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"Only," Alwin added, "I think it right that he should explain the cause of his enmity toward me, and " Egil leaped to his feet; his proud indifference flamed into sudden fury. "That I will never do, though you tear out my tongue-roots!" he shouted. Even his comrades regarded him in amazement. Alwin tried a sneer. "It is my belief that you fear to speak of Skroppa."
"Skroppa?" a chorus of astonishment repeated. But only two scarlet spots on Egil's cheeks showed that he heard them. He gave Alwin a long, lowering look. "You should know by this time that I fear nothing." Helga made an unfortunate attempt. "I think it is no more than honorable, Egil, to tell him why you are his enemy." Unconsciously she spoke of the thrall now as of an equal.
One after another, all the nobles echoed the sentiment; until even the mob of soldiers found courage to voice their minds. "His wit is made out of Sleipnir's heels!" "Skroppa herself could not be foreknowing about him!" "I am as glad now as I was disappointed when I saw him take his blade off the Ironside " "When I saw that, I thought I would turn English " "They will try now to turn Danish."
Stamping and rocking himself back and forth, and banging on the arm of his seat, the Red One got his breath at last, and bellowed it out. "Leif the Christian in the den of Skroppa the Witch! His knife proves it; Thorhall found it among the rocks at her very door. Saw I never such slyness!
"Nevertheless, Skroppa's prophecy has come true," he muttered, "that after the blade was once sheathed in the new soil of Greenland, it would bring no more ill-luck." "Skroppa!" cried Alwin. But he got no further, for Sigurd's hand was clapped over his mouth. "Lower your voice when you speak that name, comrade," the Silver-Tongued warned him. "Do not speak it at all," Egil interrupted brusquely.
Sigurd set his back against the door and carried on a silent struggle with the heavy lumps, hanging by teeth and claws upon his cloak. At last Skroppa raised her head and answered haltingly: "You ask too much, according to the time and the place. To know all that clearly, I should sit on a witches' platform and eat witches' broth, and have women stand about me and sing weird songs.
They waited for her to go on; but soon it became evident that the foretelling was finished. With all his prudence, Sigurd began to laugh; and Alwin burst out in a passion of impatience: "For which, you gabbler? For which? I can make nothing of such jargon. Tell me in plain words whether it will be for good or ill." Skroppa answered just one word: "Jargon!"
Still eying him, Egil said slowly in a voice that trembled with passion: "So you are the English thrall, and looking after her already! It seems that Skroppa spoke some truth " He broke off abruptly, and stood glaring, his hand moving upward to his belt. For once Alwin was fairly dazed.
"He is not likely to, since he has already gone a week without noticing its absence. And if he should, you have only to say that you borrowed it to protect yourself from wolves. That will not be much of a lie, Skroppa being nearer wolf than human. He will feel that he was wrong to have denied you a weapon, and he will only scold a little."
"Nowhere lives a man more domineering than Eric the Red." "What is to become of Leif's renown, if the glory is to go to that old pagan?" "Skroppa has turned a curse against the Lucky One. He has been deprived of his mind." "It is in my mind that part of that is true," Rolf said thoughtfully, leaning on the spear-shaft he was sharpening.
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