And so we fell to talk of these visions which were so much alike, and there was but one difference in them.  In the dream of the princess the pool had been ruffled, and mine was still as glass.  And that seemed strange, and we could make nothing of it.  Then Howel came back, and there is little more to say of the doings of that evening.  There was no feasting in Gerent’s house now.

Very early in the next dawning Howel and I rode westward with five score men of Gerent’s best after us, into wilder country than I had ever yet seen; and late in the evening we came to where the countless folds of Dartmoor lie round the heads of Dart River.  And there Tregoz had set his house, and I think that it was the first that had ever been in those wilds, save the huts of the villagers.  Only the hall of the place had been burnt, and there yet stood the house of the steward on the village green, if one may call a meadow that had a dozen huts round it by that name, and we bestowed ourselves in the great room of that, while our men found places in stables and outhouses and the huts.  Every man of the place had fled as they saw us coming, for the fear of Gerent was on them; but the women and children remained, and they had heard of the son of Owen, at least, since he and I were in Dartmoor in the spring.  I had some of them brought to me when we were rested, and told them that none need fear aught, knowing that they would tell their menfolk.

And so it was, for after we had been quietly in the place for two days the men were back and at their work again.  I do not think that even our Mendip miners were so wild as these people, and their strange Welsh was hard for me and Howel to understand.  I will say that the whole matter seemed hopeless for a time, for no man would say anything to us about it.  If we spoke to a man, questioning him, and presently wished to find him again, he was gone, and it would be days ere he came back.

Some of our guards knew the country as well as most, and with them we rode many a long mile into the hills during the first few days, searching for the deepest valleys, and ever did I look to see the great menhir before me as we came to bend after bend of the hills.  Circles of standing stones we found, and cromlechs, ruins of ancient round stone huts where villages had been before men could remember, and once we saw a menhir on the hillside; but that was not what I sought, and none could tell us of the lost valley.

Yet it was in my mind as I questioned one or two that their looks seemed to say that the description of the place was not unknown to them, and if they would they could tell me more.  At last, when I came to know the speech better at the end of a week, I thought that I would try another plan; I would trust to the shepherds, and ride alone for once across the hills.  I thought that, even were I set upon, my horse would take me from danger more quickly than hillmen could run, and Howel, unwillingly enough, agreed that it seemed to be the only chance.  Maybe the men would speak more openly with me on the hillside and alone.