eight of knowledge
that must not be told, and maybe with sorrow that the other
prisoner, if guilty, would not seek for pardon from the Judge into
whose hand he was about to go.

But as for me, this thing was good, and a wondrous comfort to me,
and I went back to Egfrid with a cheerful heart, ready to face
aught that might come.

Now the earl called to the guards from the water's edge, saying
that the time was come, and we rode towards him, and I made Egfrid
promise that he would hold his hand, at least till my father came.

Now they drew my boat to the shore, and they took Beorn from his
horse first, and often have I wondered that he did not confess, but
he said no word, and maybe his senses had left him by reason of his
terror. They haled him to the boat and unbound him, setting him in
the bows, where he sank down, seeming helpless, but staring away
from shore over the sparkling waters that he feared.

Then came my turn, and of my own will I stepped into the boat,
looking her over to see that all was there as when Lodbrok came.
And all was there, though that was little enough. The one oar, the
baler, and a few fathoms of line on the floorboards.

Now as I had nothing to lose by speaking, I cried to the earl
concerning the one matter that troubled me.

"Earl Ulfkytel, I pray you forgive my poor folk if they fought for
me when you took the boat."

"They knew not why it was taken," he answered quietly. "I sent a
messenger before I gave sentence. But I should not have blamed them
had they fought, knowing all."

Then a rough man who tended the boat called out:

"Ho, Lord Earl, are these murderers to go forth with gold on arm
and hand?" for we had been stripped of naught but our arms, and I
suppose the man coveted these things.

But the earl answered:

"Which is the murderer? I know not. When his time comes stripped he
will be of life itself. Let the men be," and then in a moment he
asked one by him; "what weapons had Lodbrok when he came?"

"Only a dagger," answered the thane to whom he spoke. "Or so men
say."

"That is true," I said plainly.

"Give the men their daggers," then said the earl; and when one told
him that we should use them on each other, he answered:

"I think they will not; do my bidding!"

So they threw my hunting knife to me, and I girded it on. But
Beorn's dagger fell on the floor of the boat, and he paid no heed
to it, not even turning his head.

Then the earl and three thanes wen