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"That is well," he said, "for I owe you my life, and I think that I can teach you that which will keep yours against any foe that you may meet; for you are of the right build for a good axeman, and not too old to learn." Then we went to the smithy, and there, while the thunder raged outside, he forged me an axe of the Danish pattern.
In case the first notch, cut as high as he can reach, is not high enough, he stands on the board that has been driven into the first notch and cuts another. Thus the axeman may often be seen at work standing eight or ten feet above the ground.
Presently he said: 'Yet the eye of the King's axeman might err at the moment of his stroke or his arm fail him, and the eye of Welleran hath never erred nor his arm failed. It were better to bide here. Then said Seejar: 'Maybe that Welleran is dead and that some other holds his place upon the ramparts, or even a statue of stone.
As presently the engine rolled through the gap and shouting men backed her to the edge of the well, the big axeman paused to wipe the streaming sweat from his begrimed face with his arm. I clutched him. "Manouvrier!" A smile of recognition shone for an instant and vanished as I added, "Come to your own house! Come, you can't save it here."
But he stayed the stroke as suddenly as if his great arms had been turned to steel, so that the axe edge rested on the rim of the vessel without so much as notching it, and at that all the onlookers cheered him. "Now it may be known," said he, smiling broadly, "why men call me Thorgils the axeman."
Okanagan rose up with a little grim laugh. "Thorns," he said. "There's a condemned big one in my thumb." Seaforth stared at him with a vague suspicion that the hardships of the forced march they had made had left their mark upon his comrade, though he had never noticed any signs of mental weakness in the big axeman before.
Nasmyth let her go, but he did not know that she signed to Mattawa, who was then busy hewing out a big redwood log. The axeman strolled after her into the Bush, and then stopped to look hard at her as he uttered an inquiring, "Well?" "Tom," said the girl, "can't you understand that it would be very much wiser if somebody told me exactly how Mr. Nasmyth got hurt?" The axeman nodded.
"So," said he; "now stand up and guard a stroke or two; only strike not as yet, for maybe your axe would go too far," and he smiled grimly, as in jest. But I had learned that same trick from the jarl. Now Lodbrok had told me that when one has a stronger axeman to deal with than one's self the first thing is to guard well.
You see, I've reformed consid'r'ble since -since last summer, and I j'ined a surveyin' crew; axeman now, rodman later, if I'm good, an' " "But why did you want to see me? Was it about this boundary question?" "Oh, you admit there is some question about it, after all?" "Are you trying to pump me, Terrill?" asked Ralph, shrewdly suspicious.
And that was Rorik's last stroke, for even as I had parried Thormod's stroke in sport, the man's wrist lit on the keen edge of my axe, so that hand and weapon flew far beyond me with the force of his stroke. Then flashed my axe, and Rorik fell with his helm cleft in twain. Then roared our crew, cheering me: "Skoal to the axeman! Ahoy!"
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