n
the dreams to make us think that he was dead."

The bright face and voice cheered me wonderfully, and for the
moment, at least, I felt sure that our search would not fail. Then
I tried to persuade her not to come with us. One could not say that
there was any safety, even for her, among the men who would harm
Owen, though I thought that none would be in the least likely to
fall on Howel. Rather, they would keep out of his way altogether.
In my own mind I wished that I was going alone, or with none but
Jago, though, on the other hand, it might be possible that men
would speak to him if they would not to me. And at last I did
persuade her to bide here until we had news, promising that if need
was she should come and see the place herself when all was known.

"Well, maybe it is not so needful that I should go now," she said.
"I thought that I alone could tell my father when that valley was
found, but you know as much of it as I, and will be sure when you
stand in it."

And so we fell to talk of these visions which were so much alike,
and there was but one difference in them. In the dream of the
princess the pool had been ruffled, and mine was still as glass.
And that seemed strange, and we could make nothing of it. Then
Howel came back, and there is little more to say of the doings of
that evening. There was no feasting in Gerent's house now.

Very early in the next dawning Howel and I rode westward with five
score men of Gerent's best after us, into wilder country than I had
ever yet seen; and late in the evening we came to where the
countless folds of Dartmoor lie round the heads of Dart River. And
there Tregoz had set his house, and I think that it was the first
that had ever been in those wilds, save the huts of the villagers.
Only the hall of the place had been burnt, and there yet stood the
house of the steward on the village green, if one may call a meadow
that had a dozen huts round it by that name, and we bestowed
ourselves in the great room of that, while our men found places in
stables and outhouses and the huts. Every man of the place had fled
as they saw us coming, for the fear of Gerent was on them; but the
women and children remained, and they had heard of the son of Owen,
at least, since he and I were in Dartmoor in the spring. I had some
of them brought to me when we were rested, and told them that none
need fear aught, knowing that they would tell their menfolk.

And so it was, for after we had be