de, and I looked but saw nothing.

"I saw nought," I said. "Is it unlucky to speak of the place?"

"I saw somewhat leap from yonder rock," he whispered; "it went
behind that other."

Plainly the man was terrified, and I asked him what he feared.

"The good folk, Lord."

"Pixies?--Do they come when one speaks of the lost valley?"

"Speak lower, Lord,--lower! Look, yonder it is again!"

Then I also saw in the dusk the figure of a man who crept softly
from one great boulder to another, and without thinking of the
terror of the shepherd I spurred my horse, and rode straight for
the rock behind which the figure disappeared, having no mind to
have an arrow put into me at short range by one of the men of
Tregoz--or of Morfed--unawares.

The shepherd howled in fright when he was left, but I did not heed
him, and in a moment I was round the rock and almost on the
cowering man whom I had seen. He turned to fly, and I cried to him
to stop, but he only got another rock between me and him, for the
hillside was covered with them, and shrank behind it, so that I
could only see his wild eyes as he glared at me across it. He said
nothing, and I did not think that he was armed, so far as the dim
evening light would let me see.

"Why are you dogging me thus?" I cried; "come out, and no harm will
befall you."

I rode round, and he shifted as I did, so that he was between me
and the shepherd, and then I called to the latter that this was but
a man, and bade him come and help me to catch him. Whereon the man
looked swiftly over his shoulder and saw that he was fairly
trapped.

"Keep him back, Master," he said in a strange growling voice, which
was not that of a Dartmoor savage either in tone or speech. "Keep
him back, and we will talk together; I mean no harm."

But I had no need to tell the shepherd not to come, for he bided
where he was, being afraid; but I held up my hand to him as if to
bid him be still, lest the man should know that he would not help
me.

"Come out like a man," I said. "One would think that you were some
evildoer."

"Master, I will swear that I am not. Let that be, for I have
somewhat to tell you that you will be glad to hear."

"If that is true, why did you not come openly, instead of waiting
till I had you in a corner? Every one knows that there is reward
for news from any honest man."

"There are those who would take my life if they caught me, Master.
I have been seeking for speech with you alo