noon
So a while they sat talking , all of them , and the squire and the sergeant aforesaid were not a little timorous of the adventure of making that stead unkenned their sleeping chamber ; and to while away the time , their lords made them tell tales such as they knew concerning that place ; and both they said that they had never erst come into the dale but a very little way , and said that they had done so then but trusting in their lords ' bidding and the luck of the Quest . Thereafter turned the talk as to what had befallen Birdalone , and the chances of coming on her ; and , as folk will in such a plight , they talked the matter over and over again till they were weary and could say no more . Then they went to sleep , and nought befell them till they awoke in the broad daylight ; but they had little inkling of what hour it was , for all the dale was full of thick white mist that came rolling down from the mountains , so that they could scarce see their hands before them , and there they had to tarry still , would they , would they not ; and the sergeant fell to telling tales of folk who had been lost in that stony maze ; and all of them deemed , more or less , that this was the work either of evil wights , or it might be of the wizardry of the Red Knight ; and , to be short , they all deemed that he it was who had wielded it , save the sergeant , who said that the mountain wights were the masters and not the servants of him of the Red Hold . Thus , then , it betided ; but when the said mist had been hanging upon them for some six hours , it rolled up like a curtain , and lo the blue sky and the sun , and the mountains as clear blue as in a picture ; and they saw by the sun that it was but a little after high noon . But as they rejoiced herein , and betook them once more to tracking out the slot of Birdalone and the other , the sky became suddenly overcast , and down from the jaws of the mountain came a storm of wind and rain , and thunder and lightning , so great that they might scarce see each other 's faces , and when it cleared off , in about an hour and a half , and went down the wind to the south-east , the stream was waxen great , and ran brown and furious down the dale , so that it was fordable only here and there ; and as for tracking the slot of those twain , there was no need to talk thereof , for the fury of the driving rain had washed all away . Thus fared they the whole day betwixt fog and clear weather , and they laid them down to rest at night sore disheartened . When the day broke they talked together as to what was best to do ; and the sergeant aforesaid spake : Lords , said he , meseemeth I am more at home in the Black Valley than ye be ; heed ye not wherefore .