"O! I am always to be threatened whenever I draw my bow, but you—are to be scatheless, whatever your conduct be."
"You fight unfairly, with poisoned weapons."
"And you retaliate, like a wild man, with a bludgeon," answered Crymes. "Are we to hold our hands when treated by you as it has pleased you? You invited us to attend you to the Moor and spend with you a merry day, and then you desert us. Are we not free to question why we are thus treated?"
Then Bessie rode forwards beside Urith, and asked, "Tell me, how came you here?"
"She lost her way in the smoke, and no marvel," said Anthony Cleverdon. "I discovered her strayed among the bogs, and engirded with flames; and had I not done so, she would have stayed all night."
"But what brought her on to the moors?"
"The same occasion that brought you, Bess—she came to see the fires. She became distraught with the smoke, wandered, and lost all knowledge of her direction."
"It is well, brother, that you found her," said Elizabeth; and then, in a lower tone, "Brother, brother, speak to Julian. You have been short of courtesy to-day, and she resents it."
Anthony shrugged his shoulders.