rd as a Hebrew. But--?"

With another laugh the boy interrupted him, turned, and disappeared in
the woods.

"A strange, though a good and affectionate boy," remarked Bladud when
the Hebrew returned. "What said he?"

"He bade me examine your arm, and tell him what I think of it on his
return."

"That is of a piece with all the dear boy's conduct," returned the
prince. "You have no idea what a kind nurse he has been to me, at a
time when I was helpless with fever. Indeed, if I had not been helpless
and delirious, I would not have allowed him to come near me. You have
known him before, it seems?"

"Yes; I have known him for some time."

From this point the prince pushed the Hebrew with questions, which the
latter--bearing in remembrance the sharpness of Gadarn's sword, and the
solemnity of his promise--did his best to evade, and eventually
succeeded in turning the conversation by questioning Bladud as to his
intercourse with the hunter of the Swamp, and his mode of life since his
arrival in that region. Then he proceeded to examine the arm
critically.

"It is a wonderful cure," he said, after a minute inspection. "Almost
miraculous."

"Cure!" exclaimed the prince. "Do you, then, think me cured?"

"Indeed I do--at least, very nearly so. I have had some experience of
your complaint in the East, and it seems to me that a perfect cure is at
most certain--if it has not been already effected."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

DESCRIBES AN ARDENT SEARCH.

While the prince and the Hebrew were thus conversing, Cormac was
speeding towards the camp of Gadarn. He quickly arrived, and was
immediately arrested by one of the sentinels. Taken before one of the
chief officers, he was asked who he was, and where he came from.

"That I will tell only to your chief," said the lad.

"_I_ am a chief," replied the officer proudly.

"That may be so; but I want to speak with _your_ chief, and I must see
him alone."

"Assuredly thou art a saucy knave, and might be improved by a
switching."

"Possibly; but instead of wasting our time in useless talk, it would be
well to convey my message to Gadarn, for my news is urgent; and I would
not give much for your head if you delay."

The officer laughed; but there was that in the boy's tone and manner
that induced him to obey.

Gadarn, the chief, was seated on a tree-stump inside of a booth of
boughs, leaves, and birch-bark, that had been hastily constructed for
his accommodation