VI

'Winnie,' I said, 'you have not yet told me how you came here. You

have not yet told me how it is that you meet me on Snowdon--meet me

in this wonderful way.'

'Oh,' said she with a smile, 'Badoura has been a mere puppet in the

play. She had no idea she was going to meet her prince. Sinfi was

suddenly seized with a desire that she and I should come back, and

visit the dear old places we knew together. I was nothing loth, as

you may imagine, but I could not understand what had made her set

her heart upon it. When we reached Carnarvonshire I found that

Sinfi's people were all encamped near to Bettws y Coed, and we went

and stayed there. We visited all the places in the neighbourhood that

were associated with her childhood and mine.'

'You went to Fairy Glen?' I said.

'Yes; we went there the night before last and saw it in the

moonlight.'

'I was there, and I saw you.'

'Ah! Then the man sitting on the boulder at the bottom was you! How

wonderful! Sinfi was there on the step round the corner; she must

have seen you. I know now why she suddenly hurried me away. She had

told me that she wanted to see the Glen by moonlight'

'Then you did not know that you would meet me here?'

'My dear Henry, do you suppose that if I had known, I could have been

induced to take part in anything so theatrical? When I saw you

standing here my amazement and joy were so great that I forgot the

strange way in which I stood exhibited.'

I felt that the longer she chatted about such matters as these the

more opportunities I should get of learning how much and how little

she knew of her own story, so I said,

'But tell me how Sinfi contrived to trick you.'

'Well, this morning was the time fixed for our visiting Llyn

Coblynau, as we call Knockers' Lynn, which was my favourite place as

a child. We were to see it when the colours of the morning were upon

it. Then we were to go right to the top of Snowdon and take a mid-day

meal at the hut there, and in the evening go down to Llanberis and

sleep there. To-morrow morning we were to go to dear old Carnarvon

and see again the beloved sea. I find now that her plan was to bring

you and me together in this sensational way.'

'Will she join us?' I asked.

'I know no more than you what will be Sinfi's next whim. At the last

moment yesterday I was surprised to find that I was not to come with

her here, as she was not to sleep in the camp last night because she

had promised to see a friend at Capel Curig. And now, shall I tell

you how she inveigled me into taking my part in this Snowdon play she

was getting up? She told me that she had the greatest wish to

discover how the "Knockers' echoes," as they are called, would sound

if, in the early morning, she were to play her crwth in one spot and

I were to answer it from another spot with a verse of a Welsh song.

It seemed a pretty idea, and it was agreed that when I reached the

llyn I was to go round it to the opening at the east, pass through

the crevice, and wait there till I heard her crwth.'

'Well, Winnie, I must say that the way in which our Gypsy friend

manipulated you, and the way in which she manipulated me, shows a

method that would have done credit to any madness.'

'You? How did she trick you?'