The Well at the World's End: A Tale

  CHAPTER 7

  An Adventure by the Way

  When morrow dawned they arose betimes and did on their worldly raiment;and when they had eaten a morsel they made them ready for the road, andthe elder gave them victual for the way in their saddle-bags, saying:"This shall suffice for the passing days, and when it is gone ye havelearned what to do."

  Therewithall they gat to horse; but Ralph would have the Elder ride hisnag, while he went afoot by the side of Ursula. So the Sage took hisbidding, but smiled therewith, and said: "Thou art a King's son and afriendly young man, else had I said nay to this; for it needeth not,whereas I am stronger than thou, so hath my draught of the Well dealtwith me."

  Thus then they went their ways; but Ralph noted of Ursula that she wassilent and shy with him, and it irked him so much, that at last he saidto her: "My friend, doth aught ail me with thee? Wilt thou not tellme, so that I may amend it? For thou are grown of few words with meand turnest thee from me, and seemest as if thou heedest me little.Thou art as a fair spring morning gone cold and overcast in theafternoon. What is it then? we are going a long journey together, andbelike shall find little help or comfort save in each other; and illwill it be if we fall asunder in heart, though we be nigh in body."

  She laughed and reddened therewithal; and then her countenance fell andshe looked piteously on him and said: "If I seemed to thee as thousayest, I am sorry; for I meant not to be thus with thee as thoudeemest. But so it is that I was thinking of this long journey, and ofthee and me together in it, and how we shall be with each other if wecome back again alive, with all things done that we had to do."

  She stayed her speech awhile, and seemed to find it hard to give forththe word that was in her; but at last she said: "Friend, thou mustpardon me; but that which thou sawest in me, I also seemed to see inthee, that thou wert grown shy and cold with me; but now I know it isnot so, since thou hast seen me wrongly; but that I have seen theewrongly, as thou hast me."

  Therewith she reached her hand to him, and he took it and kissed it andcaressed it while she looked fondly at him, and they fared on sweetlyand happily together. But as this was a-saying and a-doing betwixtthem, and a while after, they had heeded the Elder little or not atall, though he rode on the right hand of Ralph. And for his part theold man said naught to them and made as if he heard them not, when theyspake thuswise together.

  Now they rode the wood on somewhat level ground for a while; then thetrees began to thin, and the ground grew broken; and at last it wasvery rugged, with high hills and deep valleys, and all the landpopulous of wild beasts, so that about sunset they heard thrice theroar of a lion. But ever the Sage led them by winding ways that heknew, round the feet of the hills, along stream-sides for the mostpart, and by passes over the mountain-necks when they needs must, whichwas twice in the day.

  Dusk fell on them in a little valley, through which ran a stream bushedabout its edges, and which for the rest was grassy and pleasant, withbig sweet-chestnut trees scattered about it.

  "Now," quoth the Elder; "two things we have to beware of in thisvalley, the lions first; which, though belike they will not fall uponweaponed men, may well make an onslaught on your horses, if they windthem; and the loss of the beasts were sore to you as now. But thesecond thing is the chase from Utterbol. As to the lions, if ye buildup a big fire, and keep somewhat aloof from the stream and its bushes,and tether you horses anigh the fire, ye will have no harm of them."

  "Yea," said Ralph, "but if the riders of Utterbol are anigh us, shallwe light a candle for them to show them the way?" Said the Sage: "Wereye by yourselves, I would bid you journey night-long, and run all riskrather than the risk of falling into their hands. But whereas I amyour guide, I bid you kindle your fire under yonder big tree, and leaveme to deal with the men of Utterbol; only whatso I bid you, that do yestraightway."

  "So be it," said Ralph, "I have been bewrayed so oft of late, that Imust needs trust thee, or all help shall fail me. Let us to work." Sothey fell to and built up a big bale and kindled it, and their horsesthey tethered to the tree; and by then they had done this, dark nighthad fallen upon them. So they cooked their victual at the fire (forRalph had shot a hare by the way) and the Sage went down to the streamand fetched them water in a lethern budget: "For," said he, "I knowthe beasts of the wood and they me, and there is peace betwixt us."There then they sat to meat unarmed, for the Sage had said to them:"Doff your armour; ye shall not come to handystrokes with the UtterbolRiders."

  So they ate their meat in the wilderness, and were nowise ungleeful,for to those twain the world seemed fair, and they hoped for greatthings. But though they were glad, they were weary enough, for the wayhad been both rugged and long; so they lay them down to sleep while thenight was yet young. But or ever Ralph closed his eyes he saw the Sagestanding up with his cloak wrapped about his head, and making strangesigns with his right hand; so that he deemed that he would ward them bywizardry. So therewith he turned about on the grass and was asleep atonce.

  After a while he started and sat up, half awake at first; for he feltsome one touch him; and his halfdreams went back to past days, and hecried out: "Hah Roger! is it thou? What is toward?" But therewith hewoke up fully, and knew that it was the Sage that had touched him, andwithal he saw hard by Ursula, sitting up also.

  There was still a flickering flame playing about the red embers oftheir fire, for they had made it very big; and the moon had arisen andwas shining bright in a cloudless sky.

  The Sage spake softly but quickly: "Lie down together, ye two, and Ishall cast my cloak over you, and look to it that ye stir not from outof it, nor speak one word till I bid you, whate'er may befall: for theriders of Utterbol are upon us."

  They did as he bade them, but Ralph got somewhat of an eye-shot out ofa corner of the cloak, and he could see that the Sage went and stood upagainst the tree-trunk holding a horse by the bridle, one on each sideof him. Even therewith Ralph heard the clatter of horse-hoofs over thestones about the stream, and a man's voice cried out: "They will haveheard us; so spur over the grass to the fire and the big tree: forthen they cannot escape us." Then came the thump of horse-hoofs on theturf, and in half a minute they were amidst of a rout of mena-horseback, more than a score, whose armour and weapons gleamed in themoonlight: yet when these riders were gotten there, they were silent,till one said in a quavering voice as if afeard: "Otter, Otter! what isthis? A minute ago and we could see the fire, and the tree, and menand horses about them: and now, lo you! there is naught save two greatgrey stones lying on the grass, and a man's bare bones leaning upagainst the tree, and a ruckle of old horse-bones on either side ofhim. Where are we then?"

  Then spake another; and Ralph knew the voice for Otter's: "I wot not,lord; naught else is changed save the fire and the horses and the men:yonder are the hills, yonder overhead is the moon, with the littlelight cloud dogging her; even that is scarce changed. Belike the firewas an earth-fire, and for the rest we saw wrong in the moonlight."

  Spake the first man again, and his voice quavered yet more: "Nay nay,Otter, it is not so. Lo you the skeleton and the bones and the greystones! And the fire, here this minute, there the next. O Otter, thisis an evil place of an evil deed! Let us go seek elsewhere; let usdepart, lest a worse thing befall us." And so with no more ado heturned his horse and smote his spurs into him and galloped off by theway he had come, and the others followed, nothing loth; only Ottertarried a little, and looked around him and laughed and said: "Theregoes my Lord's nephew; like my Lord he is not over bold, save indealing with a shackled man. Well, for my part if those others havesunk into the earth, or gone up into the air, they are welcome to theirwizardry, and I am glad of it. For I know not how I should have doneto have seen my mate that out-tilted me made a gelded wretch of; and itwould have irked me to see that fair woman in the hands of thetormentors, though forsooth I have oft seen such sights. Well, it isgood; but better were it to ride with my mate than serve the Devil andhis Nephew."

 
Therewith he turned rein and galloped off after the others, and in alittle while the sound of them had died off utterly into the night, andthey heard but the voices of the wild things, and the wimbrel laughingfrom the hill-sides. Then came the Sage and drew the cloak from thosetwo, and laughed on them and said: "Now may ye sleep soundly, when Ihave mended our fire; for ye will see no more of Utterbol for thistime, and it yet lacks three hours of dawn: sleep ye then and dream ofeach other." Then they arose and thanked the Sage with whole hearts andpraised his wisdom. But while the old man mended the fire Ralph wentup to Ursula and took her hand, and said: "Welcome to life,fellow-farer!" and he gazed earnestly into her eyes, as though he wouldhave her fall into his arms: but whereas she rather shrank from him,though she looked on him lovingly, if somewhat shyly, he but kissed herhand, and laid him down again, when he had seen her lying in her place.And therewith they fell asleep and slept sweetly.