w, as I had meant before, if we might not try to
get her on board.

For answer he turned to Lodbrok.

"Set you much store by your boat, Jarl?" he asked him.

"The boat is yours, Thane, or Wulfric's, by all right of salvage.
But I would not have her lost, for my sons made her for me this
last winter, carving her, as you see, with their own hands. Gladly
would I see her safe if it might be."

"Then we will try to get her," answered my father; "for there are
one or two things that my children have made for me, and I would
not lose them for the sake of a little trouble. And, moreover, I
think your sons have made you the best boat that ever floated!"

"Else had I not been here!" answered the Dane. "They are good
shipwrights."

Then Kenulf and the men set to work, and it was no easy matter to
come by the boat; but it was done at last, and glad was I to see
her safely lashed on deck. Then the time had come, and we up anchor
and plunged homewards through the troubled seas of the wide harbour
mouth. It was I who steered, as I ever would of late, while the
Dane stood beside me, stroking his hawk and speaking to it now and
then. And once or twice he looked long and earnestly at the
breakers, knowing now from what he had escaped; and at last he said
to me:

"Many a man, I know, would have rather let me go on than have run
the risk of saving one from the sea. Do you dare go against the
saying?"

"Why not? I may not say that it came not into our minds," I
answered; "but Christian men will put such ill bodes aside."

"Ah! I had forgotten your new faith," said Lodbrok. "Now from this
time I, for one, have naught to say against it, for I think I owe
it somewhat."

And he was silent for a while.

Now my father came aft, and sitting down by the Dane, asked him how
he came to risk sailing in the little boat.

"I know not if you can believe me," answered Lodbrok, "but I will
tell you in a few words. I have been blown from off the Jutland
shore and have won through the gale safely. That is all. But it was
by my own fault, for I must needs take the boat and put out to sea
with my hawk there to find fresh sport. It seemed to me, forsooth,
that a great black-backed gull or fierce skua would give me a fine
flight or two. And so it was; but I rowed out too far, and before I
bethought myself, both wind and tide were against me. I had
forgotten how often after calm comes a shift of wind, and it had
been over still for an hour or s