Part 16 (1/2)

OsG.o.d had charge of the boy, and was walking close beside him. As the question was put by the interpreter the boy muttered that he knew the way.

The man turned to translate his answer to Beorn, when there was a sudden shout. At the moment that OsG.o.d was making a long step from one tuft to another the boy stooped and caught his foot, and with a roar of surprise and fury OsG.o.d fell head-foremost into the mora.s.s. At the same moment the lad darted away with a yell of defiance, leaping from tuft to tuft with the agility of a hare. Several of the men started after him, but unaccustomed to the treacherous bog four or five were immersed in it to their waist before they had gone a dozen paces.

”Shoot! shoot!” Beorn shouted, and a dozen javelins were thrown, but the boy was almost beyond distance, and his rapid and irregular movements rendered it well-nigh impossible to take aim with any accuracy. Most of the javelins flew wide of him, and he was soon beyond reach. OsG.o.d was well-nigh smothered before he could be rescued, and some of the other men were only hauled out with the greatest difficulty. Three or four of the most active men were sent forward, but presently returned with the news that the bog became worse.

”The sun has already set,” Wulf said, ”and if darkness catches us here our plight will be a bad one. Let us retrace our steps at once, Beorn.”

It was with great difficulty that they made their way back to firm ground.

By the time they did so darkness had fallen.

”This is a bad business altogether, Beorn,” Wulf said. ”In the first place we have lost our guide; in the second place we have no idea where we are, for we may for aught we know have been going in the wrong direction all the time; and, besides this, the boy will raise the country against us, and in the morning we may be attacked by an overwhelming force.”

”What do you think we had better do, Wulf?”

”Well, I should say we had better, in the first place, retrace our steps to the valley, there we will light fires and cook the meat we have brought with us. Then I should say we had best march for some hours. It matters not in what direction so that we get as far as possible from here.”

As Beorn could suggest nothing better, Wulf's counsel was carried out.

Supper was cooked and eaten in the forest, and after two hours for rest, for the march had been a very fatiguing one, they started. The night was moonless, and in the shadow of the trees the darkness was intense. The housecarls kept together, moving as closely as possible to each other. The levies were ordered to follow them.

After proceeding for two hours, Wulf said, ”Let us halt and see if we are all together.” The housecarls halted, but when he went to the rear Wulf could see no signs of the irregulars.

”Let no man speak or move,” he said, ”I want to listen.”

But no sound broke the stillness of the wood.

”How foolish of Oswald and Edred,” he said to Beorn.

”We told them to follow with their levies close behind us, and they must have allowed them to fall to the rear. However, they can't be far behind.”

They waited for half an hour, but the silence continued unbroken.

”Do you shout, OsG.o.d,” Wulf said; ”they ought to hear miles away on a still night like this.”

OsG.o.d--who had scarcely spoken since his fall, so furious was he at having been outwitted by a boy, and having not only allowed him to escape, but being himself rolled in the mire--raised his voice in a tremendous shout.

All listened intently, but no answering sound came back.

”They must have gone altogether wrong,” Wulf said. ”You know that we crossed a streamlet that ran into this brook soon after we started. They must have followed that up, thinking we had done so, and have gone up some other valley. What is to be done, Beorn?”

”We crossed that streamlet half an hour after starting,” Beorn said, ”and as we have spent half an hour here they must have by this time marched up it two-hours' journey, and if we retrace our steps to that point they will have got an hour and a half farther away; besides, they may have gone back when they missed us. There is no saying which way to look for them. I think we had better go on as before. In the morning we shall be able to see the nature of the country, but to look for people who may be miles and miles away, when one cannot see one's own hand, would be but lost time and labour, and methinks we shall have need to husband all our strength before we get out of the sc.r.a.pe into which we have fallen. If the two thanes had obeyed orders and kept closer this would not have happened. They have lost us by their own carelessness, and must manage as they can. We shall have all our work to do to look out for ourselves. Seventy men lost in the heart of these savage hills, which by to-morrow morning will swarm with Welsh, have but a poor chance of ever seeing the English border again.”

”It is not so bad as that, Beorn. I do not say that we are not in an unpleasant position, but at any rate we are a great deal better off than we were when we were driving headlong on to the coast of Normandy, or when there were but three of us in the midst of the Bretons. They have to find us in the first place, and it will need a good many of them to overcome us when they do. I fancy that we are very near the head of this valley, the ground is rising rapidly. I propose that we push on now till the trees cease, and lie down there till morning breaks, and then cross the next hill so as to find shelter in some other valley before the sun is fairly up.

From the top of the hill we may get a general view of the country, and shall have some idea as to the course to take. We must first of all try to find a native who can tell us which is the direction of Porthwyn and how far it lies away. Our orders are to reconnoitre it and that must be done before there is any question of return. Even if I were absolutely alone, I would carry out that order.”

Beorn was silent for a minute, and then said doubtfully, ”Perhaps you are right, Wulf; but when Gurth gave us the order he gave us more than three hundred men to carry it out, and we have now but seventy.”

By this time they were on their way up the valley, followed by their men.

”The fact that two hundred and fifty men have left us really makes the matter easier than it would otherwise have been,” Wulf said. ”Of course our guide carried the news of our coming straight to Porthwyn, and it is like enough that fires are at present blazing on the hills. The larger division is more likely to be seen than ours, and to be attacked, and we shall have all the more chance of getting up un.o.bserved. I sincerely trust that the thanes, when they discover that they have lost us, will at once lead their men back to Gurth's camp. In that case they may escape before the Welsh can a.s.semble and attack them; and as it would naturally be supposed that as soon as we had lost our guide we retreated in a body, the Welsh will imagine that there is no occasion for further vigilance.”