be sevenfold heavier on me if I am thy
traitor and dastard."

"Softly lad, softly," said Ralph, "lest some one should hear thee.
Content thee, I must needs believe thee if thou makest so much noise
about it."

Then Redhead sat him down again, and for all that he was so rough and
sturdy a carle he fell a-weeping.

"Nay, nay," said Ralph, "this is worse in all wise than the other
noise. I believe thee as well as a man can who is dealing with one who
is not his close friend, and who therefore spareth truth to his friend
because of many years use and wont. Come to thyself again and let us
look at this matter square in the face, and speedily too, lest some
unfriend or busybody come on us. There now! Now, in the first place
dost thou know why I am come into this perilous and tyrannous land?"

Said Redhead: "I have heard it said that thou art on the quest of the
Well at the World's End."

"And that is but the sooth," said Ralph. "Well then," quoth Redhead,
"there is the greater cause for thy fleeing at the time and in the
manner I have bidden thee. For there is a certain sage who dwelleth in
the wildwood betwixt that place and the Great Mountains, and he hath so
much lore concerning the Mountains, yea, and the Well itself, that if
he will tell thee what he can tell, thou art in a fair way to end thy
quest happily. What sayest thou then?"

Said Ralph, "I say that the Sage is good if I may find him. But there
is another cause why I have come hither from Goldburg." "What is that?"
said Redhead. "This," said Ralph, "to come to Utterbol." "Heaven help
us!" quoth Redhead, "and wherefore?"

Ralph said: "Belike it is neither prudent nor wise to tell thee, but I
do verily trust thee; so hearken! I go to Utterbol to deliver a friend
from Utterbol; and this friend is a woman--hold a minute--and this
woman, as I believe, hath been of late brought to Utterbol, having been
taken out of the hands of one of the men of the mountains that lie
beyond Cheaping Knowe."

Redhead stared astonished, and kept silence awhile; then he said: "Now
all the more I say, flee! flee! flee! Doubtless the woman is there,
whom thou seekest; for it would take none less fair and noble than that
new-come thrall to draw to her one so fair and noble as thou art. But
what availeth it? If thou go to Utterbol thou wilt destroy both her
and thee. For know, that we can all see that the Lord hath set his
love on this damsel; and what better can b