"
"It's none so bad," she said.
"And a better husband."
"Oddones! D'ye think...."
She stopped abruptly, plainly caught out for the first time.
A minute later I was off again. At the fork Sultan made for the left, and
I had to pull him sharply to the right. The road got steadily worse, but
Orion was clear in view ahead of me, dropping down behind Uttoxeter, and I
pushed on. If a man is to turn back because of a bad road, he'll not
travel far in the Shires. Soon, however, there was no road at all, and I
was plump in open country. Sultan stopped and sniffed, and then turned his
head round as if to tell me, what I already felt was the truth, that I had
been an ass for not leaving it to him.
"So ho! Sultan!" said I, patting his warm neck. "I deserve all you say,
my beauty! I've put you in for a nice job."
The right road must lie somewhere to my left. I turned him that way and
he walked on suspicious and sniffing. Fortunately the moon had risen, and
the Jezebel's lie would only cost me a trifling delay. She would have lied
with a purpose, and I puzzled myself in trying to reason it out.
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