Soon they had finished. And at once they left the hungry grave with
all its worms unfed, and went away over the wet fields stealthily
but in haste, leaving the place of tombs behind them in the
midnight. And as they went they shivered, and each man as he
shivered cursed the rain aloud. And so they came to the spot where
they had hidden a ladder and a lantern. There they held long debate
whether they should light the lantern, or whether they should go
without it for fear of the King's men. But in the end it seemed to
them better that they should have the light of their lantern, and
risk being taken by the King's men and hanged, than that they should
come suddenly face to face in the darkness with whatever one might
come face to face with a little after midnight about the Gallows
Tree.

On three roads in England whereon it was not the wont of folk to go
their ways in safety, travellers tonight went unmolested. But the
three friends, walking several paces wide of the King's highway,
approached the Gallows Tree, and Will carried the lantern and Joe
the ladder, but Puglioni carried a great sword wherewith to do the
work which must be done. When they came close, they saw how bad was
the case with Tom, for little remained of that fine figure of a man
and nothing at all of his great resolute spirit, only as they came
they thought they heard a whimpering cry like the sound of a thing
that was caged and unfree.

To and fro, to and fro in the winds swung the bones and the soul of
Tom, for the sins that he had sinned on the King's highway against
the laws of the King; and with shadows and a lantern through the
darkness, at the peril of their lives, came the three friends that