uld not see much of him. He spoke to another, and then came into
the open, peering up and down the moonlit river. Another joined
him, and this newcomer wore mail which glistened as he turned. A
third man came from the other side of the wood and saw these two,
and came to them, and there they stood and wondered.

"I could swear the girl went into the wood," said one; "I saw her
plainly."

"Then she must be there still," answered the second comer. "Get
back and look again."

"We have beaten the wood as if for a hare," said the third. "Unless
she has climbed a tree she is not there."

"Well, then, look in the trees," said the mailed man, and with that
he came down to the water, and turned his face toward us.

It was Gymbert himself.

"Mayhap she has drowned herself," said one of the men sullenly.

Gymbert growled somewhat, and turned sharply, going back to the
wood. The other men looked after him, and one chuckled.

"Best thing she could do," he said. "Gymbert would surely have sold
her to the Welsh."

"Maybe made her his own slave, which were worse."

"No, but he is out of favour just now. The money she would fetch
will be more to him maybe. He dare not let Offa see him."

They turned away slowly. At least it did not seem that these two
were much in earnest in the matter. As they went, one asked the
other who cried the chase back after all.

"Some fool on the other side who doesn't care to own to it now,
seeing that he must have fancied he saw her," was the answer.

Then they turned into the wood again and were gone. Still we
waited; and it was as well, for suddenly Gymbert came back, leaping
out into the open as if he thought to surprise the lost object of
his search. He glanced up and down, and then went back. I heard him
call his men together and rate them, and so they seemed to pass
back to the palace. Their voices rose and died away, and we were
safe.

CHAPTER XV. HOW WILFRID'S SEARCH WAS REWARDED.

For ten minutes after the last voice was to be heard we waited, and
then, leaving two pools of water where we had lain, we crept back
to the open and sought Hilda. I feared to find her chilled with the
passage of the river; but, in some way which is beyond me, she had
made to herself, as it were, dry clothing of the cloak she had
given to Erling. What she had taken off had been carefully wrung
out, and lay near her in a bundle. She laughed a little when I told
her that I had been troubling about