As we emerged from the shelter of the trees into the open meadow in which the pavilion was set, Sir Richard Pendragon, having taken the precaution to tie the bag round his middle, got down upon all fours and began to crawl like a great serpent through the grass towards the royal dwelling. And as the Count of Nullepart immediately got himself down upon his hands and knees also, and began to crawl after our leader, in order not to be out of the hunt, in whatever our quarry might consist, I was fain in these particulars to imitate their example. Without causing a twig to break, we crept upon our hands and knees to the rear of the royal tent. And so artfully did we make our way that none perceived us when at last we came into its shadow, and actually lay with our shoulders against its canvas walls. And the three sentinels stood all unsuspecting in the moonlight, not fifty paces from us, yet hidden by the body of the pavilion. Hardly had we come to lie thus than the Englishman drew his dagger and began to cut a large hole in the tent. And no sooner had I observed this to be his occupation than a kind of wonderment overcame me, for at last I had come to discern the depth, the daring, and the subtlety of his invention. CHAPTER XXXI OF AN ASTOUNDING EPISODE SCARCELY had Sir Richard Pendragon made a hole that was large enough to accommodate his great bulk when we heard the footsteps of the sentinel coming round to see that all was well. In a gentle voice, so that he might not wake the King, we heard him singing of his love, who, it seemed, was a flower of Andalucia. Yet just as he came up to us, with his sword gleaming in the moonlight, he tripped over Sir Richard Pendragon’s outstretched leg and measured his length upon the earth. Before he could utter a cry, Sir Richard Pendragon had buried a knife in his heart. “The dead don’t speak,” he whispered in a soft voice. He wiped the stains from his dagger upon the gaberdine of the man he had slain and replaced it in his jerkin. In the next moment he had disappeared. In the fashion of a hugeous reptile he had crawled through the hole he had made into the interior of the King’s pavilion. In the weary time of suspense that followed upon his absence the Count of Nullepart and myself lay in the grass listening to the beating of our hearts, and occasionally exchanging a whisper to assure each other that we did not dream. Beside us lay the dead soldier. At any instant his comrades were likely to be here to seek him. Had they come, I fear there would have been only one course open to us; although I think that both the Count of Nullepart and myself, being peacefully given, breathed a prayer that we should be spared the occasion to enter upon it. It seemed an age, yet it could have been little more than five minutes, ere this suspense was terminated; and then, without a sound or a struggle from within the tent, a huge sack filled with a heavy substance was pushed through the hole.