said Osberne. "Now," she said, "I will tell thee a thing. I have
got the said pipe in my bosom now. It were good game to have it forth
and try whether it has lost its power." He said: "Well, try it." She
said: "Be there sheep about?" And there were no sheep at no great
distance.

And she drew forth the pipe and let her lips to it and played, and
there came from it that very same sweet old tune that had joyed him so
much long aforetime. But when they looked to see what would happen to
the sheep, lo and behold they stirred not at all for the sweetness of
the tune, nor made as if they heard it. So they laughed, albeit each
of them, and Elfhild in especial, was a little grieved that the power
had departed from the pipe. And they looked down towards the water,
and Elfhild half thought to see a little brown man sitting at the door
of the cave. But there was nothing; only it seemed to them both that
there came up from the water a sound that said, Give it me back again.
And Osberne said: "Didst thou hear that?" "Yea," she said, "I thought
I heard something. What shall we do?" Said he: "Why should he have his
pipe back again?" She said: "Let us see what will happen if we cast it
down to him." "Good," said Osberne, and he took the pipe, and as
deftly as he might he cast it towards the mouth of the cave, but it
fell a long way short.

But lo, as it was on the very point of striking the water it seemed
that it was wafted up to the cave's mouth, and it vanished away into
the cave no slower than might have been looked for. And a faint voice
came up from the water and said, I am pleased; good luck go with you.

So they sat down and pondered on these things a while, till at last
Elfhild said: "Now will I tell thee a tale as in old days." And he
said: "That is good." Then she began a tale which was sweet and
pleasant, and little like to those terrible things that had happened
to those two since they were sundered by the Flood. And it lasted
long, and the afternoon was hot, and they were fain for coolness' sake
to creep into the shadow of certain bushes that grew a little off the
lip of the Sundering Flood. There they rested them, and when the
shadows began to lengthen, they arose and went back hand in hand to
Wethermel as they had come.

Chapter LXVII. A Friend at Need

It was some three years after this that weaponed men came down into
the Dale. It was told to Osberne, and he took his sword and went to
meet them. He came acro