om which we
had come, and steered, sailor-wise, by the sunset. But we could
take no straight course because of the hills, and we were as often
off the line as on.

Then crept up the mist from the valleys, and we had nought to steer
by, for the wind dropped. Then I said:

"Let the horses take us home; they know better than we."

So we rode on slowly until darkness came, but never saw so much as
a light that might guide us. And presently we let the dogs loose,
thinking that they would go homewards. But a greyhound is not like
a mastiff, and they hung round us, careless, or helpless, in the
mists and darkness.

Presently we came to a place where the horses stopped of their own
accord. There was a sheer rock on one side, and the hill was steep
below us, and a stream brawled somewhere before us.

"Well," I said, "here we stay for the night. It is of no use
wandering any longer, and the night is warm."

We thought nothing of this, for any hunter knows that such a chance
may befall him in a strange and wild country. So we laughed
together and off-saddled and hobbled the horses, and so sat down
supperless to wait for morning under the rock. The mist was clammy
round us, thinning and then thickening again as the breaths of wind
took it; but the moon would rise soon, and then maybe it would go.

We had no means of making a fire, and no cloaks; so sleep came
hardly, and we talked long. Then the dogs grew uneasy, and
presently wandered away into the fog and darkness. I thought that
perhaps they heard some game stirring, and did not wonder at them.

Now I was just sleeping, when I heard the sharp yelp of a dog in
pain, and sat up suddenly. Then came a second, and after that the
distant sound of voices that rose for a moment and hushed again.

"We must be close to the village after all," I said, for my
comrades were listening also; "but why did the hounds yell like
that?"

"Some old dame has taken the broomstick to them," said Kolgrim.
"They are hungry, and have put their noses into her milk pails."

"It is too late for open doors," I said; "unless they have found
our own lodging, where some are waiting for us. But there they
would not be beaten."

"Ho!" said Kolgrim, in another minute or so, "yonder is a fire."

The wind had come round the hillside and swept the mist away for a
moment, and below us in the valley was a speck of red light that
made a wide glow in the denser fog that hung there. One could
hardly say h