not now much farther to go.  We have passed Purbeck Gates, and these walls will screen us from prying eyes if any chance comer pass along the down.  And as for the soldiers, they are not like to come this way so soon, and if they come I cannot help it; for weariness and the sun’s heat have made my feet like lead.  A score of years ago I would have laughed at such a task, but now ’tis different, and I must take a little sleep and rest till the air is cooler.  So sit thee here and lean thy shoulder up against the wall, and thus thou canst look through this broken place and watch both ways.  Then, if thou see aught moving, wake me up.—­I wish I had a thimbleful of powder to make this whistle sound’—­and he took Maskew’s silver-butted pistol again from his bosom, and handled it lovingly,—­’tis like my evil luck to carry fire-arms thirty years, and leave them at home at a pinch like this.’  With that he flung himself down where there was a narrow shadow close against the bottom of the wall, and in a minute I knew from his heavy breathing that he was asleep.

The wind had freshened much, and was blowing strong from the west; and now that I was under the lee of the wall I began to perceive that drowsiness creeping upon me which overtakes a man who has been tousled for an hour or two by the wind, and gets at length into shelter.  Moreover, though I was not tired by grievous toil like Elzevir, I had passed a night without sleep, and felt besides the weariness of pain to lull me to slumber.  So it was, that before a quarter of an hour was past, I had much ado to keep awake, for all I knew that I was left on guard.  Then I sought something to fix my thoughts, and looking on that side of the wall where the sward was, fell to counting the mole-hills that were cast up in numbers thereabout.  And when I had exhausted them, and reckoned up thirty little heaps of dry and powdery brown earth, that lay at random on the green turf, I turned my eyes to the tillage field on the other side of the wall, and saw the inch-high blades of corn coming up between the stones.  Then I fell to counting the blades, feeling glad to have discovered a reckoning that would not be exhausted at thirty, but would go on for millions, and millions, and millions; and before I had reached ten in so heroic a numeration was fast asleep.

A sharp noise woke me with a start that set the pain tingling in my leg, and though I could see nothing, I knew that a shot had been fired very near us.  I was for waking Elzevir, but he was already full awake, and put a finger on his lip to show I should not speak.  Then he crept a few paces down the wall to where an ivy bush over-topped it, enough for him to look through the leaves without being seen.  He dropped down again with a look of relief, and said, ’’Tis but a lad scaring rooks with a blunderbuss; we will not stir unless he makes this way.’

A minute later he said:  ’The boy is coming straight for the wall; we shall have to show ourselves’; and while he spoke there was a rattle of falling stones, where the boy was partly climbing and partly pulling down the dry wall, and so Elzevir stood up.  The boy looked frightened, and made as if he would run off, but Elzevir passed him the time of day in a civil voice, and he stopped and gave it back.