! Will you shake hands before we ride?"

"No, choke me! I'd sooner ding my dagger in your neck."

So they rejoined the waiting group and rode forward, Tad moodily in
advance, Llyn and his sons in a whispering bunch some yards behind. It
had been Tad's own suggestion that he ride forward and meet the Gethins
so they might be lured the more easily to the turn beyond the bridge.
Now they followed on till they saw the white masonry gleaming in the
moonlight, and then the dark form of Tad's horse crossing it, when there
was a halt and a grim tightening of belts and loosening of swords. And
as the man on the bridge threw up his arm, Llyn answered the sign
hoarsely: "God keep thee, son of Gruffydd!" he cried. Then as his sons
closed in he turned on them sternly: "Remember, lads! who touches him
touches me. Ah! steady now! Forward!"

Even as they clattered on the bridge Tad's challenge and signal to his
kinsmen rang out furiously:

"The Wolf! The Wolf and Saint David!"

Then came a rush of horse and steel and wild-eyed men, which but for
their preparation would have swept the Gethins down. As it was they met
it fiercely as it came. They had not come unarmed--perhaps wise old Llyn
distrusted such late penitence even as did his sons. Be that as it may,
the cry of "Cadwallader!" rose against "The Wolf!" and bore it back, for
even in the first wild rush, Cedric fell away before a long, swift
thrust, and a moment later Rhys, the youngest of the house went down and
died beneath the stamping iron hoofs.

When Llyn saw this he called to stop the fight, but Tad, in a frenzy of
horror and remorse, flung on again with Garth and Levin striking wild
beside him. 'Twas a wicked rush, but now the fight stood five to three,
and in the crash Levin slipped and got a dagger in his throat, while Tad
spurred through an open way. Then as he reined and turned, the end was
come, for Garm's shrill death-cry tore the air, and he was left alone.

Thrice he charged like a wounded boar, shouting hoarsely for the house
he had betrayed. "The Wolf! The Wolf! Saint David and the Wolf!"

And ever he found that open way and ever their steel avoided him.

At last he reined in his sweating mare and fell to cursing, his face
distraught with agony and wet with blood and sweat and tears. So he
stood, desperate--at bay, and taunted them with every vileness his
furious tongue could frame. Then faltered at last with a great
heartbroken sob, for they sat silent a