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Seeing that, Leva looked up wondering in her husband's face, and he answered the question that he saw written in her eyes. "He is as I thought -he is Havelok, the son of Gunnar, our king. Hodulf gave him to me that I might drown him."
Now after I had gone, Grim, my father, tried to bring the child round, but he could not do so; and therefore, leaving him near the fire, he went softly to call Leva, my mother, to help him; and all the while he was wondering who the child might be, though indeed a fear that he knew only too well was growing in his heart, for there would surely he only one whom Hodulf could wish out of his way.
"By this time tomorrow it will not matter if Hodulf knows," answered Grim, "for she will be safe." "Where will you hide her then and what of Havelok?" "For those two there is no safety but across the sea, and they are the most precious cargo that I shall ever have carried.
"Radbard," said my father, "what if Hodulf had met with a thrall who had done his bidding in truth?" I would not think thereof, for surely by this time there had been no light in the eyes that seemed to me to be grateful to us. Now my father knelt down by the boy's side, and began to take the lashings from him, telling him at the same time to be silent when the gag was gone.
Hodulf's horse winded me, as I think, and threw up its head snorting, and I heard its bit rattle. But my father was close at hand, and that was lucky. "Ho, fisher, is that you?" he called softly. "I am here," was the answer, and at once my father came into the hollow from the road. "Are any folk about?" Hodulf said. "I have met none. Now, what is all this business?" answered my father.
The dusk was gathering, and at first we thought that this was Jarl Sigurd, who would ask us maybe to send fish to his hall, and so we set our loads down and waited for him. But it was not our lord, and I had never seen this man before. From his arms, which were of a new pattern to me, he might be one of the host of Hodulf, as I thought.
Soon my father found a man who had some skill in the shipwright's craft, and brought him to our place from Saltfleet. Then we built as good a boat as one could wish, and, not long after that, another. But my father was careful that none of the Lindsey folk whom he had known should think that this fisher was the Grim whom they had once traded with, lest word should go to Hodulf in any way.
And so we came to the town at high noon, and already there was the bustle of a gathering host in the place, for the news had fled before us. They had built a new and greater hall in place of that which had been burned; and there sat Hodulf with his chiefs, wondering and planning, and maybe waiting for more certain news of what had happened. Not long would they wait for that now.
"All that I know for certain is that you fled with us from Hodulf, the new king, and that for reasons which my father never told me." Then said Havelok, "There was naught worth telling, therefore. I suppose I was the child of some steward like Berthun; but yet " So he went away, and I wondered long if it were not time that Arngeir should tell all that he knew.
There were many who agreed to this, and I did not wait for Hodulf any longer. I told them who I was, and then showed them why that token was to be held enough for any man; and as I spoke, there were black looks toward the high seat among the older men. As for Hodulf, he sat with a forced smile, and seemed to listen indulgently, as to a well-made tale.
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