"
"How can he help us in our enterprise if he be indeed blind?"
asked Nigel.
"It is for that very reason, fair lord, that he can be of greater
service than any other man," Simon answered; "for it often happens
that when a man has lost a sense the good God will strengthen
those that remain. Hence it is that Andreas has such ears that he
can hear the sap in the trees or the cheep of the mouse in its
burrow. He has come to help us to find the tunnel."
"And I have found it," said the blind man proudly. "Here I have
placed my staff upon the line of it. Twice as I lay there with my
ear to the ground I have heard footsteps pass beneath me."
"I trust you make no mistake, old man," said Nigel.
For answer the blind man raised his staff and smote twice upon the
ground, once to the right and once to the left. The one gave a
dull thud, the other a hollow boom.
"Can you not hear that?" he asked. "Will you ask me now if I make
a mistake?"
"Indeed, we are much beholden to you!" cried Nigel. "Let the
peasants dig then, and as silently as they may. Do you keep your
ear upon the ground, Andreas, so that if anyone pass beneath us we
shall be warned."
So, amid the driving rain, the little group toiled in the
darkness. The blind man lay silent, flat upon his face, and twice
they heard his warning hiss and stopped their work, whilst some
one passed beneath.
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