78 MASTER SKYLARK

cheese ; but he was crying hard and would neither eat nor
drink, though Carew urged him earnestly. Then Master
Tom Heywood, with an ugly look at Carew, and without
so much as an if-ye-please or a by-your-leave, led Nick up
the brook to a spot where it had not been muddied by the
horses, and made him wash his dusty face and hands in
the cool water and dampen his hair, though he complied
as if in a daze. And indeed Nick rode on through the
long afternoon, clinging helplessly to the pommel of his
saddle, sobbing bitterly until for very weariness he could
no longer sob.

It was after nine o’clock that night when they rode into
Towcester, and all that was to be seen was a butcher’s boy
carting garbage out of the town and whistling to keep his
courage up. The watch had long since gone to sleep
about the silent streets, but a dim light burned in the tap-
room of the Old Brown Cow; and there the players rested
for the night.