le the crew chatted over their ale horns in the torchlight of the stern. Dreamily enjoying the boat's motion and the rhythm

that he was lost in the unsettled places south of here, and, after looking for him far and wide, we found him lying flat upon a ro

me of my first storm at sea-it has never happened to me before to be so sick! If Thor gives the Huntsman no better help where he is now, it is likely to go hard with him.

no salter for my tears," he answered; and relapsed into silence which was not bro

ff with the boat in chuckling security; now its glimmer was still sufficient to guide them to a landing-place upon the pebble-strewn sand, which ran like a shelf around the base of the seaward hill.

nce he had dropped upon the leaf-covered ground and was rolling over and over like a horse

h were whirling on their hands; and from that they went to jumping, and from jumping to wr

sea. Around it, fanlike pine-boughs swayed heavily, and that was all there was of motion; and the only sound that broke its stillness was the splash of waves on the sand below. Between the Crosses, a low mound rounded black against the gray water. Their hearts ga

he likes it to be dead here? Strangely still must it seem to him after the battle-din of his life! And strange feelings

his heart must welcome the sound. I tell you, Gard, I think I should not be sorry if we found him sitting on his grave when we ca

a witch's den as Leif's Englishman did, he would allow his arm to be hewn off,-and a witch's temper is more to be depended upon than the temper of a dead man. I am not eager to grasp his bony hand, if

here a clump of sumacs fringed the edge of the hill-crown as it sloped down to the be

hadow of a tree-crowned hill-he blinked and leaned forward and blinked again. Out of that shadow, a light had seemed to open on him like an eye! It did not come from

yet escaped, and it was going to fall to him to get sight of them! To succeed where all the rest had failed! To be the one to give Karlsefne the information he wanted! What wonder that al

ithout their seeing me,-and it is unadvisable to be too slow in acting, either, or they will have made their escape!" He put his body in motion even while his mind was debating, bu

, unobtrusive as a serpent; and when the links were wanting and gaps of glimmering sand lay before him, he ran crouching with the light swiftness of a fox, holding his breath in expecta

the swish of breaking waves. Laying hold of a gnarled root that reached down like a writhen arm, he drew himself noiselessly up the slope. Where it flattened to

the patch of embers and a litter of clam shells, there was no sign to prove that living things had ever been there. As a final test, he hung his helmet upon

hey must have run away as soon as darkness fell," he muttered. And pushing into

of reeds. He stooped to it curiously; then, even as his fingers closed on the rim, he took

through here in a hurry," he told hims

assed for one of them. An instant he also stood motionless, staring back at the eyes that he could feel without seeing; then Viking training flashed two though

ing black hair and wide-rimmed beast-bright eyes, and the skin of unearthly hue showing under the animal hides of the covering. Under the copper-colored skin, the muscles were like copper wire. Strong as he was, Alrek could not twist aside that wrist above his head. He gave up trying, presently, and limited his efforts to freeing his sword-arm. Putting all his force into the wrench, he succeeded at las

host to flight! Never could I have wrested the hatchet from him. Now it is likely that my kinswoman Gudrid will open her eyes when I show her this!" Bending over the embers, he examined the weapon with deep interest;

nking in the firelight; then the eagerness of

ed. "Slipped away, because my back was turned, and got all the s

aw the light, I forgot that you were alive. And I feared the Skraellings would get away before I could see them.

his shoulder; and finding nothing, cried out, shar

have," he answered. "Do you know another thing besides yourself