had flown, and, a brief
inspection of their footprints showed that, instead of proceeding
towards the town, they had returned the way they came.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

FURTHER SEARCHINGS AND PERPLEXITIES.

While these events were taking place at court, the bold chief Gadarn was
ranging the country far and wide in search of his daughter Branwen.

There was something in his manner which puzzled his followers not a
little, for he seemed to have changed his character--at least to have
added to it a strange, wild hilarity which suggested the idea that he
enjoyed the hunt and was in no hurry that it should come to an end.
Those who knew him best began at last to fear that anxiety had unsettled
his reason, and Bladud, who liked the man's gay, reckless disposition
and hearty good-humour, intermingled with occasional bursts of fierce
passion, was not only puzzled but distressed by the wild inconsistency
of his proceedings. The Hebrew, knowing to some extent the cause of
what he did, and feeling bound by his promise to conceal his knowledge,
was reduced to a state of mind that is not describable.

On the one hand there was the mystery of Cormac's total disappearance in
a short walk of three miles. On the other hand, there was the utter
uselessness of searching for Branwen, yet the urgent need of searching
diligently for Cormac. Then there was the fear of consequences when the
fiery Gadarn should come to find out how he had been deceived, or
rather, what moderns might style humbugged; add to which he was debarred
the solace of talking the subject over with Bladud, besides being, in
consequence of his candid disposition, in danger of blurting out words
that might necessitate a revelation. One consequence was that, for the
time at least, the grave and amiable Hebrew became an abrupt,
unsociable, taciturn man.

"What ails you just now, Beniah?" asked Bladud, one evening as they
walked together to Gadarn's booth, having been invited to supper. "You
seem out of condition mentally, if not bodily, as if some one had rubbed
you the wrong way."

"Do I?" answered Beniah, with a frown and something between a grin and a
laugh. "Well, it is not easy to understand one's mental complaints,
much less to explain them."

Fortunately their arrival at the booth put a timely end to the
conversation.

"Ha! my long-legged prince and stalwart Hebrew!" cried the jovial chief
in a loud voice, "I began to fear that you had got lost--as folk