"He never leaves his room before nine!" said another.

"Perhaps he had a business he could not leave until later?" suggested another.

"He would have told someone?"

"He's run off with my parchment!" said Duncan angrily, 'That be what he's done. It was a valuable thing too!"

"Parchment? What parchment?" asked all the monks together.

So Duncan explained it as best he could, whereupon all the monks ran to the entrance of the monastery and looked about for tracks in the dew. They were quick to find them, and away they all went, running like a crowd of girls, down the hillside and into the trees.

Duncan watched them all go. He stood by the wall and listened. Now there was no sound of the monks either. They were swallowed up by the hills and forest.

He went back into the monastery and wandered about for a while. In the meal-hall he helped himself to some more meat and drank rather a lot of wine, all the time asking the "Good Lord" to forgive him. Then he sat down at the entrance to the hall and waited.

Presently, the monks returned. Two of them held the Friar by his arms, and another carried the newspaper. They swept right past Duncan, who stood up stiffly from the cold stone, and took their captive into his own room. Duncan slipped in just before the door was banged shut.

One of the monks took control of the meeting by raising his hands and asking for silence.

"Dear brother," he said, without a trace of love in his voice, "We pray that God will forgive you this sin. The parchment was not yours, but you stole it from us. The man you have wronged (and he indicated Duncan) is both dismayed and betrayed by you. What have you got to say?"

The Friar, looking very shame-faced, cleared his throat. He still looked winded after his morning's bolt down the valley and back.

"My brothers," he said, "I was so alarmed and amazed by the words contained in this writing that I lost my senses. I pray your forgiveness!"

The monk who had taken the lead placed the newspaper on the table, spreading it out wide and flat. He began to read it, page by page. All the other monks gathered