I told him that now I owned no master but him. His face cleared up joyously for a moment at that. “Good; I claim you, then, not as a master, but as a comrade. Be here to-night as the sun sets. Take this bow and dirk; and farewell, my friend, till we meet again.” And he left me.
Chapter Nine.
How I caught the Miséricorde.
So restless and anxious was I as the day passed that I hastened back to my hiding-place in the wood early in the afternoon, determined rather to lie there than run the risk of being seen in the village. It was well I did so, for I had not been there half-an-hour when I heard Ludar’s heavy tramp crashing through the underwood.
He threw himself beside me, haggard and dejected.
“How is she to know of this?” said he.
“Tell her,” I answered.
He smiled scornfully.