The rising light cast the young man’s face into sharp andcraggy relief, fine, jutting nose, strong bones of cheek and jaw,deep shadows emphasizing the set of the mouth and the hollows ofthe eyes under the high forehead. He had washed off the dust oftravel and brushed into severe order the tangle of fair, wavinghair. The color of his eyes could not be determined at this moment,for they were cast down beneath large, arched lids at the righthand he was obediently holding close to the lamp, palm upturned.This was the young man who had brought with him into the abbey adead companion, and asked shelter for them both.

The hand he proffered deprecatingly for inspection was large andsinewy, with long, broad-jointed fingers. The damage was at onceapparent. In the heel of his palm, in the flesh at the base of thethumb, two or three ragged punctures had been aggravated bypressure into a small inflamed wound. If it was not alreadyfestering, without attention it very soon would be.

“Your porter keeps his cart in very poor shape,”said Cadfael. “How did you impale yourself like this? Pushingit out of a ditch? Or was he leaving you more than your share ofthe work to do, safe with his harness in front there? And what haveyou been using to try to dig out the splinters? A dirtyknife?”

“It’s nothing,” said the young man. “Ididn’t want to bother you with it. It was a new shafthe’d just fitted, not yet smoothed off properly. And it didmake a very heavy load, what with having to line and seal it withlead. The slivers have run in deep, there’s wood still inthere, though I did prick out some.”

There were tweezers in the medicine cupboard. Cadfael probed