very glad you've come, sir,'said Dan.'It doesn't matter in the
least about the banks.'

He trotted across the pasture on the sword side of the mighty horse,
and it was a mighty iron-handled sword that swung from Sir Richard's
belt. Una walked behind with Puck. She remembered everything now.

'I'm sorry about the Leaves,' he said, 'but it would never have done if
you had gone home and told, would it?'

'I s'pose not,' Una answered. 'But you said that all the fair--People
of the Hills had left England.'

'So they have; but I told you that you should come and go and look and
know, didn't I? The knight isn't a fairy. He's Sir Richard
Dalyngridge, a very old friend of mine. He came over with William the
Conqueror, and he wants to see you particularly.'

'What for?' said Una.

'On account of your great wisdom and learning,' Puck replied, without a
twinkle.

'Us?' said Una. 'Why, I don't know my Nine Times--not to say it
dodging, and Dan makes the most awful mess of fractions. He can't mean
us!'

'Una!' Dan called back. 'Sir Richard says he is going to tell what
happened to Weland's sword. He's got it. Isn't it splendid?'

'Nay--nay,' said Sir Richard, dismounting as they reached the Ring, in
the bend of the mill-stream bank. 'It is you that must tell me, for I
hear the youngest child in our England today is as wise as our wisest
clerk.' He slipped the bit out of Swallow's mouth, dropped the
ruby-red reins over his head, and the wise horse moved off to graze.

Sir Richard (they noticed he limped a little) unslung his great sword.

'That's it,' Dan whispered to Una.

'This is the sword that Brother Hugh had from Wayland-Smith,' Sir
Richard said. 'Once he gave it me, but I would not take it; but at the
last it became mine after such a fight as never christened man fought.
See!' He half drew it from its sheath and turned it before them. On
either side just below the handle, where the Runic letters shivered as
though they were alive, were two deep gouges in the dull, deadly steel.
'Now, what Thing made those?' said he. 'I know not, but you, perhaps,
can say.'

'Tell them all the tale, Sir Richard,' said Puck. 'It concerns their
land somewhat.'

'Yes, from the very beginning,' Una pleaded, for the knight's good face
and the smile on it more than ever reminded her of 'Sir Isumbras at the
Ford'.

They settled down to listen, Sir Richard bare-headed to the sunshine,
dandling the sword in both hands,