The carles of Burgdale listened eagerly to what he said, and they looked at him with great eyes and marvelled; and their hearts were moved with pity towards him; and Stone-face said:
“Herein, O War-leader, need I give thee no rede, for thou mayst see clearly that all we deem that we should lose our manhood and become the dastards of the Warrior if we did not abide the coming of these poor men, and take them back to the Dale, and cherish them.”
“Yea,” said Wolf of Whitegarth, “and great thanks we owe to this man that he biddeth us this: for great will be the gain to us if we become so like the Gods that we may deliver the poor from misery. Now must I needs think how they shall wonder when they come to Burgdale and find out how happy it is to dwell there.”
“Surely,” said Face-of-god, “thus shall we do, whatever cometh of it. But, friend of the wood, as to thralls, there be none such in the Dale, but therein are all men friends and neighbours, and even so shall ye be.”
And he fell a-musing, when he bethought him of how little he had known of sorrow.
But that man, when he beheld the happy faces of the Burgdalers, and hearkened to their friendly voices, and understood what they said, and he also was become strong with the meat and drink, he bowed his head adown and wept a long while; and they meddled not with him, till he turned again to them and said:
“Since ye are in arms, and seem to be seeking your foemen, I suppose ye wot that these tyrants and man-quellers will fall upon you in Burgdale ere the summer is well worn.”
“So much we deem indeed,” said Face-of-god, “but we were fain to hear the certainty of it, and how thou knowest thereof.”
Said the man: “It was six moons ago that I fled, as I have told you; and even then it was the common talk amongst our masters that there were fair dales to the south which they would overrun. Man would say to man: We were over many in Silverdale, and we needed more thralls, because those we had were lessening, and especially the women; now are we more at ease in Rosedale, though we have sent thralls to Silverdale; but yet we can bear no more men from thence to eat up our stock from us: let them fare south to the happy dales, and conquer them, and we will go with them and help therein, whether we come back to Rosedale or no. Such talk did I hear then with mine own ears: but some of those whom I shall bring to you tomorrow shall know better what is doing, since they have fled from Rosedale but a few days. Moreover, there is a man and a woman who have fled from Silverdale itself, and are but a month from it, journeying all the time save when they must needs hide; and these say that their masters have got to know the way to Burgdale, and are minded for it before the winter, as I said; and nought else but the ways thither do they desire to know, since they have no fear.”
By then was night come, and though the moon was high in heaven, and lighted all that waste, the Burgdalers must needs light a fire for cooking their meat, whatsoever that woodsman might say; moreover, the night was cold and somewhat frosty. A little before they had come to that place they had shot a fat buck and some smaller deer, but of other meat they had no great store, though there was wine enough. So they lit their fire in the thickest of the thorn-bush to hide it all they might, and thereat they cooked their venison and the trouts which the runaway had taken, and they fell to, and ate and drank and were merry, making much of that poor man till him-seemed he was gotten into the company of the kindest of the Gods.
But when they were full, Face-of-god spake to him, and asked him his name; and he named himself Dallach; but said he: “Lord, this is according to the naming of men in Rosedale before we were enthralled: but now what names have thralls? Also I am not altogether of the blood of them of Rosedale, but of better and more warrior-like kin.”
Said Face-of-god: “Thou hast named Silverdale; knowest thou it?”
Dallach answered: “I have never seen it. It is far hence; in a week’s journey, making all diligence, and not being forced to hide and skulk like those runaways, ye shall come to the mouth thereof lying west, where its rock-walls fall off toward the plain.”
“But,” said Face-of-god, “is there no other way into that Dale?”
“Nay, none that folk wot of,” said Dallach, “except to bold cragsmen with their lives in their hands.”
“Knowest thou aught of the affairs of Silverdale?” said Face-of-god.
Said Dallach: “Somewhat I know: we wot that but a few years ago there was a valiant folk dwelling therein, who were lords of the whole dale, and that they were vanquished by the Dusky Men: but whether they were all slain and enthralled we wot not; but we deem it otherwise. As for me it is of their blood that I am partly come; for my father’s father came thence to settle in Rosedale, and wedded a woman of the Dale, who was my father’s mother.”
“When was it that ye fell under the Dusky Men?”
