It was decided, to be brief, that Dy-lee should accompany me back through the Fearful Forest to the glens, and there we two would confront the guardians and fling their lifetime of lies into their teeth. I gathered also that he would protect me on the journey from wild beasts, though how without weapons he could do this, I did not see. At any rate, he bade farewell to Zheena and I shook hands all round and we started out across the ruins, with Dy-lee’s two poorts, the tame dogwolves, running before us with their scarlet tongues lolling out and their noses in the air.
As we went toward the Fearful Forest, I struck up a song; and to its rhythm we marched bravely and in high genial comradeship.
* * * *
The oppressive woodland closing in upon us, at about the first hour after the zenith of
