"Laugh at me as you will," I said; "I made him my friend when I cut
his bonds in your woods."

He stared at me in wonder, and I told him what the hunting led to.
And then I also told of what had sent Evan among the outlaws, and
how he came to fall in with me.

"You are a better man than I, Oswald," he said thoughtfully, when I
ended. "I could not have let him go. I am glad that you did it, and
that for other reasons than that the deed has turned out to be of
use."

Then he would hear more, and when it came to the way in which Evan
had beguiled the Welsh servant he laughed.

"Surely he laid aside the squint when he made up to her, else from
your account he would not have been welcome. But he could hardly
have kept it up, lest the wind should change and it should bide
with him, as the old women say. Well, I used to like the man, and
so did Nona, and it is good to think that one was not so far
wrong."

Now we thought that on the morrow we would go with but half a dozen
men to the valley, if that would seem good to Evan. If he thought
more were needed it would be easy to call them to us from the place
where we were to meet him; and so we slept as well as the thought
of that search would let us, and it was a long night to me. I think
it was so for Howel also, for once in the night he stirred and
spoke my name softly, and finding that I waked he said:

"I know why that girl of Mara's would not tell who set her on you.
It is not like a maid to be sparing with her mistress' secrets, and
Morfed is at the back of it. It is his work, and he laid a curse on
the girl if she told who sent her. About the only thing that would
keep her quiet."

"Why would Morfed want to hurt me?"

"Plain enough is that. If you were slain, Gerent would hold Ina
responsible for Owen's sake, and Ina would blame Gerent, and there
would be a breach at the least in the peace that your bishop has
made."

Then we were silent, and presently sleep came to me, until the
first light crept into the house and woke me.

In an hour we were riding across the hills with Evan, for whom we
had brought a horse, and there were fifty men with us. We should
leave them at a place which Evan would show us, and so go on with
him without them. It was not so certain that we might not run into
the nest of the men who had taken Owen, though this would surely
not be in the lost valley.

Many a long mile Evan led us into the hills northwestward, and far
beyond where I