o so. And it is better that you cross the sea no more,
for if ever any one of the men of Gerent or Ina catch you your life
will be forfeit."

"I will get me to North Wales or Mercia, Thane, and there will I
live honestly, and that I will swear. Only, I will pray you not to
tell Howel that I am free."

"I am like to tell no man," I answered grimly. "For I should but be
called a soft-hearted fool for my pains."

"Yet shall you be glad that you freed me. Bid Owen the prince look
to the door before ever he opens it. Bid him wear his mail day and
night, and never ride unguarded. Let him have one whom he trusts to
sleep across his doorway, until Tregoz and his men are all
accounted for."

"Well, then," I said, "farewell--as well as you shall deserve
hereafter. You best know if you have one safe place left to you in
England or in Wales."

"I was not all so bad until the law hounded me forth from men," he
said. "I have yet places where I am held as an honest man."

Now I had enough of him, and I would not ask him more of himself
yet I will say that my heart softened somewhat toward him, for I
knew that here also he had been well thought of. Almost did I
forget how he had treated me, for now that seemed a grudge against
Tregoz. Maybe that was all foolishness on my part, but I am not
ashamed thereof today, as I was then.

"Stay, have you any weapon?" I said, as I was turning away. "There
are many ills that may befall an unarmed man in a wild country."

"There was a seax here," he said, rising stiffly. "They left it on
the ground, that I might see help out of my reach, as it were. Ay,
here it is."

He took it up, and I knew that after all he had felt somewhat as he
had made me feel when I saw help close to me and might not have it.
I pitied him, for I knew well what his torture had been. Ay, and I
will tell this, that men may know how this terror burnt into me.
Many a time have I let a trapped rat go, because I would not see
the agony of dumb helplessness in anything. It frays me. There is
no wonder that I set Evan free.

I said no more, but left him staring after me with the seax in his
hand, and rode on my way, thinking most of all of the peril that
was about Owen, and longing to be back with him that I might guard
him. It seemed likely now that Gerent could take all these men
whose names I had heard without the least trouble, for they could
not deem that their plans were known. Ina would surely let me bide
with m