is stay, and being in high
favour with our king, so that he was seldom away from his side in
all the hunting that went on.

That liked not Beorn, the falconer, and though he would be
friendly, to all seeming, with the Dane, it seemed to me that his
first jealousy had grown deeper and taken more hold of him, though
it might only be in a chance look or word that he showed it as days
went on.

But one night my father and I rode in together from our hunting,
and there was no one with us. We had been at Thetford for a month
now, since I came home, and there was a talk that the king would go
to the court of Ethelred at Winchester shortly, taking my father
with him for his counsellor, and so we spoke of that for a while,
and how I must order things at Reedham while he was away.

"Lodbrok, our friend, will go back with you," he said. "Now, have
you noted any envy at the favour in which he is held by Eadmund?"

"Aye, Father," I answered, "from Beorn, the falconer."

"So you, too, have had your eyes open," went on my father; "now I
mistrust that man, for he hates Lodbrok."

"That is saying more than I had thought."

"You have been away, and there is more than you know at the bottom
of the matter. The king offered Lodbrok lands if he would bide with
us and be his man, and these he refused, gently enough, saying that
he had broad lands of his own, and that he would not turn
Christian, as the king wished, for the sake of gain. He would only
leave the worship of his own gods for better reasons. Now Beorn
covets those lands, and has hoped to gain them. Nor does he yet
know that Lodbrok will not take them."

Then I began to see that this matter was deeper than I had thought,
and told my father of the first meeting of Lodbrok and Beorn. But I
said that the falconer had seemed very friendly of late.

"Aye, too friendly," said my father; "it is but a little while
since he held aloof from him, and now he is ever close to Lodbrok
in field and forest. You know how an arrow may seem to glance from
a tree, or how a spear thrust may go wide when the boar is at bay,
and men press round him, or an ill blow may fall when none may know
it but the striker."

"Surely no man would be so base!" I cried.

"Such things have been and may be again. Long have I known Beorn,
and I would not have him for enemy. His ways are not open."

Then I said that if Beorn was ever near Lodbrok, I would be nearer,
and so we left the matter.

There was o