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The earl waked him and asked what it was that he had been dreaming. Kark answered, rubbing his eyes: "I dreamt that we were both on board the same ship, and that I stood at the helm as her captain." "That must surely mean that you rule over your own destiny as well as mine," said Earl Hakon. "Be faithful to me, therefore, and when better days come you shall be well rewarded."
Told by torchlight, at a safe distance from Leif, each boulder took on the form of a squatting dwarf; and the faint squeaking of foxes became the shrieking of spirits. The tale of the death-omen swelled to such proportions that Kark would have been terrified out of his wits if he had not rested secure in the conviction that the vision had been a wolf.
Certainly you must have heard Leif say, last night, that a hundred words more would end the work. And it was your own judgment that Kark would wait no longer than its completion " Rolf struck the tree they leaned against, with sudden vehemence. "The snake!" he cried. "That, then, is why he showed his fangs at me this morning in such a jeering smile.
Be faithful to me and you will find in me a faithful friend." The night dragged slowly on. The earl dared not let himself sleep, but sat staring at Kark, who stared back at him. When morning was near at hand weariness lay so heavily on the earl that he could no longer keep awake. But his sleep was sorely disturbed by the terrors of that dreadful night.
They followed him across the grassy courtyard to the foot of the steps leading up to his sleeping-room, and would not leave him until he had consented that Valbrand and Olver should go in with him for a bodyguard. "And this boy also," he added, signing to Alwin. As Alwin approached, Kark had the impudence to shoulder himself forward also.
They welcomed Rolf and the Norman with a shout, when the pair appeared on the edge of the grove. "Hail, comrades!" "It was in our minds to give you up for lost!" "Your coming we will take as an omen that Kark will also return some time." "Yes, return and cook us some food." "We are becoming hollow as bubbles." Rolf accepted their greetings with an easy flourish.
At last, when the earl was quiet, Kark sprang up, gripped a big knife from out of his belt and thrust it into his master's throat. That was the bane of Earl Hakon. On the next day Olaf Triggvison was in Lade, and there came to him a man naming himself Kark, bringing with him the severed head of Earl Hakon, which he offered to the king.
The more outrageous Valbrand depicted him, the better he was pleased. Leif made no comment whatever, but sat pulling at his long mustaches and eying them from under his bushy brows. When the steersman had finished, he asked, "Is Kark slain?" Glancing back, Valbrand saw the bowerman sitting up and feeling of his wounds.
Now King Olaf hated a traitor beyond all men, so he had Kark led away, and ordered one of his berserks to smite the head off him, thus fulfilling the murdered earl's prophecy, for a ring not of gold but of blood was put about the traitor's neck. King Olaf then fared with many of the bonders out to Nid holm.
She put her hand over his mouth as he would have spoken. "No, listen to me before you say anything against it. Gilli will sail next week. At that time Leif will be absent on a visit to Biorn Herjulfsson, who has just returned to Greenland from Norway. With Leif, Kark will go, so that we shall not have his prying eyes to fear.
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