บทที่ บทที่ 6 · THE OLD MAN TELLS WALTER OF HIMSELF. WALTER SEES A SHARD IN

. THE OLD MAN TELLS WALTER OF HIMSELF. WALTER SEES A SHARD IN

THE CLIFF-WALL

But when they had done their meat and drink the master and the shipmen

went about the watering of the ship, and the others strayed off along the

meadow, so that presently Walter was left alone with the carle, and fell

to speech with him and said: "Father, meseemeth thou shouldest have some

strange tale to tell, and as yet we have asked thee of nought save meat

for our bellies: now if I ask thee concerning thy life, and how thou

camest hither, and abided here, wilt thou tell me aught?"

The old man smiled on him and said: "Son, my tale were long to tell; and

mayhappen concerning much thereof my memory should fail me; and withal

there is grief therein, which I were loth to awaken: nevertheless if thou

ask, I will answer as I may, and in any case will tell thee nought save

the truth."

Said Walter: "Well then, hast thou been long here?"

"Yea," said the carle, "since I was a young man, and a stalwarth knight."

Said Walter: "This house, didst thou build it, and raise these garths,

and plant orchard and vineyard, and gather together the neat and the

sheep, or did some other do all this for thee?"

Said the carle: "I did none of all this; there was one here before me,

and I entered into his inheritance, as though this were a lordly manor,

with a fair castle thereon, and all well stocked and plenished."

Said Walter: "Didst thou find thy foregoer alive here?"

"Yea," said the elder, "yet he lived but for a little while after I came

to him."

He was silent a while, and then he said: "I slew him: even so would he

have it, though I bade him a better lot."

Said Walter: "Didst thou come hither of thine own will?"

"Mayhappen," said the carle; "who knoweth? Now have I no will to do

either this or that. It is wont that maketh me do, or refrain."

Said Walter: "Tell me this; why didst thou slay the man? did he any

scathe to thee?"

Said the elder: "When I slew him, I deemed that he was doing me all

scathe: but now I know that it was not so. Thus it was: I would needs go

where he had been before, and he stood in the path against me; and I

overthrew him, and went on the way I would."

"What came thereof?" said Walter.

"Evil came of it," said the carle.

Then was Walter silent a while, and the old man spake nothing; but there

came a smile in his face that was both sly and somewhat sad. Walter

looked on him and said: "Was it from hence that thou wouldst go that

road?"

"Yea," said the carle.

Said Walter: "And now wilt thou tell me what that road was; whither it

went and whereto it led, that thou must needs wend it, though thy first

stride were over a dead man?"

"I will not tell thee," said the carle.

Then they held their peace, both of them, and thereafter got on to other

talk of no import.

So wore the day till night came; and they slept safely, and on the morrow

after they had broken their fast, the more part of them set off with the

carle to the hunting, and they went, all of them, a three hours' faring

towards the foot of the cliffs, which was all grown over with coppice,

hazel and thorn, with here and there a big oak or ash-tree; there it was,

said the old man, where the venison was most and best.

Of their hunting need nought be said, saving that when the carle had put

them on the track of the deer and shown them what to do, he came back

again with Walter, who had no great lust for the hunting, and sorely

longed to have some more talk with the said carle. He for his part

seemed nought loth thereto, and so led Walter to a mound or hillock

amidst the clear of the plain, whence all was to be seen save where the

wood covered it; but just before where they now lay down there was no

wood, save low bushes, betwixt them and the rock-wall; and Walter noted

that whereas otherwhere, save in one place whereto their eyes were

turned, the cliffs seemed wellnigh or quite sheer, or indeed in some

places beetling over, in that said place they fell away from each other

on either side; and before this sinking was a slope or scree, that went

gently up toward the sinking of the wall. Walter looked long and

earnestly at this place, and spake nought, till the carle said: "What!

thou hast found something before thee to look on. What is it then?"

Quoth Walter: "Some would say that where yonder slopes run together up

towards that sinking in the cliff-wall there will be a pass into the

country beyond."

The carle smiled and said: "Yea, son; nor, so saying, would they err; for

that is the pass into the Bear-country, whereby those huge men come down

to chaffer with me."

"Yea," said Walter; and therewith he turned him a little, and scanned the

rock-wall, and saw how a few miles from that pass it turned somewhat

sharply toward the sea, narrowing the plain much there, till it made a

bight, the face whereof looked wellnigh north, instead of west, as did

the more part of the wall. And in the midst of that northern-looking

bight was a dark place which seemed to Walter like a downright shard in

the cliff. For the face of the wall was of a bleak grey, and it was but

little furrowed.

So then Walter spake: "Lo, old friend, there yonder is again a place that

meseemeth is a pass; whereunto doth that one lead?" And he pointed to

it: but the old man did not follow the pointing of his finger, but,

looking down on the ground, answered confusedly, and said:

"Maybe: I wot not. I deem that it also leadeth into the Bear-country by

a roundabout road. It leadeth into the far land."

Walter answered nought: for a strange thought had come uppermost in his

mind, that the carle knew far more than he would say of that pass, and

that he himself might be led thereby to find the wondrous three. He

caught his breath hardly, and his heart knocked against his ribs; but he

refrained from speaking for a long while; but at last he spake in a sharp

hard voice, which he scarce knew for his own: "Father, tell me, I adjure

thee by God and All-hallows, was it through yonder shard that the road

lay, when thou must needs make thy first stride over a dead man?"

The old man spake not a while, then he raised his head, and looked Walter

full in the eyes, and said in a steady voice: "NO, IT WAS NOT."

Thereafter they sat looking at each other a while; but at last Walter

turned his eyes away, but knew not what they beheld nor where he was, but

he was as one in a swoon. For he knew full well that the carle had lied

to him, and that he might as well have said aye as no, and told him, that

it verily was by that same shard that he had stridden over a dead man.

Nevertheless he made as little semblance thereof as he might, and

presently came to himself, and fell to talking of other matters, that had

nought to do with the adventures of the land. But after a while he spake

suddenly, and said: "My master, I was thinking of a thing."

"Yea, of what?" said the carle.

"Of this," said Walter; "that here in this land be strange adventures

toward, and that if we, and I in especial, were to turn our backs on

them, and go home with nothing done, it were pity of our lives: for all

will be dull and deedless there. I was deeming it were good if we tried

the adventure."

"What adventure?" said the old man, rising up on his elbow and staring

sternly on him.

Said Walter: "The wending yonder pass to the eastward, whereby the huge

men come to thee from out of the Bear-country; that we might see what

should come thereof."

The carle leaned back again, and smiled and shook his head, and spake:

"That adventure were speedily proven: death would come of it, my son."

"Yea, and how?" said Walter.

The carle said: "The big men would take thee, and offer thee up as a

blood-offering to that woman, who is their Mawmet. And if ye go all,

then shall they do the like with all of you."

Said Walter: "Is that sure?"

"Dead sure," said the carle.

"How knowest thou this?" said Walter.

"I have been there myself," said the carle.

"Yea," said Walter, "but thou camest away whole."

"Art thou sure thereof?" said the carle.

"Thou art alive yet, old man," said Walter, "for I have seen thee eat thy

meat, which ghosts use not to do." And he laughed.

But the old man answered soberly: "If I escaped, it was by this, that

another woman saved me, and not often shall that befall. Nor wholly was

I saved; my body escaped forsooth. But where is my soul? Where is my

heart, and my life? Young man, I rede thee, try no such adventure; but

go home to thy kindred if thou canst. Moreover, wouldst thou fare alone?

The others shall hinder thee."

Said Walter: "I am the master; they shall do as I bid them: besides, they

will be well pleased to share my goods amongst them if I give them a

writing to clear them of all charges which might be brought against

them."

"My son! my son!" said the carle, "I pray thee go not to thy death!"

Walter heard him silently, but as if he were persuaded to refrain; and

then the old man fell to, and told him much concerning this Bear-folk and

their customs, speaking very freely of them; but Walter's ears were

scarce open to this talk: whereas he deemed that he should have nought to

do with those wild men; and he durst not ask again concerning the country

whereto led the pass on the northward.