, running seaward, and whether in
dale or on ridge, he went ever amidst sand and stones, and the weeds of
the wilderness, and saw no man, or man-tended beast.

At last, after he had been four hours on the way, but had not gone very
far, he topped a stony bent, and from the brow thereof beheld a wide
valley grass-grown for the more part, with a river running through it,
and sheep and kine and horses feeding up and down it. And amidst this
dale by the stream-side, was a dwelling of men, a long hall and other
houses about it builded of stone.

Then was Hallblithe glad, and he strode down the bent speedily, his war-
gear clashing upon him: and as he came to the foot thereof and on to the
grass of the dale, he got amongst the pasturing horses, and passed close
by the horse-herd and a woman that was with him. They scowled at him as
he went by, but meddled not with him in any way. Although they were
giant-like of stature and fierce of face, they were not ill-favoured:
they were red-haired, and the woman as white as cream where the sun had
not burned her skin; they had no weapons that Hallblithe might see save
the goad in the hand of the carle.

So Hallblithe passed on and came to the biggest house, the hall
aforesaid: it was very long, and low as for its length, not over shapely
of fashion, a mere gabled heap of stones. Low and strait was the door
thereinto, and as Hallblithe entered stooping lowly, and the fire of the
steel of his spear that he held before him was quenched in the mirk of
the hall, he smiled and said to himself: "Now if there were one anigh who
would not have me enter alive, and he with a weapon in his hand, soon
were all the tale told." But he got into the hall unsmitten, and stood
on the floor thereof, and spake: "The sele of the day to whomsoever is
herein! Will any man speak to the new comer?"

But none answered or gave him greeting; and as his eyes got used to the
dusk of the hall, he looked about him, and neither on the floor or the
high seat nor in any ingle could he see a man; and there was silence
there, save for the crackling of the flickering flame on the hearth
amidmost, and the running of the rats behind the panelling of the walls.

On one side of the hall was a row of shut-beds, and Hallblithe deemed
that there might be men therein; but since none had greeted him he
refrained him from searching them for fear of a trap, and he thought, "I
will abide amidst the floor, and if there be any