But he was a foe of yours." "Laugh at me as you will," I said; "I made him my friend when I cut his bonds in your woods." He stared at me in wonder, and I told him what the hunting led to.
And then I also told of what had sent Evan among the outlaws, and how he came to fall in with me.
"You are a better man than I, Oswald," he said thoughtfully, when I ended.

"I could not have let him go.

I am glad that you did it, and that for other reasons than that the deed has turned out to be of use." Then he would hear more, and when it came to the way in which Evan had beguiled the Welsh servant he laughed.
"Surely he laid aside the squint when he made up to her, else from your account he would not have been welcome.

But he could hardly have kept it up, lest the wind should change and it should bide with him, as the old women say.

Well, I used to like the man, and so did Nona, and it is good to think that one was not so far wrong." Now we thought that on the morrow we would go with but half a dozen men to the valley, if that would seem good to Evan.