irongratings having rusted and fallen away.
After proceeding half a hundred yards, he paused. "I don't know whatwe're walking for when we've got a perfectly good horse at ourdisposal," he told the girl. "Come on, I'll help you into the saddleand I'll jump on behind."
She shook her head. "No, fair knight, it is not fitting for agentlewoman to ride tofore her champion. Ye will mount, and I willride behind."
"Suit yourself," Mallory said. He climbed into the saddle with a clankand a clatter, and helped her up on Easy Money's croup. "By the way,you never did tell me your name."
"I hight the damosel Rowena."
"Pleased to meet you," Mallory said. _Giddy-ap, Easy Money_, heencephalopathed.
They rode in silence for a little while, the light from Rowena's torchdancing acappella rigadoons on bare walls and dripping ceilings, EasyMoney's hoofbeats hardly audible above the purling of the stream.Presently Rowena said, "It were best that ye drew out thy sword, fairsir, for anon the fiend will beset us."
"He hasn't beset us yet," Mallory pointed out.
"La! fair sir, he will."
He saw no harm in humoring her, and did as she had suggested. "Youmentioned something a while back about having been given guardianshipof the Sangraal at your own request," he said. "How did that comeabout?"
"List, fair sir, and I will tell ye. But first I must tell ye of SirBors de Ganis, of which Sir Lionel is brother. It happed one day thatSir Bors did ride into a forest in the Kingdom of Mennes unto the hourof midday, and there befell him a marvelous adventure. So he met atthe departing of the two ways two knights that led Lionel, hisbrother, all naked, bounden upon a strong hackney, and his handsbounden tofore his breast. And every each of them held in his handsthorns wherewith they went beating him so sore that the blood traileddown more than in an hundred places of his body, so that he was allblood tofore and behind, but he said never a word; as he which wasgreat of heart he suffered all that ever they did to him as though hehad felt none anguish.
"Anon Sir Bors dressed him to rescue him that was his brother; and sohe looked upon the other side of him, and saw a knight which brought afair gentlewoman, and would have set her in the thickest place of theforest for to have been the more surer out of the way from them thatsought him. And she which was nothing assured cried with a high voice:'Saint Mary succor your maid.' And anon she espied where Sir Bors cameriding. And when she came nigh him she deemed him a knight of theRound Table, whereof she hoped to have some comfort; and then sheconjured him: By the faith that he ought unto him in whose servicethou art entered in, and for the faith ye owe unto the high order ofknighthood, and for the noble King Arthur's sake, that I suppose thatmade thee knight, that thou help me, and suffer me not to be shamed ofthis knight. When--"
"Just a minute," Mallory interrupted, thoroughly bewildered andsimultaneously afflicted with an irrational sense of _deja vu_. "Thisgentlewoman you speak of--would she by any chance be you?"
"Wit ye well, fair sir. When--"
"But if she's you, why don't you use the first person singular insteadof the third?"
"I wot not what--"
"Why don't you use 'I' instead of 'she' when you refer to yourselfdirectly?"
"It would not be fitting, fair knight. When Bors heard her say thus hehad so much sorrow there he nyst not what to do. For if I let mybrother be in adventure he must be slain, and that would I not for allthe earth. And if I help not the maid she is shamed for ever, andalso she shall lose her virginity the which she shall never get again.Then lift he up his eyes and said weeping: Fair sweet Lord, whoseliege man I am, keep Lionel, my brother, that these knights slay himnot, and for pity of you, and for Mary's sake, I shall succor thismaid. Then dressed he him unto the knight the which had thegentlewoman, and then--"
* * * * *
"Hist!" Mallory whispered. "I heard something."
For a moment the light flared wildly as though she had nearly droppedthe torch. "Wh ... whence came the sound, fair knight?"
"From the other side of the stream." He peered into the vacillatingshadows, but saw nothing but the darker shadows of one of theinnumerable man-made caves. The sound he had heard had brought to mindthe dull clang that metal makes when it collides with stone, and ithad been so faint as to have been barely audible above the purling ofthe stream. Thinking back, he was not altogether certain that he hadheard it at all. "My imagination's getting the best of me, I guess,"he said presently. "There's no one there."
Her warm breath penetrated the crevices of his gorget and fanned theback of his neck. "Ye ... ye ween not that it could have been thefiend prowling?"
"Of course I ween not! Relax, and finish your story. But get to thepoint, will you?"
"An ... an it so please.... And then Sir Bors cried: Sir knight, letyour hand off that maiden, or ye be but dead. And then he set down themaiden, and was armed at all pieces save he lacked his spear. Then hedressed his shield, and drew out his sword, and Bors smote him so hardthat it went through his shield and habergeon on the left shoulder.And through great strength he beat him down to the earth, and at thepulling out of Bors' spear there he swooned. Then came Bors to themaid and said: How seemeth it to you of this knight ye be delivered atthis time? Now sir, said she, I pray you lead me there as this knighthad me. So shall I do gladly: and took the horse of the woundedknight, and set the gentlewoman upon him, and so brought her as shedesired. Sir knight, said she, ye have better sped than ye weened, foran I had lost my maidenhead, five hundred men should have died for it.What knight was he that had you in the forest? By my faith, said she,he is my cousin. So wot I never with what engyn the fiend enchafedhim, for yesterday he took me from my father privily; for I nor noneof my father's men mistrusted him not, and if he had had my maidenheadhe should have died for the sin, and his body shamed and dishonoredfor ever. Thus as--"
"_Shhh!_"
This time, Mallory was certain that he had heard something. The soundhad had much in common with the previous sound, except that it hadsuggested metal scraping against, rather than colliding with, stone.Directly across the stream was another cave, this one shallow enoughto permit the torchlight to penetrate its deeper shadows, and lookinginto those shadows, he caught a faint gleam of reflected light.
Rowena must have caught it, too, for he heard her gasp behind him. "Itwere best that I thanked ye now for thy great kindness, fair knight,"she said, "for anon we be no longer on live."
"Nonsense!" Mallory said. "If this fiend of yours is anywhere in thevicinity, he's probably more afraid of us than we are of him."
The cave was behind them now. "Per ... peradventure he hath alreadyhad meat," Rowena said hopefully. "The tale saith that and the fiendbe filled, he becomes aweary and besets not them the which do pass himby in peace."
"I'll keep my sword handy, just in case he changes his mind," Mallorysaid. "Meanwhile, get on with your autobiography--only for Pete'ssake, cut it short, will you?"
"An it please, fair sir. Thus as the fair gentlewoman stood talkingwith Sir Bors there came twelve knights seeking after her, and anonshe told them all how Bors had delivered her; then they made greatjoy, and besought him to come to her father, a great lord, and heshould be right welcome. Truly, said Bors, that may not be at thistime, for I have a great adventure to do in this country. So hecommended them unto God and departed. The fair gentlewoman did grievemickle to see him leave, and she saith, sir knights, noble was theservice that brave knight did render unto thy liege's daughter in thesaving of her maidenhead the which she could never get again, for thatbe none other than his own brother the which he fauted. Therefore,noble must be both his king and his cause, wherefore it be befittingthat a gentlewoman of thy liege's daughter's nature leave the castleof her father betimes that she may render fitting service to hersuccor's cause and be worthy of his deed. Thus spake this fairgentlewoman, whereat she did mount upon her palfrey and so departedher from thence and did ride as fast as her palfrey might bear her,whereupon after many days she came to the cast
le of Carbonek and didseek out King Pelles and did beseech him that she might be madeguardian of the Sangraal, whereat he did graciously consent to herrequest and did consent also that she be made prisoner in the fortressby her own wish. And now she was bewrayed her trust, fair sir, and thetable of silver whereon the Sangraal stood stands empty."
* * * * *
For some time after she finished talking, Mallory was silent. Was shetrying to pull his leg? he wondered. Or were the gentlewomen of herday and age really as high-minded and as feathered-brained as shewould have him