The visitor referred to in the last chapter was a tall, broad-shouldered old man with a snowy head of hair and a flowing white beard, a long, loose black garment, and a stout staff about six feet long.

 

Cormac had gone to a spring for water at the time he arrived, and Bladud was lying on his back inside his hut.

 

“Is any one within?” demanded the stranger, lifting a corner of the curtain.

 

“Enter not here, whoever you are!” replied the prince quickly, springing up—“stay—I will come out to you.”

 

“You are wonderfully inhospitable,” returned the stranger, as the prince issued from the hut and stood up with an inquiring look which suddenly changed to one of astonishment.

 

“Beniah!” he exclaimed.

 

“Even so,” replied the Hebrew, holding out his hand, but Bladud drew back.

 

“What! will you neither permit me to enter your house nor shake your hand? I was not so churlish when you visited my dwelling.”

 

“You know well, old man, that I do not grudge hospitality, but fear to infect you.”

 

“Yes, I know it well,” rejoined the Hebrew, smiling, “and knowing that you were here, I turned aside on my journey to inquire as to your welfare.”

 

“I have much to say about my welfare and strange things to tell you, but first let me know what has brought you to this part of the land—for if you have turned aside to see me—seeing me has not been your main object.”

 

“You are right. Yet it pleases me well to use this opportunity, and to see by your looks and bearing, that the disease seems to have been arrested.”

 

“Yes, thanks be to the All-seeing One, I am well, or nearly so. But proceed to explain the reason of your journey.”

 

“The cause of it is the unaccountable disappearance of the girl named Branwen.”

 

“What! she who is the bosom friend of my sister Hafrydda?”

 

“The same. She had fled, you may remember, from your father’s court for fear of being compelled to wed with Gunrig, the chief whose crown you cracked so deftly on the day of your arrival. She, poor thing, took refuge at first with me. I hid her for some time—”

 

“Then,” interrupted the prince, “she must have been hidden in your hut at the time of my visit!”

 

“She was. But that was no business of yours.”

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