moment he had flung his javelin among the bracken but a few paces apart.

'What beast wouldst thou slay?' cried Deirdre, affrighted.

'It was no beast,' said Nathos, 'but yonder among the bracken lieth a dead
man, if my javelin missed not its mark.'

In fear and wonder Deirdre ran to the spot. No man lay there, but she saw
on the bracken the form of a crouching man. She saw, too, the tracks that
marked his escape.

Nathos followed her, and stooped to take his javelin from the ground. And
there, beside it, lay a wooden-hilted knife.

'It is as I thought,' he said. 'This knife is used but by the hillmen who
are in bondage to Concobar. The King seeketh my life. Go thou, then, back
to thy lonely cottage, and await that day when he shall make thee his
Queen.'

'Ask me not to turn from following thee, O Nathos, for thy way must be
mine, this day and ever.'

'Come, then,' and Nathos took her by the hand.

Through the shadowy forest they walked swiftly, until of a sudden he bade
her rest among the bracken. Then went he forward and told his waiting
huntsmen to return by a long and winding path to the castle of the sons of
Usna.

Three days would it thus take them to reach it, and Nathos with Deirdre