The Helper turned to the three who remained alive.
“Farewell for a little time,” he said. “I must be gone. But when we meet again, as meet we shall, then fear me not, for have you not seen that to those who love me I am gentle?”
Hugh de Cressi and Red Eve made no answer, for they knew not what to say. But Grey Dick spoke out boldly.
“Sir Lord, or Sir Spirit,” he said, “save once at the beginning, when the arrow burst upon my string, I never feared you. Nor do I fear your gifts,” and he pointed to the grave and to dead Sir Andrew, “which of late have been plentiful throughout the world, as we of Dunwich know. Therefore I dare to ask you one question ere we part for a while. Why do you take one and leave another? Is it because you must, or because every shaft does not hit its mark?”
Now Murgh looked him up and down with his sunken eyes, then answered:
“Come hither, archer, and I will lay my hand upon your heart also and you shall learn.”
“Nay,” cried Grey Dick, “for now I have the answer to the riddle, since I know you cannot lie. When we die we still live and know; therefore I’m content to wait.”
Again that smile swept across Murgh’s awful face though that smile was cold as the winter dawn. Then he turned and slowly walked away toward the west.
They watched him go till he became but a blot of fantastic colour that soon vanished on the moorland.
Hugh spoke to Red Eve and said: