Julian suggested that he and Edred should be turning back; whilst the mother, who thought that Edred was scarce fit for the saddle yet, seconded the idea with approbation.
They were passing through a very dark part of the forest, where the trees grew dense, and where on one side the sandstone rose up in a wall, quite keeping out the level rays of the rising sun.

It was almost as dim as night in this overgrown spot.
Julian sprang to his feet, and went and dutifully kissed the hand both of father and mother, and the bandaged lad with the concealed face followed his example, touching both hands reverently and gratefully, and murmuring some words of farewell that were only indistinctly heard in the champing of bits and stamping of impatient horse hoofs.

Then whilst the mother still laid many charges upon Julian to be careful of his brother, and bent a few anxious regards upon the injured lad himself, Sir Oliver gave the signal for riding on again, as they had a long day's journey before them; and the little cavalcade vanished quickly into the forest, leaving the two companions and their respective steeds standing alone in that dim place.
When the last of the horses had quite vanished, and the sound of their steps was no longer to be heard, Julian flung his cap suddenly into the air, and uttered a long and peculiar cry.
Almost immediately that cry was answered from some place near at hand, and in a few minutes more a figure strangely like the one standing at Julian's side emerged from the sheltering underwood, leading by the rein a small forest pony, such as were much used in that part of the country.

With bandaged face, hat drawn over the brows, and collar turned up to the ears, the newcomer was the very counterpart of the motionless figure in the path, save that the latter wore the better dress.

Julian burst into a great laugh as the two stood facing each other; but for Edred the meeting was fraught with too much of thankful relief for him to be able to join in his brother's hilarity, and after standing very still for a moment, he suddenly bent his knee, and felt a hand laid upon his head in mute blessing.
Then Brother Emmanuel removed the wrappings from his head, and looked from one brother to the other with a world of gratitude in his dark eyes.