f you had your sight
already, you could not see one step before you. So give your hand to
this good woman, and whatever happens hereafter never, never let it
go."

And with that he joined their hands.

"Does she know my way?" said Sunlocks.

"She knows the way for both of you," said Jason. "And now go. Down
at the jetty you will find two men waiting for you. Stop! Have you
any money?"

"Yes," said Greeba.

"Give some to the men," said Jason. "Good-bye. I promised them a
hundred kroner. Good-bye! Tell them to drop down the bay as silently
as they can. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye!"

"Come," said Greeba, and she drew at the hand of Sunlocks.

"Good-bye! Good-bye!" said Jason.

But Sunlocks held back a moment, and then in a voice that faltered
and broke he said, "Jason--kiss me."

At the next moment they were gone into the darkness and the falling
snow--Sunlocks and Greeba, hand in hand, and their child asleep at
its mother's bosom.

Jason stood a long hour at the open door, and listened. He heard the
footsteps die away; he heard the creak of the crazy wooden jetty; he
heard the light plash of the oars as the boat moved off; he heard the
clank of the chain as the anchor was lifted; he heard the oars again
as the little smack moved down the bay, and not another sound came to
his ear through the silence of the night.

He looked across the headland to where the sloop of war lay outside,
and he saw her lights, and their two white waterways, like pillars of
silver, over the sea. All was quiet about her.

Still he stood and listened until the last faint sound of the oars
had gone. By this time a woolly light had begun to creep over the
mountain tops, and a light breeze came down from them.

"It is the dawn," thought Jason. "They are safe."

He went back into the house, pulled down the sheepskin from the
window, and lit the candle again. After a search he found paper and
pens and wax in a cupboard and sat down to write. His hand was hard,
he had never been to school, and he could barely form the letters and
spell the words. This was what he wrote:

"Whatever you hear, fear not for me. I have escaped, and am safe. But
don't expect to see me. I can never rejoin you, for I dare not be
seen. And you are going back to your beautiful island, but dear old
Iceland is the only place for me. Greeba, good-bye; I shall never
lose heart. Sunlocks, she has loved you, you only, all the days of
her life. Good-bye. I am well and h