u have come in a good hour. Most of the men
have gone out here and there to spy what they may of the Danes and their
plans--if gone or not. Others are in the stables, and but one man sits
at the door of the great hall, and he is of no account."

"Where is Matelgar?" I asked.

"I know not exactly; but do as I say and all will be well."

Then I said that his advice had saved me, I thought, when before the
Moot, and I would follow it here.

"Then," he went on, "come you to the hall door and bide there while I go
in and call the thane thither. He will stay by his great chair to hear
your message, and I will stand by the man who keeps the door. Then, when
you have given up the arrow, tarry not, but come out at once, and get
out of this gate, lest he should raise some alarm. Then must you take to
the woods quickly."

So he turned and went in before me. There were some twenty yards of
courtyard to be crossed before we came to the great timber-built hall,
round which the other buildings clustered inside the palisades. But
there were no men about, though I could hear them whistling at their
morning's work in the stables, for the idle time of the day was yet to
come. Only a boy crossed from one side to the other on some errand,
behind us, and paid no attention beyond pausing a little to stare, as I
could judge by his footsteps. At any other time I should not have
noticed even that, but now that I was in the very jaws of the wolf, as
it were, I saw and heard everything. And all the while my heart beat
fast--but that was not from fear, but for thinking I might by chance
see Alswythe.

Yet I will say it truly, that thought of her had no share in bringing me
on this mad errand, which might have ending in such fashion as would
break her heart.

One man, as my guide had said, sat just inside the hall, but I knew him
not. Since he had my hall and his own to tend, Matelgar must have hired
more and new housecarles. This man was trimming a bow at the hearth, and
did not rise, seeing that, whoever I might be, I was brought in by his
comrade. The great hall looked wide and empty, for the long tables were
cleared away, and only the settle by the hearth in the centre remained,
beside the thane's own carved seat on the dais at the far end.

"Bide by the fire till he comes," said my guide, seeing that the man did
not know me, and leaving me there, he went through a door beyond the
thane's chair to seek him.

So I stood where the smoke