ey when we
came to it, but this Evan would not suffer. There was not room for
us to ride abreast into its depths, for the narrow bottom of the
cleft in the hills was littered with fallen boulders from the
steeps that bordered it, and through these we had to pick our way.
There was no path, nor was it possible to trace any mark of the
foot of man or horse that might have been there before us, and the
valley turned almost in a half circle, so that we could see no
distance before us.

Now, I know that Evan had a hard struggle with his fears, but
nevertheless, without drawing rein he led on, only turning to me
with one word that told me that we had found the place; and as he
turned I saw that his face was ashy pale, and as he rode on he
crossed himself again and again, and his lips moved in prayer.

Down the long curve of the valley we rode, and it ever narrowed
under rocky hills that grew at last to cliffs, and I knew that this
must be but the bed of a raging torrent in the winter, for the
stones that rattled under the horse hoofs were rounded, and here
and there were pools of clear water among them. Any moment now
might set us face to face with what I longed to see.

And when I saw Evan, ten paces ahead of me, straighten himself in
the saddle as if he would guard a blow from his face, and draw
rein, I knew that we were there, and I rode to his side and looked.

Suddenly the valley had ended in the place which I had seen in my
vision--a rugged circle of cliffs, in whose only outlet, to all
seeming, we stood. And in the midst of that circle was the pool of
still, black water, and across that towered the tall menhir from a
green bank on which it stood facing me. All round the pool was
green grass, bright with the treacherous greenness that tells of
deep bog beneath it, and then fair turf, and beyond the turf the
rocky scree from the cliffs again. The menhir was full thrice a
man's height.

It was even as I had seen it. I knew every rock and patch of green,
and the very outline of the edge of the beetling crags that had
been so plain to me in the dream light ere Owen called me.

But I did not heed these things at the first. My eyes went to the
place where Nona the princess had seen the sword in the long grass
on the hither side of the pool's edge, but I could not see it now.
Then I must ride forward and search for it, and at that time Howel
was close to me, and together we rode yet a little farther into the
circle th