If you escape, flee either back here, or perhaps, better still, to the protection of the monks.

For here these unwarlike peasants could perhaps give you little aid if hard pressed; but the Church will afford you sanctuary, and not even the wrath of Sir James himself will avail to wrest you from the hands of the monks, if you claim their protection." "It seems to me," said Tom, throwing back his head, "that the peril is, after all, not so great--not so great, indeed, as what we have faced many times before.

Let us carry out the plan, and whether good or evil follow, we shall have done our best--and no man can do more!" The two men gripped hands upon it, and the compact was sealed.

Tom rather exulted in the post of peril that was accorded to himself.
Perhaps in days to come the Duke would hear of it, and might reward him by some words of praise or thanks.
That same afternoon Tom felt his veins tingling again as they neared the lone little hut amid the whiteness of the low-lying winter snow.

He was about to launch forth upon the first solitary adventure of his life, and one which might be fraught with dire perils; but his heart quailed not.
Almost at once he was lost in admiration and amaze at the power displayed by Lord Claud in acting a part.