“Who wrought this plot?  Was it Mara, the Cornish lady?”

“I do not think so,” he answered, shaking his head.  “There is one thing that the girl would never tell me.  In no wise could I get the name of the one who gave her the poison.  I do not know where she fled to, but it is likely that it was to that one.”

“Some day you shall know how grateful I am for this, Evan,” I said.  “Now I must go.  Only one thing more.—­Where do you sleep?”

“Wheresoever I may, that I may be near you, Thane.  Now meet me tomorrow at this place, and we will go to the lost valley.  After that let me serve you for good and all if I may.  I can do many things for you, and you had my life in your hand and gave it back to me; though indeed I know that it was hard for you to do so, seeing that a thane is sorely wronged by being bound by such as I.”

“I can give you little, Evan; but I can, as I have said, find you a place in the court, whence you may rise.”

“Let me serve you, Master,” he said earnestly.  “I have served myself for long enough, and it has not turned out well.  If I please you not, I will go where you bid me, but in anywise let me try.”

“As you will,” I said.  “I owe you well-nigh aught you can ask, and this is little enough.”

Then I shook hands with him and parted.  It was a strange meeting.

I went back to Howel with a mind that was full of what I might find on the morrow, but with little hope that there would be anything of sign that Owen yet lived.  Howel was growing anxious for me as the darkness fell, and was glad to greet me, and I suppose my face told him somewhat.

“Why,” he said, as I stepped into the firelight on the hearth of the little house, “what is this?  Have you heard news at last?”

“I have found one who will take us to the lost valley, but nothing more.  I have heard nought fresh, but that there was indeed a priest with the men who took Owen away.”

“Well, we guessed as much as that; but I tell you plainly, Oswald, that I fear what may be in store for us in that place.  Nona is not the girl to fancy things, and I know that her dreams must have been terrible to her.  And then you also—­”

“I fear, too,” I said.  “But I do not think that anything will be worse than this long uncertainty.  Well, that is to be seen.  Now I must tell you who it is that is to guide us, and maybe you will say that it is a strange story enough.  Have patience until you hear all, however.”

So I told him, beginning with the certainty that I had had some friend at work for me, and then telling him at last that I had found the man who had indeed saved me from these two dangers, and would also have saved Owen if he could.

“Why, how is it that he kept himself hidden all the time?”

“For good reason enough, in which you have some share,” I answered, laughing.  “It is none other than Evan the chapman.”