The king listened a moment and said: "They still search--I wit the sign.

We did best to abide." He was right.

He knew more about hunting than I did.

The noise approached steadily, but not with a rush.

The king said: "They reason that we were advantaged by no parlous start of them, and being on foot are as yet no mighty way from where we took the water." "Yes, sire, that is about it, I am afraid, though I was hoping better things." The noise drew nearer and nearer, and soon the van was drifting under us, on both sides of the water.