, leave me
some token of yours that I may think on you. Joseph said: That will I
do full gladly; now bring me your shield that I took you when ye went
into battle against King Tolleme. Then Joseph bled at the nose, so
that he might not by no means be staunched. And there upon that shield
he made a cross of his own blood. Now may ye see a remembrance that I
love you, for ye shall never see this shield but ye shall think on me,
and it shall be always as fresh as it is now. And never shall man bear
this shield about his neck but he shall repent it, unto the time that
Galahad, the good knight, bare it; and the last of my lineage shall
have it about his neck, that shall do many marvelous deeds. Now, said
King Evelake, where shall I put this shield, that this worthy knight
may have it? Ye shall leave it there as Nacien, the hermit, shall be
put after his death; for thither shall that good knight come the
fifteenth day after that he shall receive the order of knighthood: and
so...."

* * * * *

When Mallory awoke, Rowena's head was resting on his chest, and she
was breathing the soft and even breaths of untroubled sleep. Her hair,
viewed thus closely, was not as dark as he had at first believed it to
be. It was brown, really, rather than dark-brown. And astonishingly
lustrous. Without thinking, he rested his hand lightly upon her head.
She stirred then, and sat up, rubbing her plum-blue eyes. For a
moment she stared at him uncomprehendingly, then, "Prithee forgive me,
fair sir," she said.

Mallory sat up, too. "Forgive you for what? Go open a couple of vacuum
tins while I get into my armor--I'm going to bring this caper to a
close."

"Thy ... thy strength has returned?"

"I never felt better in my life."

In the rec-hall he said, sitting down at the table before one of the
two vacuum tins she had opened, "You never did ask me what happened."

"Ye will tell me of thy own will an ye wish me to know."

Mallory took a mouthful of simulsteak, chewed and swallowed. "Your Sir
Launcelot turned out to be a phony, and pulled a rabbit out of his
helmet the nature of which I'd better not try to describe to you."

Eyes round as plums, she regarded him across the table. "A ... a
phony, fair sir?"

Mallory nodded. "That's a sort of felon paynim who plays golp."

"But with my own eyes I did see his armor, fair knight."

"That's right--you saw his armor. But you didn't see him. A certain
character