Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/292

 and then they heard the sound of a little water falling. Quoth the carle: It is down in this ghyll that my master promised to abide me. And therewith he began to go down the side of a ghyll well bushed and treed, and somewhat steep, and Osberne followed him. When they got to the bottom there was a fair space of flat greensward underneath a little force of the water; but no man awaited them.

Where is thy master, good fellow? said Osberne. He will scarce be far, said the carle; I will call him. And therewith he set two fingers to his mouth and whistled shrilly. Now Osberne was all beswinked with his run to and fro the castle and his two hours' walk thereafter, and he was sore athirst, so he went down on his knees to drink of the clear little pool beneath the force. And now, what with the failing day and the tall trees well-nigh meeting overhead, it was dusk in the ghyll; and moreover as Osberne drank, and he was in no hurry about it, with his face to the force and his back to the length of the ghyll, the tinkling and splashing of the force deafened his ears to any sound but a somewhat big one. So he drank and thought no evil; but of a sudden he felt a sharp pain in his left side, and ere he could say that he knew he had been smitten, another and another, and he rolled over on to the greensward and lay still, and there stood above him three men, the carle-messenger to wit and another of like sort, and a third clad in white armour. The end of the Red Lad! quoth the