"What made you come down like that, you narrowly missed coming on
my head?"

"I believe I have cut my fingers to the bone," Beorn groaned; "I
feel as if I were holding a bar of hot iron. You had scarcely started
before I heard voices; they were evidently those of men going their
rounds, so I caught hold of the rope and swung myself off, but
before I got my legs fairly round the rope I began to slip, and
though I gripped it as hard as I could I could not stop myself, but
slid down like lightning."

"Hush!" Wulf whispered, "they are coming along above." The voices
came nearer until they sounded directly overhead Wulf knew that it
was very unlikely they would notice the rope in the dark, but he
felt much relieved as he heard them pass on. He waited until they
could no longer be heard.

"Now, Beorn, we can safely be off."

It was muddy at the bottom of the fosse, but not so deep as they
thought it would be, and they scrambled up the opposite side and
then struck across the country south. Presently they came upon a
road, which they followed, until after three hours' walking they
reached the Authie river, at a spot where the bank was broken down.

"This must be a ford, we had best try to wade across. Anyhow there
cannot be very many yards to swim, and we can both manage that."

They found that the bottom was pebbly, and that even in the middle