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"We follow you, Ranald the king," Kolgrim answered for all. "If it seems good to you, it is good for us. There will be fighting enough, I trow, if all we have heard is true." Then said Odda: "And that before long. There is a Danish fleet in Poole Harbour that is to bring Danes from Wareham to the help of those whom Alfred holds in Exeter. We have to meet this fleet and scatter it."
There was an answering shout, and Kolgrim, with the Berserker fury on him, was among the wild crowd from out of the darkness, and his great sword was cutting a way to my side. Then they did not stay for my sword to be upon them also, but they fled yelling and terror stricken, seeming to melt into the mist.
The tide was still with us as the light strengthened; then as the day broke, with the haze of late summer over the land, we found that we were right in the track of a strange fleet that was coming up fast from the westward great ships and small, in a strange medley and in no sort of order, so that we wondered what they would be. "Here comes Rolf Ganger back from Valland," said Kolgrim.
I suppose the fury kept him up so far, for now I saw that his face was ashy pale, and his knees shook under him. "Are you badly hurt?" I asked. "My head swims yet that is all. Where is the scald?" I turned to him and pointed. Kolgrim sat down beside him and bent over him, leaning against the stone of the great dolmen. "I do not think he is dead, master," he said.
He paid no heed to Harek, who sat on the deck with his back to him. Then Kolgrim whistled shrill to his men, and we began to move down to the harbour mouth. I heard a sharp voice hurrying the men in the other ship; but they could not be ready in time to catch us. When we were well out to sea, I asked Harek what all this was about.
"You are a truth teller, Kolgrim the Tall," Harald said. "Now if you will leave Einar's service and come and be of my courtmen, I will speak to the jarl and make matters right with him, and it shall be worth your while." Then my comrade answered plainly: "I am no jarl's man now, King Harald; I belong to King Ranald here, and I will not leave him."
Moreover, I had a new plan in my head which pleased me mightily. Then I thought that if I were to meet any man who suspected me, which was not likely, the Lady Thora would be pass enough for me. So I told Kolgrim to bide here for me, and he said at first that he must be with me. However, I made him stay against his will at last, telling him what I thought.
Now there was one thing that pleased me not at this time, and that was that Kolgrim, my comrade, never called me aught but "master" since I came from Sigurd's presence which is not the wont of our free Norsemen with any man. Nor would he change it, though I was angry, until I grew used to it in time. "Call me not 'master, Kolgrim, my comrade," I said; "it is unfittinq for you."
But he had seen what had caught my eye, and he stayed at once, turning back into the main road, and beckoning Harek to come with him and Thora, for some reason of his own. Then Kolgrim and I went on. What we had seen was a man lying motionless by the farm gate, in a way that was plain enough to me. And when we came near, we knew that the man had been slain.
"Father, is this you?" she said quietly. I could make no answer to that, and she looked intently at me; for the moon was beyond me, and both Kolgrim and I would seem black against it, as she came from the light within, while the wind, keen with salt spray, was blowing in her face. "Who is it?" she said again. "I can scarcely see for moon and wind in my eyes."
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