The sun was just rising, gilding the crown of the donjon-keep with a flas, the day was still gray and misty Only an occasional noise broke the silence of the early h from one of the rooms; the rattle of a pot or a pan, stirred by so of a door or a shutter, and now and then the crowing of a cock back of the long row of stables--all sounding loud and startling in the fresh dewy stillness

”Thou hast betrayedthe silence at last ”I knew not what I was doing, or else I would never have coh I be come, I will not carry the water for them”

”So be it,” said Gascoyne, tartly ”An thou canst not stomach it, let be, and I will e'en carry all three myself It will make me two journeys, but, thank Heaven, I aht” So saying, he picked up two of the buckets and started away across the court for the dor face, snatched up the third, and, hurrying after, gave him his hand with the extra pail So it was that he ca?” said one of the older bachelors, roughly, as the two lads ee of the cot, blowzed and untrussed, with his long hair tu Myles to fury ”We tarried no longer than need be,” answered he, savagely ”Have ings to fly withal at your bidding?”

He spoke so loudly that all in the roo stared in blank amazement, and Blunt sat up suddenly in his cot

”Why, ho?” he cried ”Answerest thou back thy betters so pertly, sirrah? Byfor thy unruly talk”

He glared at Myles as he spoke, and Myles glared back again with right good-will Matters ht have coed their friend away before he had opportunity to answer

”An ill-conditioned knave as ever I did see,” growled Blunt, glaring after hily, ”ilt thou breed such ot thee the ill-will of every one of the bachelors, from Wat Blunt to Robin de Ra to his grievance ”Heard ye not how the dogs upbraided me before the whole room? That Blunt called me an ill-conditioned knave”

”Marry!” said Gascoyne, laughing, ”and so thou art”

Thus it is that boldness ain one friends My own notion is that one's enemies are more quick to act than one's friends

CHAPTER 8

Every one knows the disagreeable, lurking discomfort that follows a quarrel--a disco Such was the dull distaste that Myles felt thatafter what had passed in the dormitory Every one in the proximity of such an open quarrel feels a reflected constraint, and in Myles's reeable doubt whether that constraint meant disapproval of him or of his late enemies