“That will not I,” returned Bladud decisively.
“Wherefore? The Hebrew tells me you are cured; and your father will be glad to have you back.”
“It matters not. I leave not this region until I have made a more thorough search for and found the lad Cormac, or at least ascertained his fate.”
“Why so anxious about the boy? is he of kin to you?” said Gadarn in a tone that seemed to convey the slightest possible evidence of contempt.
“Ay, he is of kin,” returned Bladud, warmly; “for it seems to me sometimes that friendship is a closer tie than blood. At all events, I owe my life to him. Moreover, if he has been captured by robbers, I feel assured that he will escape before long and return to me.”
“Indeed! Are you, then, so sure of his affection? Has he ever dared to say that he—he is fond of you?”
“Truly, he never has; for we men of the southern parts of Albion are not prone to speak of our feelings, whatever you of the north may be. But surely you must know, chief, that the eyes, the tones, and the actions, have a language of their own which one can well understand though the tongue be silent. Besides, I do not see it to be a very daring act for one man to tell another that he is fond of him. And you would not wonder at my regard, if you only knew what a pure-minded, noble fellow this Cormac is,—so thoughtful, so self-sacrificing, for, you know, it must have cost him—it would cost any one—a terrible effort of self-denial to dwell in such a solitude as this for the sole purpose of nursing a stranger, and that stranger a doomed leper, as I thought at first, though God has seen fit to restore me.”
“Nevertheless, I counsel you to come with me, prince, for I have no intention of giving up the search for my child, though I mean to carry it on in a more likely region; and who knows but we may find Cormac—ha!” (here there was a peculiar catch in Gadarn’s throat which he sought to conceal with a violent sneeze)—“ha! find Cormac in the same region!”
“That is not likely. I see no reason why two people who were lost at different times, and not, as far as we know, in exactly the same place, should be found”—(here the chief had another fit of sneezing)—“be found together. At any rate, I remain here, for a time at least. My old friend Dromas will remain with me, and some of my father’s men.”
As Gadarn could not induce the prince to alter his decision, and, for reasons of his own, did not choose to enlighten him, they parted there—the chief setting off with his troops in the direction of Hudibras’ town, and the prince returning to his booth, accompanied by Captain Arkal, little Maikar, the hunter of the Hot Swamp, and about thirty of his father’s men, who had elected to stay with him.