But lo, as it was on the very point of striking the water it seemed that it was wafted up to the cave's mouth, and it vanished away into the cave no slower than might have been looked for. And a faint voice came up from the water and said, I am pleased; good luck go with you. So they sat down and pondered on these things a while, till at last Elfhild said: "Now will I tell thee a tale as in old days." And he said: "That is good." Then she began a tale which was sweet and pleasant, and little like to those terrible things that had happened to those two since they were sundered by the Flood. And it lasted long, and the afternoon was hot, and they were fain for coolness' sake to creep into the shadow of certain bushes that grew a little off the lip of the Sundering Flood. There they rested them, and when the shadows began to lengthen, they arose and went back hand in hand to Wethermel as they had come. Chapter LXVII. A Friend at Need It was some three years after this that weaponed men came down into the Dale. It was told to Osberne, and he took his sword and went to meet them. He came across them as they fared slowly down the bent, looking weary and fordone. He looked at them, and he saw that there was nothing for it but that the chiefest of them, and there were but three, was the Knight of Longshaw. So he ran up to him, and cast his arms about him, and kissed him, and asked him what ailed. And the Knight said, and laughed withal: "That has befallen me which befals most men: I have been overcome, and I believe that my foes are hard on my heels." "Will they be a many?" said Osberne. "Not in this first stour," said the Knight. "Well," said Osberne, "I will go and look to it to get a few men together to show them out of the Dale." So he turned hand in hand with the Knight of Longshaw, and cried out to Stephen the Eater to gather forth; and in an hour or so they had enough men and to spare. By that time the pursuers came glittering over the bent, so Osberne and his gathered themselves together and stood till the others came. And when they were within hail, Osberne asked: "What would ye here in arms? We are peaceable men." Said the pursuers: "We have nought to do with you, but we would have the body of a felon and a traitor hight the Knight of Longshaw." Osberne laughed and said: "Here he stands beside me; come and take him!" And the foe were some three score, all a-horseback. So they fell on without more words; but they made nothing of it, and the Wethermelers kept them aloof with spear and bill. Albeit Osberne did not draw his sword, nor did the Knight of Longshaw. Then the foemen held off a little, and they said: "Hark ye, ye up-countrymen, if ye do not give up this man, then will we burn your house to the threshold."