Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 143: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CONRAD regarding her tenderly she took a falter- ing step toward them and swooned in the queen’s arms. CHAPTER XVII. THE SAXON HEART, ONRAD and Loris made a camp in Selwocd forest for the first night, and reached the seacoast the next day, but there were no trading ships there, and of the hardy fishermen of Somerset there were to be found only a few aged fellows too infirm to march to war. The Somerset men were in Athelney, whence the travel- ers had come, training for war against the Dane. Conrad was disappointed and depressed, and he viewed the waters of Bristol Chan- nel with dull eyes. ‘““ Must I stay here, then, and be a hermit on the beach forevermore?” he demanded of Loris. ‘‘ Go back to Athelney I never will. I have known too much anguish in these last hours to go back and be flouted and laughed at by a woman.” “The coast of Britain is a long one,” said the clown, ‘‘ and if a man were to keep on walking he’d surely come at last to a ship, for [ never heard of a coast that had no ships. And I’d not go back, if I were you, master, for you don’t know yet how well off you are. Any woman can make trouble for any man, but your strong-willed woman is the worst, and if she’d make you so downhearted now, what would she do if you were married to her?” “You are a fool by trade, and it follows that you must be a fool by nature, Loris!” said Conrad sullenly. ‘ What do you know about women?” “Enough to leave ’em alone, master,” said the jester, “and there are some very wise and learned men who cannot say as much. Your hermit is the happiest man of all, and he doesn’t need to live in a cell to be one. I’ve been a hermit these twenty years or more, but I’ve lived in the seclu- sion of the merry world, and been alone as much as any anchorite on a mountain top. I’ve never tied myself to any woman nor any woman to me, so I’m as free as the THE SAXON. 617 birds—nay, I’m freer than the birds of the air, for they’re great on marrying; and I have known right handsome birds to be henpecked till they’d sit on the eggs like old hens. ‘““ Tl never say the Lady Edith is no fine and beautiful lady,” he continued, “ but— by your leave, master—when I saw her come from the postern gate at the castle, all in hose and doublet like a boy, and cast herself in your arms, I said to myself: * There’s the end of a fine young gentle- man, for he’ll be no more than half a man hereafter.’ A little more, and you’d made your escape from the castle, a free man, but these women don’t let a man escape so easy.” ‘That will do, Loris!”’ snapped Conrad. “You chatter like a magpie, and for noth- ing. You’re a good-natured fellow, and mean well enough, but your sober wits were clipped in early life. I’m a broken man. For every man there is the one woman somewhere in the world. Fate led me to my mate, but she was more cruel that fate, and she cast me out.” Loris smiled respectfully, and answered in a subdued voice: “T’ve heard tell of these true mates a thousand miles apart, and it may be so ordered, but I’ve noticed that most good men find the one woman without going far. Wherever a man finds himself, and there are women there, the one woman will pop up before he’s grown much older—and I’ve seen good fellows take up with some sadly ill-favored wenches and swear that fate had a hand in it.” On the following day, as no sail ap- peared on Bristol Channel, Conrad grudg- ingly took the clown’s advice and started a melancholy march around the coast of Britain. Still no seaworthy craft was sighted, and Loris modified his counsel. There were good mariners on the Cornish coast, he said, and time might be saved by cutting across the peninsula to the south. “With Cornwall full of Danes, and the coast the landing place of all their pirates!” objected the young man. “ Britain’s full of sharp-nosed hounds,” argued Loris, “ yet the fox manages a living along the hedgerows. And there’s this CONMC OOO (E©)