The old man was speaking slowly now, with a steady yet despairing ferocity that was terrible to hear.  His sunken eyes gleamed in their sockets, and his hands, that were tightly clinched over the handle of his axe, trembled with the emotion that had him in its clutches.

“I was sent upon a mission by my master.  I was absent from my home some seven days.  When I came back my boy was gone.  I had left him in the care of the keeper of the hounds.  He was an honest man, and told me all the tale.  Perchance you know that Sir Hugh Vavasour is what men call a spendthrift.  His estates will not supply him with the money he needs.  He is always in debt, he is always in difficulties.  From that it comes that he cares little what manner of men are his comrades or friends, provided only that they can supply his needs when his own means fail.  This is why, when all men else hate and loathe the very name of Sanghurst, he calls himself their friend.  He knows that the old man has the secret by which all things may be turned into gold, and therefore he welcomes his son to Woodcrych.  And men say that Mistress Joan is to be given in marriage to his son one day, because he will take her without dowry; for she is the fairest creature in the world, and he has vowed that she shall wed him and none else.”

The brothers were intensely interested by this tale, but were growing a little confused by all the names introduced, and they wanted the story of the woodman’s son complete.

“Then was it the old man who took your boy, or was it his son?  Are they not both called Peter?”

“Ay, they have both the same name —­ the same name and the same nature:  evil, cruel, remorseless.  I know not how nor where the old man first set eyes upon my boy; but he must have seen him, and have coveted possession of him for his devilish practices; for upon the week that I was absent from home, he left the solitude of his house, and came with the master himself to the house where the boy was.  And then Sir Hugh explained to honest Stephen, who had charge of him, that Master Peter Sanghurst had offered the lad a place in his service, where he would learn many things that would stand him in good stead all the days of his life.  It sounded fair in all faith.  But Stephen stoutly refused to let the boy go till I returned; whereupon Sir Hugh struck him a blow across the face with his heavy whip, and young Peter Sanghurst, leaping to the ground, seized the child and placed him in front of him upon the horse, and the three galloped off laughing aloud, whilst the boy in vain implored to be set down to run home.  When I came back he had gone, and all men said that the old man had thus stolen him to satisfy the greed for souls of his master the devil.”

“And hast thou not seen him since?” asked the boys breathlessly.  “What didst thou do when thou camest back?”

For a moment it seemed as though the old man would break out again into those wild imprecations of frenzied anger which the brothers had heard him utter before; but by a violent effort he checked the vehement flow of words that rose to his lips, and replied with a calmness far more really impressive: