jar, said to his companion, Sajar-Ho: 'See
now, when the King's axeman smites a man upon the neck that man
dies.'

And the other said that this was so. Then said Seejar: 'And even
though Welleran smite a man with his sword no more befalleth him
than death.'

Then Sajar-Ho thought for a while. Presently he said: 'Yet the eye
of the King's axeman might err at the moment of his stroke or his
arm fail him, and the eye of Welleran hath never erred nor his arm
failed. It were better to bide here.'

Then said Seejar: 'Maybe that Welleran is dead and that some other
holds his place upon the ramparts, or even a statue of stone.'

But Sajar-Ho made answer: 'How can Welleran be dead when he even
escaped from two score horsemen with swords that were sworn to slay
him, and all sworn upon our country's gods?'

And Seejar said: 'This story his father told my grandfather
concerning Welleran. On the day that the fight was lost on the
plains of Kurlistan he saw a dying horse near to the river, and the
horse looked piteously towards the water but could not reach it.
And the father of my grandfather saw Welleran go down to the river's
brink and bring water from it with his own hand and give it to the
horse. Now we are in as sore a plight as was that horse, and as
near to death; it may be that Welleran will pity us, while the
King's axeman cannot because of the commands of the King.'

Then said Sajar-Ho: 'Thou wast ever a cunning arguer. Thou
broughtest us into this trouble with thy cunning and thy devices, we
will see if thou canst bring us out of it. We will go.'

So news was brought to the King that the two prisoners would go down
to Merimna.

That evening the watchers led them to the mountain's edge, and
Seejar and Sajar-Ho went down towards the plain by the way of a deep
ravine, and the watchers watched them go. Presently their figures
were wholly hid in the dusk. Then night came up, huge and holy, out
of waste marshes to the eastwards and low lands and the sea; and the
angels that watched over all men through the day closed their great
eyes and slept, and the angels that watched over all men through the
night awoke and ruffled their deep blue feathers and stood up and
watched. But the plain became a thing of mystery filled with fears.
So the two spies went down the deep ravine, and coming to the plain
sped stealthily across it. Soon they came to the line of sentinels
asleep upon the sand, and one stirred in his s