“For what he says I will undertake,” the knight said, laughing. “Wilt come to the castle, lad?”
Wulf looked from the horse to Karl and back again. ’Twere easy to see where his desire lay.
“Shall I be able to see Grandsire Karl now and then?” he asked.
“As often as need be,” said Herr Banf.
“What shall I say?” Wulf turned to Karl.
“What thou wilt,” the armorer nodded. “We have talked o’ that.”
So had they, and Wulf’s question was but the last wavering of the boy’s heart, loath to leave all it had yet known. In another moment his will regained its strength, and the matter ended in his taking again the climbing road up the Swartzburg pass, this time with a hand clinging to Herr Banf’s stirrup-leather, while the great horse stepped gently, keeping pace with the boy’s stride.
“Where didst learn to bewitch a horse, lad?” the knight asked as they journeyed. “What is thy ‘horseman’s word’?”
“I have none,” was the reply. “The horse seemed to know me, and I him. I cannot tell how or other.”
“By my forefathers, but beasts be hard to understand as men! What was’t thou didst, by the way, to the little crooked cock at the castle?”