They made the utmost speed possible, till they came to the village that startled them. The childlike care-freedom was gone. Light-heartedness was quenched. Apprehension took its place; low tones, no laughter—a look of helpless suffering like the large-eyed wonder in the face of a grieved child.
They asked about the next village.
"Fear lives there," they were told.
"What fear?" Cadman asked.
"Do you know the king of all serpents—he who comes over any wall, he who goes through any thatch? He dwells there. He feeds upon the children of men and upon their creatures. He comes only to the edge, but he eats!"
The boy who told them this was so different from other boys they had seen, that Cadman asked him direct:
"Who are you?"
"I am here under a master, doing a certain work in my novitiate," the boy said simply.
"Will you take us there in the morning?" Cadman asked.
The boy looked at them intently, before he answered: