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It seemed to him a face that appeared and then vanished, and a far- off voice that whispered a warning in his ear. "Be not dismayed at our poverty; there is no worse foeman within," said Osla, with a touch of raillery, as he stood for a moment irresolute. Estein made no answer, but stepped quickly into the room.
"Do you remember me, Liot?" asked his captor. "Ay, Estein. You, methinks, are one of the bairns I thought I had slain. Well was it for you that the Orkney tides run strong. But the luck has changed, I see; and you were a bold man, Estein Hakonson, to change it as you did. Why did you not burn us out?" "Because I wanted you alone." "Ay, torture is a pleasant game for the torturers.
"Thord the Tall, Snaekol Gunnarson, and Thorfin of Skapstead. Snaekol and Thorfin are dead long since may God forgive them! but Thord the Tall lived to repent of the burning." "It was an ill deed," said Estein. "He was a heathen man then, King Estein but I forget, you know not of Christians." "I have heard of them," said Estein, half to himself.
They stood on a desolate hillside a little above the highest pine woods, examining the tracks of a bear, when Helgi suddenly turned to him and said, "Do you not think, Estein, you have moped and mourned long enough?" "They whom the gods have cursed," replied Estein, "have little cause for laughter. What is there left for me on this earth?"
The petitions, eloquent and brief in his northern tongue, rose above the throbbing of the roost outside, and died away into a prayerful silence; and then, in the pleasant nicker of the firelight, they parted till the morrow. Estein and the hermit stepped out into the cool night. "They who visit the Holy Isle must rest content with hard pillows," said Andreas.
"Aha!" laughed Helgi. "Blows the wind that way?" "What does she want?" asked Estein. "I know not; she would not tell." "Tell her to come in," said Earl Sigvald. "Do you think it is fitting that the king should go out at every woman's pleasure?" "That is what I told her, but she said she would see the king outside or go away." "Bid her come in or go away!" cried the earl.
Yet, methinks, it was something less than faithful to drive his scatt-gatherer from the country and slay his followers." "Blame not me for that, Estein," answered Thorar.
Estein walked first, and just as he came into the court a man, pushed apparently by the surging crowd, stumbled against him. "Make way, there!" cried Thorar sternly, from behind; "give room for the king's guests to pass!" The man hastily stepped back, but not before he had found time to whisper, "Beware, Estein! Drink not too deep!"
Estein gave his final instructions in a whisper, and then quickly pushing open the door, he stepped in. Helgi, Grim, and one man followed, while the other five waited outside with their weapons in their hands. These old Norse drinking-halls were long and high rooms, with great fires down the middle, and beside them long lines of benches for the guests.
"What say you, Grim?" said Helgi; "can you take us to Liot in this mist?" Grim looked round him doubtfully. "Methinks I can take you there," he said, "but I fear we shall be too late, we can move but slowly; and with only seventy men, I doubt we shall do little when the men of Liot have left the feast." Estein had been standing in silence near the tiller.
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