“Evan!—­How did he escape the Caerau wolves?  I tell you that I had him tied up for them—­and hard words from Nona did I get therefore when she knew.  I was ashamed of myself for the thing afterwards, and on my word I am glad he got away.  But when I am wroth I wax hasty, and things go hard with those who have angered me.  But he was a foe of yours.”

“Laugh at me as you will,” I said; “I made him my friend when I cut his bonds in your woods.”

He stared at me in wonder, and I told him what the hunting led to.  And then I also told of what had sent Evan among the outlaws, and how he came to fall in with me.

“You are a better man than I, Oswald,” he said thoughtfully, when I ended.  “I could not have let him go.  I am glad that you did it, and that for other reasons than that the deed has turned out to be of use.”

Then he would hear more, and when it came to the way in which Evan had beguiled the Welsh servant he laughed.

“Surely he laid aside the squint when he made up to her, else from your account he would not have been welcome.  But he could hardly have kept it up, lest the wind should change and it should bide with him, as the old women say.  Well, I used to like the man, and so did Nona, and it is good to think that one was not so far wrong.”

Now we thought that on the morrow we would go with but half a dozen men to the valley, if that would seem good to Evan.  If he thought more were needed it would be easy to call them to us from the place where we were to meet him; and so we slept as well as the thought of that search would let us, and it was a long night to me.  I think it was so for Howel also, for once in the night he stirred and spoke my name softly, and finding that I waked he said: 

“I know why that girl of Mara’s would not tell who set her on you.  It is not like a maid to be sparing with her mistress’ secrets, and Morfed is at the back of it.  It is his work, and he laid a curse on the girl if she told who sent her.  About the only thing that would keep her quiet.”

“Why would Morfed want to hurt me?”

“Plain enough is that.  If you were slain, Gerent would hold Ina responsible for Owen’s sake, and Ina would blame Gerent, and there would be a breach at the least in the peace that your bishop has made.”

Then we were silent, and presently sleep came to me, until the first light crept into the house and woke me.

In an hour we were riding across the hills with Evan, for whom we had brought a horse, and there were fifty men with us.  We should leave them at a place which Evan would show us, and so go on with him without them.  It was not so certain that we might not run into the nest of the men who had taken Owen, though this would surely not be in the lost valley.

Many a long mile Evan led us into the hills northwestward, and far beyond where I had yet been.  I cannot tell how far it was altogether, for the way was winding, but I lost sight of all landmarks that I knew, and ever the bare hills grew barer and yet more wild, and I could understand that there were places where even the shepherds never went.