The stream flowing to the south, we went with it, hurrying along its bank, beneath the shadow of great trees, with the stars gleaming down through the branches. It was cold and still, and far in the distance we heard wolves hunting. As for me, I felt no weariness. Every sense was sharpened; my feet were light; the keen air was like wine in the drinking; there was a star low in the south that shone and beckoned. The leagues between my wife and me were few. I saw her standing beneath the star, with a little purple flower in her hand. Suddenly, a bend in the stream hiding the star, I became aware that Diccon was no longer keeping step with me, but had fallen somewhat to the rear. I turned, and he was leaning heavily, with drooping head, against the trunk of a tree. “Art so worn as that?” I exclaimed. “Put more heart into thy heels, man!” He straightened himself and strode on beside me. “I don't know what came over me for a minute,” he answered. “The wolves are loud to-night. I hope they'll keep to their side of the water.” A stone's throw farther on, the stream curving to the west, we left it, and found ourselves in a sparsely wooded glade, with a bare and sandy soil beneath our feet, and above, in the western sky, a crescent moon. Again Diccon lagged behind, and presently I heard him groan in the darkness. I wheeled. “Diccon!” I cried. “What is the matter?” Before I could reach him he had sunk to his knees. When I put my hand upon his arm and again demanded what ailed him, he tried to laugh, then tried to swear, and ended with another groan. “The ball did graze my arm,” he said, “but it went on into my side. I'll just lie here and die, and wish you well at Jamestown. When the red imps come against you there, and you open fire on them, name a bullet for me.” CHAPTER XXXV IN WHICH I COME TO THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE I LAID him down upon the earth, and, cutting away his doublet and the shirt beneath, saw the wound, and knew that there was a journey indeed that he would shortly make. “The world is turning round,” he muttered, “and the stars are falling thicker than the hailstones yesterday. Go on, and I will stay behind,--I and the wolves.”