eant to sit there, and that she apparently heard
nothing, Bladud resumed the conversation where it had been interrupted.

"Now, as I was saying, you know the country in all directions, and can
tell me of the most likely part where I can find what I want--a solitude
where I shall be able to escape from the face of man, and build a hut to
live in till I die. It may be long, it may be short, before death
relieves me. Meanwhile, I can hunt and provide myself with food till
the time comes."

The crooning of the old woman stopped at this point, and she sank her
face on her hands as if she had fallen asleep.

"I know of a man--a hunter," said Beniah, "a wild sort of being, who
lives a long way from here, in a beautiful part of the land, where there
is a wonderful swamp with a hot spring in the midst of it. Besides
hunting, the man who lives there cultivates the ground a little, and
keeps a few cattle and pigs. It may be that he can put you in the way
of finding what you want; and you need not tell him about your disease,
for you are not yet sure about it. Thus you will have an opportunity of
keeping out of the way of men until you find out whether the doctor is
right about it. He may be wrong, you know. Diseases sometimes resemble
each other without being the same."

Bladud shook his head.

"There can be no doubt that I am doomed," he said. "I know the disease
too well."

The Hebrew also believed that, if the doctor was right in his opinion,
there was no hope for the youth. Being unwilling, however, to dwell
upon this point, he asked--

"How did you come by it?"

"Very simply," answered the prince, who thereupon entered into a graphic
account of the incident which we have already recorded. Having done so,
he made up his mind, after some further talk, to pay a visit to the
hunter who dwelt in the region of the Hot Swamp.

"But you will not surely go without arms?" said Beniah.

"Why not? If I am doomed to die at any rate, why should I take the life
of any man to save my own?"

"Let me at least give you a bow and a sheaf of arrows. You cannot
procure food without these."

"Well, you are right. I will accept your kind offer. To say truth, my
heart was so crushed at first by this blow, that such matters did not
occur to me when I left; for it is terrible to think of having to die of
a slow disease without father, mother, or sister to comfort one!"

"It is indeed, my son," returned Beniah with much fee