I saw the sacristan's face glimmer white before me from a hollow in the well shaft, as I set my foot on the last rung of the ladder, and I held out my hand to him.

Then in a moment I was beside him in a little chamber built in the walling of the well; and after me came the prior.
He jerked the ladder from side to side till the hooks above lost their hold and it fell, so that he drew it in.

We were but a few feet above the water, and the well rope hung down into the blackness before us, but I was sure that no man could see the little doorway of the chamber from above, for the trapdoor in the well cover was small, and light there was hardly any.
"Now all is safe," said the prior; "and we may be careless again." "They will burn the monastery," I said.

"One torch has been thrown already." He smiled a little, as I thought, for my eyes were growing used to the dim light.
"They may burn some things, but roof and benches are soon made afresh.

There is oaken timber in plenty in Andredsweald, and ready hands to hew it.