rest of Fox's tale? and am I not alone in this sea-girt wilderness?
Yea, and even that image of my Beloved which I saw in the dream,
perchance that also was a mere beguiling; for now I see that the Puny
Fox was in all ways wiser than is meet and comely." Yet again he
said: "At least I will seek on, and find out whether there be
another man dwelling on this hapless Isle, and then the worst of it
will be battle with him, and death by point and edge rather than by
hunger; or at the best we may become friends and fellows and deliver
each other." Therewith he came to the reef, and with much ado
climbed to the topmost of its rocks and looked down thence landward:
and betwixt him and the mountains, and by seeming not very far off,
he saw smoke arising: but no house he saw, nor any other token of a
dwelling. So he came down from the stone and turned his back upon
the sea and went toward that smoke with his sword in its sheath, and
his spear over his shoulder. Rough and toilsome was the way: three
little dales he crossed amidst the mountain necks, each one narrow
and bare, with a stream of water amidst, running seaward, and whether
in dale or on ridge, he went ever amidst sand and stones, and the
weeds of the wilderness, and saw no man, or man-tended beast.

At last, after he had been four hours on the way, but had not gone
very far, he topped a stony bent, and from the brow thereof beheld a
wide valley grass-grown for the more part, with a river running
through it, and sheep and kine and horses feeding up and down it.
And amidst this dale by the stream-side, was a dwelling of men, a
long hall and other houses about it builded of stone.

Then was Hallblithe glad, and he strode down the bent speedily, his
war-gear clashing upon him: and as he came to the foot thereof and
on to the grass of the dale, he got amongst the pasturing horses, and