and so
looked at the place. There was a long cleft between two layers of
rock which went back into the cliff's face for some depth, with a
little backward slope that had saved the helpless man from rolling
out again, and there was a raven's nest at one end of it. One may
see that cleft from below and across the gorge if one knows where
to look, but not by any means from above, by reason of the overhang
of the brink. It was plain that, as he thought, the horse's body,
or maybe its shoulder, thrust him into the cleft, but it was well
that he was senseless and so could not struggle, or he would have
surely missed it. It is his saying that he had no trouble in
getting into the place, but more in climbing out.

Now we called the good news to some of our people and the villagers
who were on the road below, and they broke into cheers as they
heard it. They could hardly believe that the man they had seen on
the edge just now was Erpwald himself. Then we went down to the
village, meeting the men with the ropes halfway, and so came to the
first houses of the street, where the ealdorman was standing
outside one of the better sort. He came to meet us, and I never saw
anything like the look on his face when he saw Erpwald and heard
his cheerful greeting. I told him how things ended.

"I have given a lot of trouble, as it seems" Erpwald said humbly;
"but I could not help it."

"Trouble!" said the ealdorman. "Had it not been for you there would
have been nought but trouble for me all the rest of my life."

He took Erpwald's hand as he spoke and pressed it, but he would not
say more then. Maybe he could not. So he turned to me.

"It is all right, Oswald, for Elfrida is herself again, and she saw
nothing after she looked into the gulf below her. I have told her
nothing."

"Do not tell her anything, Ealdorman," Erpwald said. "No need to
say what a near thing it was, or that I handled her like a sack of
oats. She would never forgive me. But Oswald says it was all that I
could have done. It was a good thing that he was there to take
her."

"How are you going to account for the broken head, then?"

"Say I was thrown from my horse afterward, or somewhat of that
kind," he said. "Or, stay, these will do it. I have been birds'
nesting. I thought these would please her. One gets falls while
scrambling after the like."

He put his hand into his pouch as he spoke.

"Plague on it, one is broken," he said, bringing out a raven's egg.