ed to walk by herself, leaning on her staff and guided by the
little elf, while I jumped from stone to stone in advance, seeking the
best path. But just before we reached the hay hut, the grandmother
fell; she could no longer stand or walk. We carried her in. You know
the entrance to the old cave is just beside the left corner post. Down
below there it was safe, warm, and for her no darker than above. We
spent the rest of the day and the night in it. Bissula, in spite of
every warnings would not leave the old woman and go on with me.

"She had brought some milk in a goat-skin, and rye bread. I watched
outside near the hut. In the gray dawn I stole back westward toward the
edge of the forest to watch for the helmeted Romans. Soon I saw a small
band of mounted men dash straight to Suomar's dwelling. I had hidden
our old log boat and the oars among the thickest rushes and meant to
row it through the marsh as near the hut as possible, carry the sick
woman to it, and then try to take my two mistresses to Suomar by way of
the lake. But when I reached the shore I saw several ships--their lofty
prows and triangular sails marked them as Roman galleys--moving from
Arbor on the opposite side toward our shore. They would soon be very
near. The way by the water was barred; but at the right, from the west,
I already heard the trampling of horses through the marshes and meadows
close beside me.

"Two men with arrows and long bows in their right hands dashed by, not
a spear's length distant. I crouched among the rushes, nay in the swamp
to my lips; but in doing so I startled the great egret that always
fishes there. As, screaming loudly--silly bird--he soared upward over
the rushes, he attracted the attention of the riders to himself and,
unluckily, to me too. They saw my head. A bow whirred, an arrow whizzed
through my otter cap and grazed my head. The wound wasn't deep;
Zercho's skull is hard, Suomar often says so, and this time, it was a
good thing. I now swam out into the lake, diving like a duck as long as
I could hold my breath.

"When I was forced to rise, the men had disappeared. Cautiously as the
fox stealing after the mouse, I crept on all fours through the thickest
rushes nearer to the land, in the direction of the hut, but making a
wide circuit. Then I saw two Romans in glittering armor step into the
clearing in the forest: one was leading the young mistress by the
arm--"

Adalo heard this for the second time, but he ag