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Not knowing the country thoroughly, however, Addedomar met some slight obstructions, which, necessitating occasional detours from the straight path, delayed him a little, so that it was very near dawn when he reached the neighbourhood of Gadarn's camp.
Turning sharp to the left, the robbers then made for the lower end of the flat, still followed closely by Gadarn's band, now swelled by that of Gunrig. As had been anticipated, they almost ran into the arms of Bladud's contingent, which met them with a yell of rage, and the yell was answered by a shriek of terror.
I should not wonder, too, if it was Hudibras' own daughter that has run away. Not unlikely, for the king is well known to be a tyrannical old fellow. H'm! we will search for her also. If we find them all, I shall have more than enough of wives the king's daughter, and Gadarn's daughter, and this run-away-lad, whoever she may be! Learned you anything more?"
One consequence was that, for the time at least, the grave and amiable Hebrew became an abrupt, unsociable, taciturn man. "What ails you just now, Beniah?" asked Bladud, one evening as they walked together to Gadarn's booth, having been invited to supper. "You seem out of condition mentally, if not bodily, as if some one had rubbed you the wrong way."
"But how why wherefore came you ?" exclaimed the Hebrew, pausing in perplexity. "Ask no questions, old man," returned the youth with a laugh. "There is no time to explain . He will suspect robbers old mother bad son escape boy's dress fill up that story if you can! More hereafter. But observe, if you say one word about me to anybody, Gadarn's sword is sharp and his arm strong! You promise?"
From this point the prince pushed the Hebrew with questions, which the latter bearing in remembrance the sharpness of Gadarn's sword, and the solemnity of his promise did his best to evade, and eventually succeeded in turning the conversation by questioning Bladud as to his intercourse with the hunter of the Swamp, and his mode of life since his arrival in that region.
She wore no ornament of any kind save, on one side of her beautiful head, a small bunch of wild-flowers that had survived the frost. At the time of their entrance, Bladud was stooping to talk with Hafrydda and did not observe them, but when he heard Gadarn's sonorous voice he turned with interest to listen.
The arrows, which even during flight were being got ready for Gadarn's host, were suddenly discharged at the men in the gully; but the aim was wild, and the only shaft which took serious effect found its billet in the breast of Gunrig himself. He plucked it savagely out and continued the charge at the head of his men.
"Thou wilt know how to act, my little one," said the chief. "Yes, better even than you imagine, my big one," replied Cormac. "What! is there something beyond my ken simmering in thy noddle, thou pert squirrel?" "Perchance there is, father dear." A sound at the root of Gadarn's nose betrayed suppressed laughter, as he turned away.
Some even came from the great western island called Erin, and others from the remote isle of the north which lay beyond Gadarn's country, and was at a later period named Ultima Thule. "I wonder when they're going to stop coming," remarked Gadarn to King Hudibras, as the self-invited guests came pouring in. "Let them come," replied the jovial king, with the air of a man of unlimited means.
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