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But Osritha, knowing his ways, looked long at him, till he turned away again, and would not meet her eyes. "Now go back to your place, my sister," he said. "It is not well for you to bide here just now." "Why not? Let our friend tell me of Father also," she said wilfully. "Because I am going to do justice on Lodbrok's slayer," said Ingvar, in a great voice, swinging an axe again.
Then can I say to a Dane, 'Thus says Wulfric, Lodbrok's friend, and to an Anglian, 'So says the Thane of Reedham. Then I think I shall do well, for I would fain be fair." "I will ever be ready to do that, Guthrum," I said; and I held out my hand to him, for I could not help it. So he took it and wrung it warmly. "Now must I go back to Thetford very soon," he said.
Only the promise of Lodbrok's son, that on English shores I should not fight, helped me a little, else should I have been fain to end it all, axe to axe with Rorik on the narrow deck just now, or in some other way less manful, that would never have come into my mind but for the sore grief that I was in.
Now I could not tell, and do not know even to this day, what kindly man hid these things for us, but I blessed him for his charity, for now our case was better than Lodbrok's in two ways, that we had no raging gale and sea to wrestle against, and the utmost pangs of hunger and thirst we were not to feel. Three days and two nights had he been on his voyage.
When you return I would have you thank her for her care of my brother and I would thank you also, Jarl, for your care of him." Now Ingvar reddened a little, but not with anger, for he saw that I had spoken at least no ill of him to Eadgyth. "Nay, lady," he answered; "Halfden and Hubba and Osritha have to be thanked if any thanks need be to us for caring for Jarl Lodbrok's preserver.
Halfden was well pleased, and shouted: "Nay, Thormod; your turn to guard now; let Wulfric smite at you!" "No, by Thor, that will I not," he said; "he who taught to guard has doubtless taught to strike, and I would not have my head broken, even in play!" Now he sat down, and I said, mindful of Lodbrok's words: "It seems to me that I have been well taught by the jarl."
Now one of the franklins there, who knew me well enough, said: "Wulfric, be not ashamed to confess it, if for once you shot ill if your arrow went by chance to Lodbrok's heart, I pray you, say so. It may well be forgiven." Very grateful was I for that kind word, but I would not plead falsely, nor, indeed, would it have told aught of the other wound that had been made.
I asked him, with a hope that Halfden had come home, for now I knew that we had indeed followed Lodbrok's track exactly. "How should it be other than Ingvar Lodbroksson? for we have held that Lodbrok, his father, is dead this many a long day." "Let me go to the jarl," I said, rising up.
At length he turned to us and spoke gravely: "It is, as I said, too hard for me. The Lord shall judge. Even as Lodbrok came shall you two go, at the mercy of wind and wave and of Him who rules them. You shall be put into Lodbrok's boat this night, and set adrift to take what may come. Only this I lay upon you, that the innocent man shall not harm the guilty.
There sat a great man, clad in light chain mail and helmed, with his double-headed axe slung to his saddle bow, but seeming to have come from hunting, for he carried a short, broad-pointed boar spear, and on the wrist of his bridle hand sat a hooded hawk like Lodbrok's.
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