Vandrad the Viking Part 24

"Take no offence," replied Helgi, still laughing; "tell your deeds of derring-do, and let Thor himself envy, I will undertake to make you laugh at mine own adventures afterwards."

"I will warrant your doings will make me laugh rather than envy,"

said Ketill. "But, as I said, you left us, and so we were left here without you."

"Nay, Ketill," interposed his tormentor, very seriously, "this story pa.s.ses belief, impose not on my youth."

"How mean you?" exclaimed the black-bearded captain, wrathfully, his hand seeking his sword hilt.

"Peace, Helgi," cried Estein, who saw that his good offices were needed; "and you, Ketill, heed not his jests. He is but young and foolish."

"And slender," added the irrepressible Helgi, though not loud enough for Ketill to hear, and the stout Viking resumed his story, sulkily enough.

"So were we left here in this town. Cold it was, with little to do, so we even broached Thorar's ale forthwith. Presently a man who had been in the woods came in hastily to tell me he had disturbed two of these hounds of Jemtlanders spying on the town.

It behoved me then to be careful, and I set guards, and was not too drunk myself that night. Upon the next morning one came in with tidings of a man who had left a message for me, though he would not say who sent him."

"That would be friend Jomar," said Helgi.

"I know not his name, but treachery, he said, was determined; and I stopped all drink thereafter, and there was nothing at all left then but to play with dice and sleep. A little later this Thorar came to the town, and would have persuaded me to follow you to the king; and when I asked for some token he showed me a ring he said was yours. Mine own mind is not attentive to these gew-gaws, but a man whose eyes were sharp before a Jemtland axe clove his head this morning knew it for none of yours."

"Did you not seize him at once?" said Estein.

"I was for taking him on the spot, but we spoke without the town, and he had such a company along with him that after a sharp bout he got off, though he left three of his lads on the snow.

"May werewolves seize me if this be not dry work! Ho' there, bring me a horn of ale."

As soon as he had quenched his thirst in a long draught, and wiped his hairy lips with much relish, the narrator went on:--

"So at night, as you may think, we kept a strict and sober guard, and rested in our harness. And well it was; for I had not slept an hour, it seemed, before the cry arose that the enemy were upon us.

But when they saw we were ready for them, the vermin withdrew to the woods to gather more force, and it was not till day had well broken that they ventured out and offered battle. Thereupon I slew the hostages, set fire to the town, and fell upon them straightway, and a braver fire and a brisker fight while it lasted I wish not to see. They were seven to one, at the least, but never an inch of ground did we give, and never a stroke did we spare.

Methinks," he concluded with a chuckle, "they will remember their welcome."

CHAPTER XVI.

KING ESTEIN.

It was on a breezy April morning that the mountains of Sogn came into view again. A strong slant of south-east wind had driven the two ships out to sea; and now, as they raced landwards before a favouring breeze, they saw low down on the horizon one glittering hill-top after another pierce the morning mist bank. Helgi for the time had charge of the tiller, while Estein leant against the weather bulwark, busy with his new resolves.

"A ship must cross the sea again," he repeated to himself. "The time for action is at hand, and we shall see what new freak fortune will play with me. Yet, after all," he reflected, "though she has pressed my head beneath the tide before, she has always suffered me to rise and gasp ere she drowned me quite. It all comes to this: the purposes of the G.o.ds are too deep for me to fathom, so I must e'en hold my peace and bide the pa.s.sage of events."

Helgi had been watching him with a half-smile on his frank face, and at last he cried,--

"What counsel hold you with the seamews? Sometimes I see a smile, and sometimes I hear a sigh; and then, again, there is a look of the eye as if Liot Skulison were standing before you."

"I was filling twenty long ships with enough stout lads to man them, and sailing the western main again," replied Estein.

"And whither were you sailing?" asked Helgi.

"Westward first," said Estein.

"With perchance a point or so of south--such a direction as would bring us to the Hjaltland Isles, or, it may be, the Orkneys?"

"Aided by a wayward wind," replied Estein with a smile.

"Where, doubtless, it would be well to slay another sea-rover,"

Helgi went on, "since they cause much trouble to peaceable seafarers from Norway. Witches, too, and warlocks dwell in the isles, men say, and it were well to rid the land of such."

At this last speech Estein first frowned and flushed, and then meeting his foster-brother's look, all outward gaiety and lurking mirth, he laughed defiantly, and exclaimed,--

"It may be so, Helgi. Everything I do is ordained already, and it matters not whither I turn the prow of my ship or what I plan. To Orkney I go!"

"Then run your thoughts still on this maiden?"

"They have run, they are still running, and while I live I see not what is to stop their course."

"Remember, my brother, what stands between you," said Helgi, more gravely.

"I have not forgotten."

"And yet you sail to Orkney?"

"The G.o.ds have bidden me cross the seas," replied Estein, "and they will steer my ship, whatever haven I choose."

"Go, then," said Helgi, "and while that shrewd counsellor whom men call Helgi Sigvaldson sails with you, at least you will not lack sage advice."

Estein laughed.

"'Helgi hinn frode' [Footnote: The wise.] shall you be called henceforth, and Vandrad I shall be no longer."

They were silent for a time, and then Estein exclaimed,--

"We are well quit of that country of Jemtland! Saw you ever so many trees and so few true men before?"

"Yet was it not quite bare of good things," replied his friend.

"What, mean you the woodman's wife?"

"What else?" said Helgi, and then he fell silent again.

They reached Hernersfiord towards nightfall, and as they crept up the still, narrow waters darkness gathered fast. One by one, and then in tens and hundreds and myriads, the stars came out and hung like a gay awning between the pine-crowned walls. Ahead they saw lights and a looming bank of land, and hails pa.s.sed from ship to sh.o.r.e and back again. Presently they were gently slipping by the stone pier, where one or two men stood awaiting them.

"What news?" asked Helgi.

The men made no reply, but seemed to whisper among themselves, and Helgi repeated his question. Just then a man came hurrying to the end of the pier and shouted,--