en quietly in the place for two
days the men were back and at their work again. I do not think that
even our Mendip miners were so wild as these people, and their
strange Welsh was hard for me and Howel to understand. I will say
that the whole matter seemed hopeless for a time, for no man would
say anything to us about it. If we spoke to a man, questioning him,
and presently wished to find him again, he was gone, and it would
be days ere he came back.

Some of our guards knew the country as well as most, and with them
we rode many a long mile into the hills during the first few days,
searching for the deepest valleys, and ever did I look to see the
great menhir before me as we came to bend after bend of the hills.
Circles of standing stones we found, and cromlechs, ruins of
ancient round stone huts where villages had been before men could
remember, and once we saw a menhir on the hillside; but that was
not what I sought, and none could tell us of the lost valley.

Yet it was in my mind as I questioned one or two that their looks
seemed to say that the description of the place was not unknown to
them, and if they would they could tell me more. At last, when I
came to know the speech better at the end of a week, I thought that
I would try another plan; I would trust to the shepherds, and ride
alone for once across the hills. I thought that, even were I set
upon, my horse would take me from danger more quickly than hillmen
could run, and Howel, unwillingly enough, agreed that it seemed to
be the only chance. Maybe the men would speak more openly with me
on the hillside and alone.

So I asked if there was any one could tell me where there were
menhirs in the valleys, and a shepherd said that he knew two or
three. So I rode with him at my side to one of these, but it was
not that which I sought; and, as I hoped, the man was more willing
to speak, and we got on well enough. We had not met with a soul all
day, but my hawk had taken two bustard after I saw the stone and
was disappointed. One of these as a gift to the shepherd had opened
his lips wonderfully, and we were talking as we rode in the dusk,
and were not so far from the village, of another stone that I was
to see next day, when I asked him if he had ever heard of the lost
valley of pool and menhir.

He did not answer, but shrunk to my side, looking round him
fearfully.

"What comes, Lord," he said, whispering;--"see yonder?"

He pointed across the bare hillsi