ime I did so bitterly, framing to myself all sorts of ways
in which a little care might have prevented all. As if one can ever
guard against such treachery!

And then there was the fear for Hilda, none the less troublous that
I knew not what her need might be. One could believe aught of
cruelty from Quendritha.

Only these two things remained to me--one, in some measure to
redeem my word to the mother of the king by finding his body; and
the other, to stay here and watch as well as I might for chance of
helping this one who had suddenly grown to be the best part of my
life, as it seemed to me. And these things I told Erling, for he
was my comrade, and together we had been in danger, and so were
even yet. Rough he was, but with that roughness which is somehow
full of kindness. And I was glad I had told him, for he understood,
and straightway planned for me.

Most of all the difficulty in this planning lay in the outrageous
colour of my good steed. Once we thought of tarring him; but a
tarred horse would be nearly as plain to be noticed as a skew-bald.
I think it says much for the steed that neither of us thought for a
moment of parting with him. In the end we said that we would even
take our chance, for if we were sought it would not be near the
palace.

So we bent ourselves to plan the search for where the body of the
king might be hidden, and that was to unravel a tangled skein
indeed. All we knew was that the cart which had borne him from the
end of the hidden passage had gone northward along a riverside
track. Beyond that, we guessed that it might not have gone far,
whether for fear of meeting folk in the dawning, or because the
slayers would not be willing to cumber their flight for any
distance with it. Moreover, Gymbert was in the palace, as Erling
was certain.

We would ride northward and seek what we might till the time for
meeting Selred came, working down the river toward the palace from
far up stream. Sooner or later thus we should meet with the wheel
tracks, and perhaps be able to follow them whither they went into
the woodlands from the old stream-side way which Gymbert had at
first taken.

CHAPTER XIV. HOW WILFRID HAD A FRESH CARE THRUST ON HIM.

Now we were just about to ride off the ancient road into the woods
when we heard the muffled sounds of a party coming along the way.
For a moment I thought that we were pursued, but then I knew that
whoever came was bound in the direction of the p