shorter, if ye know it as I do." Quoth the
Sage: "Yea, or as I do. Hear a wonder! that two men of Swevenham know
the wilds more than twenty miles from their own thorp."

Said Ralph: "Well, wend we the shorter road; why make more words over
it? Or what lion lieth on the path? Is it that we may find it hard to
give the go-by to the Burg of the Four Friths?"

Said Richard: "Though the Burg be not very far from Whitwall, we hear
but little tidings thence; our chapmen but seldom go there, and none
cometh to us thence save such of our men as have strayed thither. Yet,
as I said e'en now in the hostel, there is an air of tidings abroad,
and one rumour sayeth, and none denieth it, that the old fierceness and
stout headstrong mood of the Burg is broken down, and that men dwell
there in peace and quiet."

Said the Sage: "In any case we have amongst us lore enough to hoodwink
them if they be foes; so that we shall pass easily. Naught of this
need we fear."

But Richard put his mouth close to Ralph's ear, and spake to him
softly: "Shall we indeed go by that shorter road, whatever in days gone
by may have befallen in places thereon, to which we must go a-nigh
tomorrow?" Ralph answered softly in turn: "Yea, forsooth: for I were
fain to try my heart, how strong it may be."

So they rode on, and turned off from the road that led down to the ford
of the Swelling Flood, anigh which Ralph had fallen in with Blaise and
Richard on the day after the woeful slaying, which had made an end of
his joy for that time. But when they were amidst of the bushes and
riding a deep ghyll of the waste, Richard said: "It is well that we
are here: for now if Blaise send riders to bring us back courteously,
they shall not follow us at once, but shall ride straight down to the
ford, and even cross it in search of us." "Yea," said Ralph, "it is
well in all wise."

So then they rode thence awhile till the moon grew low, and great, and
red, and sank down away from them; and by then were they come to a
shepherd's cot, empty of men, with naught therein save an old dog, and
some victual, as bread and white cheese, and a well for drinking. So
there they abode and rested that night.

CHAPTER 15

A Strange Meeting in the Wilderness

On the morrow betimes they got to the road again; the country at first,
though it was scanty of tillage, was not unfurnished of sheep, being
for the most part of swelling hills and downs well grassed, with h