came and only birds on high branches still had light;
and they never saw the King of Shadow Valley or any trace whatever of
any man. And Alderon first returned to the encampment; but Rodriguez
searched on into the night, searching and calling through the darkness,
and feeling, as every minute went by and every faint call of Morano,
that his castle was fading away, slipping past oak-tree and thorn-bush,
to take its place among the unpitying stars. And when he returned at
last from his useless search he found Morano standing by a good fire,
and the sight of it a little cheered Rodriguez, and the sight of the
firelight on Morano's face, and the homely comfort of the camp, for
everything is comparative.

And over their supper Rodriguez and Alderon agreed that they had come
to a part of the forest too remote from the home of the King of Shadow
Valley, and decided to go the next day to the house of the green
bowmen: and before he slept Rodriguez felt once more that all was well
with his castle.

Yet when the next day came they searched again, for Rodriguez
remembered how it was to this very place that the King of Shadow Valley
had bidden him come in four weeks, and though this period was not yet
accomplished, he felt, and Alderon fully agreed, they had waited long
enough: so they searched all the morning, and then fulfilled their
decision of overnight by riding for the great cottage Rodriguez knew.
All the way they met no one. And Rodriguez' gaiety came back as they
rode, for he and Don Alderon recognised more and more clearly that the
bowmen's great cottage was the place they should have gone at first.

In early evening they were just at their journey's end; but barely had
they left the track that they had ridden the day before, barely taken
the smaller path that led after a few hundred yards to the cottage when
they found themselves stopped by huge chains that hung from tree to
tree. High into the trees went the chains above their heads where they
sat their horses, and a chain ran every six inches down to the very
ground: the road was well blocked.

Rodriguez and Alderon hastily consulted; then, leaving the horses with
Morano, they followed the chains through dense forest to find a place
where they could get the horses through. Finding the chains go on and
on and on, and as evening was drawing in, the two friends divided,
Alderon going back and Rodriguez on, agreeing to meet again on the path
where Morano was.

It was