"I heard a dog bark not far off, just as I went to sleep," Ned said. "I
will go and reconnoiter. Dick, you had better stay here."

Dick nodded, and Ned advanced cautiously to the edge of the wood. There he
saw a farmhouse of a better class than usual. Three peons were just
starting for work, and an elderly man with a long beard was standing at
the door. Then he went in, and after a few minutes reappeared with a long
staff in his hands, and went out into the fields. He did not, however,
follow the direction which the peons had taken, but took a line parallel
with the edge of the wood. "He looks a decent old fellow," Ned said to
himself; "I can but try; at any rate, at the worst I am more than a match
for him."

So saying, he stepped out into the field. The farmer started with surprise
at seeing a young Mussulman appear before him.

"I am English," Ned said at once. "I think you are kind by your face, and
I tell you the truth. There are two English girls in the wood, and one is
ill. We can go no further. Will you give them shelter?"

The old man stood for some time in thought.

"I have no complaint against the Feringhees," he said; "in my fathers time
the country was red with blood, but all my life I have eaten my bread in
peace, and no man has injured me. Where are the English ladies?"

Ned led the way to the spot where Rose was still lying. The old man looked
at her flushed face, and then at Kate, and said:

"The English ladies have suffered much, and can have done harm to no one.