camp on the warren, and all the
poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why,
that seer was worth the philosopher's stone, and could make Sir Bale's
fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he
did not.

So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day
himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of
Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a
little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in
his excursions up the mountains.

"Feltram!" shouted Sir Bale.

Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal.

"I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual
clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other
side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the
person about whom you are always thinking."

"Who said I am always thinking about him?" said the Baronet angrily; for
he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it.

"_I_ say it, because I _know_ it; and _you_ know it also. See that clump
of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, grows
an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H--F; so large
and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure them,
although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the trunk
of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are looking up
the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where stands
Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find our
fortune-teller?"

"That is exactly what I wish to know," answered Sir Bale; "because,
although I can't, of course, believe that he's a witch, yet he has
either made the most marvellous fluke I've heard of, or else he has got
extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on
chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he's a marvellous
fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and
perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an
arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any
matter of the same kind again."

"I think he's willing to see you; but he's a fellow with a queer fancy
and a pig-head. He'll not come here; you must go to him; and approach
him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he
invites you