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There was desperate fighting on board of it for a few minutes, and then a number of men were pushed or thrown overboard, and a loud cheer of victory arose. "Well done, Solve Klofe!" cried Erling with enthusiasm. "That is his shout. I should know it among a thousand. He at least is bent on being free!"
Erling then stood up, and in the midst of breathless silence began to recount the incidents which had befallen him and his companion while in the execution of their mission. "In the first place," he said, "it is right to let ye all know that the King's countenance towards us is as black as a thundercloud, and that we may expect to see the lightning flash out before long.
"How knowest thou that?" asked Haldor. Erling hesitated to reply, not wishing to raise hopes that after all might prove to be fallacious. Before the question could be repeated the cutter's keel grated on the sand of a small bay which was close to the large one, and concealed from it by a small rocky islet.
He had not run two hundred yards, however, when he observed three men standing on the top of the little mound to which the people of Ulfstede were wont to mount when they wished to obtain an uninterrupted view of the valley and the fiord. They hailed him at that moment, so he turned aside, and found, on drawing near, that they were his brother Erling, Glumm the Gruff, and Kettle Flat-nose.
As may be supposed, we went first of all on that morning to the church in the dim daybreak, and there heard mass and sought for blessing on our going and returning, and then I went and saw all ready for the ride. I had bought two more horses, good enough for change of mount now and then, one brown and the other black; and Erling was to lead them, with our belongings on a pack.
He was a very powerful man, and hurled the stone with such force against Solve's shield that it battered him down, and he fell back into his own ship much stunned. Seeing this, Erling bade two of his men follow him, leaped into Solve's ship, and thence into the one where the fight was sharpest.
"Is not the chance of a fight the joy of a true Norseman's heart? Surely a spell must have been laid on thee, if thy brow darkens and thy heart grows heavy on hearing of a stout enemy. It is not thus with Erling the Bold. His brow clears and his eye sparkles when a foe worthy of But what seest thou, Glumm? Has the Dane appeared in the forest that thy brow becomes so suddenly clouded?
"For Glumm!" repeated Erling in surprise; "does Glumm then know " "Know what?" asked Ada, as Erling stopped abruptly. "Does he know that thou art making this belt for him?" "Know it? why, how could it be a secret if he knew it?" "Ah, true, I well?" "Besides," continued Ada, "I am not making it; I said I was going to ornament it. Now it is with reference to that I would consult thee."
He put his hand to his forehead, and, observing blood on it, asked: "Is the wound deep?" "Only a scratch," said Erling, "but the blow was heavy. If the sword of Kettle Flatnose had not caught it in time, it would have been thy death." "Truly it has not been far from that as it is, for my head rings as if the brain were being battered with Thor's hammer! Come, let us mount."
"Aye; there is no thought which can quit the tongue of one man and enter the understanding of another which may not be expressed by these letters in different combinations." "Dim ideas of this have been in my mind," said Erling, "since I went on viking cruise to the south, when first I heard of such a power being known to and used by many, but I believed it not.
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