rs, maybe I should have thought little of
danger to myself. It was only as Olaf's kinsman that I was worth a
thought of the man whose deep statecraft I could not pretend to
understand.

So I said:

"The earl's life must be uneasy with all these doubts. But so long
as you yourself have none of King Olaf and myself, it is little
matter what he thinks. His doubts will be proved false in time, and
he will have fretted for nought."

"That is true," Eadmund answered. "I would that he troubled me not
with his suspicions."

So the matter passed, and we spoke for a little while of the fleet
and of Olaf's plans, and then I left him, saying that I would ride
back to London with the first light of morning.

"We shall have one good fight, and then peace," said Eadmund.
"Farewell, and trouble nought about my foster father and his ways
of doubting. He will doubt me next, maybe."

He laughed lightly, and I went away down the street with a troubled
mind, and was willing to get back to my lodgings through the dusk
as quickly as I might.

And when I came there I put on my mail, as the lady had bidden
me--rather blaming myself for doing so for all that, for it seemed
to show fear of somewhat that I could not name.

Then I thought of the goldsmith again, and sent a man for him,
thinking that he could do the work here in hall, so that I could be
sure of having the scabbard, which was very valuable, when I rode
away.

When he came I showed him what I would have done, and he said that
it was no long business, and took his tools into a corner and
lighted a wax taper and began to work by its light. The sword stood
by my chair as I ate my supper at the head of the long tables where
my men sat.

The goldsmith ended his work soon after the men had gone out to the
stables to tend their horses for the night, and only he and I and
my headman Thrand were left in the hall. He had put a flat band of
chased gold round the scabbard, and the silver penny showed through
a round setting that was in it.

I gave him one of the gold pieces that Earl Wulfnoth had taken from
the treasure for me, and the man weighed it, wondering at its
weight and fineness. Then he said that he was overpaid, and must
give me money for the overweight, and asked that one should go back
to his house with him and return with it.

"There were men lurking in the porches and on the bridge," he said,
"when I came down here. I suppose there will be a fray when they
meet t