Then said Fox: "Abide ye here a little; for I would go into the hall alone and see the conditions of thy people, O Hallblithe." "Go thou, then," said Hallblithe, "but be not rash.

I counsel thee; for our folk are not over-patient when they deem they have a foe before them." The Puny Fox laughed, and said: "So it is then the world over, that happy men are wilful and masterful." Then he drew his sword and smote on the door with the pommel, and the door opened to him and in he went: and he found that fair hall full of folk and bright with candles; and he stood amidst the floor; all men looked on him, and many knew him at once to be a man of the Ravagers, and silence fell upon the hall, but no man stirred hand against him.

Then he said: "Will ye hearken to the word of an evil man, a robber of the folks ?" Spake the chieftain from the dais: "Words will not hurt us, sea-warrior; and thou art but one among many; wherefore thy might this eve is but as the might of a new-born baby.

Speak, and afterwards eat and drink, and depart safe from amongst us!" Spake the Puny Fox: "What is gone with Hallblithe, a fair young man of your kindred, and with the Hostage of the Rose, his troth-plight maiden ?" Then was the hush yet greater in the hall, so that you might have heard a pin drop; and the chieftain said: "It is a grief of ours that they are gone, and that none hath brought us back their dead bodies that we might lay them in the Acre of the Fathers." Then leapt up a man from the end-long table nigh to Fox, and cried out: "Yea, folk! they are gone, and we deem that runagates of thy kindred, O new-come man, have stolen them from us; wherefor they shall one day pay us." Then laughed the Puny Fox and said: "Some would say that stealing Hallblithe was like stealing a lion, and that he might take care of himself; though he was not as big as I am." Said the last speaker: "Did thy kin or didst thou steal him, O evil man ?" "Yea, I stole him," quoth Fox, "but by sleight, and not by might." Then uprose great uproar in the hall, but the chieftain on the high-seat cried out: "Peace, peace!" and the noise abated, and the chieftain said: "Dost thou mean that thou comest hither to give us thine head for making away with Hallblithe and the Hostage ?" "I mean to ask rather," said the Fox, "what thou wilt give me for the bodies of these twain ?" Said the chieftain: "A boat-load of gold were not too much if thou shouldst live a little longer." Quoth the Puny Fox: "Well, in anywise I will go and bring in the bodies aforesaid, and leave my reward to the goodwill of the Ravens." Therewith he turned about to go, but lo! there already in the door stood Hallblithe holding the Hostage by the hand; and many in the hall saw them, for the door was wide.

Then they came in and stood by the side of the Puny Fox, and all men in the hall arose and shouted for joy.