There must be an end of this.

"This slender sorceress shall not make men murderers in their thoughts,
who have stood together through fire and blood.

"We will not throw her overboard, as many of the crew in superstitious
terror advise. Where would be the use? She would swim like a sea bird
on the tops of the waves. But we will bear her back to the lonely
island, where no eye of man can see her, and where no doubt wise gods
had banished her. We would all possess her, and none shall have what
each covets."

Frightfully throbbed the veins in Halfred's temples, in his rage. "The
first," he said, quite softly, through his gnashing teeth, "the first
who lifts a hand, ay even a look towards her, I will tear his false
heart from his living body."

And so frightfully threatening was his face to behold that Hartvik and
all the armed men drew back a couple of paces.

But Eigil stepped forward again, and spoke in a louder voice than
Hartvik had used.

"Halfred, give way. We have sworn it. We will compel thee."

"Ye compel me!" cried Halfred, also now in a louder voice. "Murder and
revolt on board the Singing Swan! What saith the Viking code? Like a
dog shall he hang by the neck at the mast head who secretly stirs up
disobedience to the ship's lord."

"To the ship's lord, yes, when madness crazes him not," shouted Eigil
again.

"Darest thou to speak of rights, Halfred Hamundson?

"Only because madness and magic excuse thee, have we not long since
asserted our rights against thee: thou, who every word and bond of
right hast broken. We demand our rights. But thou hast no right to that
woman.

"Hast thou forgotten, Perjurer, that bloodstained midsummer night on
Hamunds Fjord? Of that, in truth, thou hast not spoken, since, like a
love sick boy, thou hast doted on this slender sorceress.

"Thou hast forgotten it, but the seamen who sail by yonder spot, they
see with horror the huge black Heckla Stone which there hides an awful
catastrophe, and covers a fearful curse. But huge and heavy as it is,
it cannot bury it. Demanding vengeance the shades of many thousand dead
arise, who lie there, through thy crime, and with whom thou hast broken
faith and oath.

"For how did'st thou swear in that night?

"Here I renounce, on account of the awful calamity which I have drawn
down upon wife and child, and many hundred friends and strangers, I
renounce for ever happiness and joy, song, wine, and the love of women.
To the dead