The greater part of the day he spent within the hut, for safety's sake,
sleeping a little, and thinking a good deal. He had no books with him;
even his breviary had been forbidden, since David, as a shrewd man, had
made conditions, first that he should not have to speak with any
refugee, second, that if the man were a priest he should have nothing
about him that could prove him to be so. Mr. Maine's beads, only, had
been permitted, on condition that they were hidden always beneath a
stone outside the hut.
After nightfall Robin went out to attend to his horse that was tethered
in the next ravine, over a crag; to shift his peg and bring him a good
armful of cut grass and a bucket of water. (The saddle and bridle were
hidden beneath a couple of great stones that leaned together not far
away.) After doing what was necessary for his horse, he went to draw
water for himself; and then took his exercise, avoiding carefully,
according to instructions, every possible skyline. And it was then, for
the most part, that he did his clear thinking.... He tried to fancy
himself in a fortnight's retreat, such as he had had at Rheims before
his reception of orders.
* * * * *
The evening of the twenty-fifth of July closed in stormy; and Robin, in
an old cloak he had found placed in the but for his own use, made haste
to attend to what was necessary, and hurried back as quickly as he
could. He sat a while, listening to the thresh of the rain and the cry
of the wind; for, up here in the high land the full storm broke on him.
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