ht rays that might be
in the eyes of the fighters. However, we set them across the light, so
that all there was might be even; and then we agreed that if one was
forced back to the edge of the clearing he was to be held beaten, as if
we had been on an island. It was nearly as good, for the shore of trees
and brushwood was very plain and sharp.

Now Ragnar unslung his round shield from his shoulders, and took his axe
from me, for I had carried it for him, and his face was quiet and
steady, as the face of one should be who has a deed to do that must be
seen through to the end. But Griffin and his men talked quickly in their
own tongue, and I had to tell them that we understood it well enough.
Then they looked at each other, and were silent suddenly. I wondered
what they, were about to say, for it seemed that my warning came just in
time for them.

Griffin took a shield from the thane they called Cadwal, and it was
square--a shape that I had not seen before in use, though Witlaf had
one like it on the wall at Stallingborough. He said that it had been won
from a chief by his forefathers when the English first came into the
land, and that it was the old Roman shape. It seemed unhandy to me, but
I had no time to think of it for a moment, for now Cadwal had a last
question.

"Is this fight to be to the death?"

"No," I answered; "else were the rule we made about the boundary of no use."

Then Griffin cried in a sort of choked voice, "It shall be to the death."

But I said nothing, and the other second, with Cadwal, shook his head.

Ragnar made no sign, but Cadwal said to Havelok, "You were foremost in
the matter just now. What say you?"

"Rules are rules, and what my comrade says is right. If the first blow
slays, we cannot help it, but there shall be no second wound. The man
who is first struck is defeated."

"I will not have it so," said Griffin.

"Well, then, thane, after you have wounded the earl you will have to
reckon with me, if you must slay someone."

Griffin looked at the towering form of my brother and made no answer,
and the other second told him that it was right. There was naught but an
angry word or two to be atoned for. So there was an end, and Ragnar went
on guard. Griffin made ready also, and at once it was plain that here
was no uneven match after all.

Both of them wore ring mail of the best. We had set the two six paces
apart, and they must step forward to get within striking distance. At
on