As the men entered the hut and looked at the ragged holes in the
roof and the bodies of nine wolves stretched on the ground, they
saw that they had, indeed, arrived only just in time. Among the
rescuing party was the man to whom the hut belonged, whose joy at
finding his wife and children unhurt was great indeed; and he poured
forth his thanks to Beric and Boduoc when he learned from his wife
that they had voluntarily abandoned the wood, where they could
have been secure in the shelter of a tree, in order to assist her
in defending the hut against the wolves.

"You must all come with us," Beric said; "the wolves may return
after we have gone. When our hunt is over I will send some men to
help you to repair your roof. Where are the cattle?"

"They are safe in a stockade at the next village," the man said.
"We finished it only yesterday, and drove in all the cattle from
the forests, and collected great quantities of wood so that the
women might keep up great bonfires if the wolves tried to break
in."

A few minutes later the party started on their return. As they
walked they could sometimes hear the pattering of footsteps on the
falling leaves, but the torches deterred the animals from making
an attack, and after three hours' walking they arrived at Cardun.
The village stood on a knoll rising from swamps, through which a
branch of the Stour wound its way sluggishly. Round the crest of
the knoll ran two steep earthen banks, one rising behind the other,
and in the inclosed space, some eight acres in extent, stood the
village. The contrast between it and the Roman city but two-and-twenty