th he turned aside to a cranny of the rock, and going down on his
hands and knees, fell to creeping like a worm up a hole therein, which
belike led to a cavern; for after his voice had come forth from the
earth, grunting and groaning, and cursing this thing, and that, out he
comes again feet first, and casts down an old rusty sword without a
sheath; a helm no less rusty, and battered withal, and a round target,
curled up and outworn as if it would fall to pieces of itself. Then he
stands up and stretches himself, and smiles pleasantly on Hallblithe and
says: "Now, mine enemy, when I have donned helm and shield and got my
sword in hand, we may begin the play: as to a hauberk I must needs go
lack; for I could not come by it; I think the old man must have chaffered
it away: he was ever too money-fain."

But Hallblithe looked on him angrily and said: "Hast thou brought me
hither to mock me? Hast thou no better weapons wherewith to meet a
warrior of the Raven than these rusty shards, which look as if thou hadst
robbed a grave of the dead? I will not fight thee so armed."

"Well," said the Puny Fox, "and from out of a grave come they verily: for
in that little hole lieth my father's grandsire, the great Sea-mew of the
Ravagers, the father of that Sea-eagle whom thou knowest. But since thou
thinkest scorn of these weapons of a dead warrior, in go the old carle's
treasures again! It is as well maybe; since he might be wrath beyond his
wont if he were to wake and miss them; and already this cold cup of the
once-boiling rock is not wholly safe because of him."

So he crept into the hole once more, and out of it presently, and stood
smiting his palms one against the other to dust them, like a man who has
been handling parchments long laid by; and Hallblithe stood looking at
him, still wrathful, but silent.

Then said the Puny Fox: "This at least was a wise word of thine, that
thou wouldst not fight me. For the end of fighting is slaying; and it is
stark folly to fight without slaying; and now I see that thou desirest
not to slay me: for if thou didst, why didst thou refuse to fall on me
armed with the ghosts of weapons that I borrowed from a ghost? Nay, why
didst thou not slay me as I crept out of yonder hole? Thou wouldst have
had a cheap bargain of me either way. It would be rank folly to fight
me."

Said Hallblithe hoarsely: "Why didst thou bewray me, and lie to me, and
lure me away from the quest of my beloved, an