United States or Tokelau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
With this hook the thrall made a quick blow at the Dane; the point of it went down through his helmet into his brain, and that was his deathblow. "Well done, Kettle!" cried old Guttorm, who had just cleft the skull of his opponent with his sword. At this Thorvold ran forward and said: "Well done it may be, but well had it been for the doer had it not been done. Come on, thou flatnose!"
Thorvold agreed with this, and counselled getting on board their ships and meeting the enemy on the water; but the other objected, because he knew that while his men were in the act of embarking, Erling would sally forth and kill many of them before they could get away.
"That is an ugly grip," said Thorvold, making a fierce cut at the haft with his sword; but Kettle pulled the hook to him, and with it came the head, and that was Thorvold's end.
"Methinks," said he, "I will take forty of my best men, and try to entice that fox out of his hole, before he has time to see the ships." "Grief only will come of that," says Thorvold. Skarpedin did not reply, but choosing forty of his stoutest carles he went to the pass and defied Erling to come out and fight. "Now here am I, Erling, with forty men.
He found the proper concourse, and moments later he was pressing his thumb against the identification plate outside the Black Doctor's personal quarters. Black Doctor Thorvold Arnquist looked older now than when Dal had last seen him. His silvery gray hair was thinning, and there were tired lines around his eyes and mouth that Dal did not remember from before.
"A top priority call. Just a minute." Moments later he had handed Dal the yellow telephone message sheet, and Dal was studying the words with a puzzled frown: CALL AT MY QUARTERS ON ARRIVAL REGARDLESS OF HOUR STOP URGENT THAT I SEE YOU STOP REPEAT URGENT The message was signed THORVOLD ARNQUIST, BLACK SERVICE and carried the priority seal of the Four-star Pathologist.
On the twenty-second floor, a secretary ushered him into an inner office. There he found Black Doctor Thorvold Arnquist, in busy conference with a Blue Doctor, a Green Doctor and a surgeon. The Black Doctor looked up, and beamed. "That will be all right now, gentlemen," he said. "I'll be in touch with you directly." He waited until the others had departed.
With him went Kettle Flatnose, for that ambitious thrall could not be made to remember his position, and was always putting himself in front of his betters in war; yet it is due to him to say that he kept modestly in the background in time of peace. To these was opposed Thorvold, with many of the stoutest men among the Danes.
Most of the chief men on both sides were armed in a similar way, though not quite so richly, and with various modifications; for instance, the helmet of Thorvold was of plain steel, and for ornament had the tail of the ptarmigan as its crest.
Black Doctor Thorvold Arnquist sat to Dal's left; he smiled faintly as the young Garvian stepped forward, then busied himself among the papers on the desk before him. To Dal's right sat another Black Doctor who was not smiling. Dal had seen him before the chief co-ordinator of medical education on Hospital Earth, the "Black Plague" of the medical school jokes.
Word Of The Day