ld form, wrenched with one tremendous spring
forwards his hammer from Hartvik, and swinging it on high, with one
stroke of his arm brought it crashing down upon the heads of both his
blood-brethren, so that brains, blood, and fragments of skulls were
scattered all around.

With that deed began a slaughter on board the Singing Swan like that of
the midsummer night; only it was much shorter, because there were fewer
to slay.

It seemed to Halfred as though his temple veins had burst. He felt,
instead of brains, only boiling blood in his head; he tasted blood in
his mouth, he saw only red blood before his eyes. Without choosing,
without asking who was for or against him, he sprang into the thickest
of the crowd of armed men, seized man after man by the throat with his
left hand, and shattered their skulls with the broad side of his
hammer.

He did not in the least perceive that a handful of men stood by him. He
did not notice the many wounds he received on arms, face, and hands, in
close combat with his despairing foes. He raged on and slew, until all
whom he could see before him lay dead and silent upon the deck. Then he
turned, still brandishing his hammer, and shouted--

"Who besides Halfred still breathes on this accursed ship?"

Then he saw that some six men of those who had aided him kneeled behind
him. They had formed, with their shields, a half circle round Thora's
body, and had turned off many a spear which would have reached the form
of the white sorceress. Halfred perceived this.

"Stand up," he said, with his left arm wiping away the blood and sweat
from his forehead, and the white foam from his lips.

He thrust the blood stained hammer into his belt, and kneeled beside
Thora, pillowing on his breast her face, which had become whiter than
ever before.

"It was too much to bear and to hear at once. The frightful hailstones
of this curse have struck the white rose too heavily."

Then she opened her eyes, and murmured, "Not for me, only for thee,
have the horrors of this curse overwhelmed me."

"She lives! she lives! Praise to you, ye gracious Gods," exulted
Halfred, "It could not be that she should die for the crimes of others.
She must be healed, as surely as the Gods live. Had Thora perished for
mine, for other men's guilt; with this hammer must I have slain all the
Gods."

And tenderly and softly, as a mother a sick child, the mighty man
raised his young wife in both arms, and bore her, treading