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CHAPTER II. KING HODULF'S SECRET.

My father came home heavy and anxious enough, for he did not know how
things would go under this new king, though he had promised peace to all
men who would own him. We in our place saw nothing of him or his men for
the next few weeks, but he was well spoken of by those who had aught to
do with him elsewhere. So my father went on trying to gather a cargo for
England; but it was a slow business, as the burnt and plundered folk of
the great town had naught for us, and others sold to them. But he would
never be idle, and every day when weather served we went fishing, for he
loved his old calling well, as a man will love that which he can do
best. Our two boats and their gear were always in the best of order, and
our kinsman, Arngeir, used and tended them when we were away in the ship
in summertime.

Now, one evening, as we came up from the shore after beaching the boat
on the hard below the town, and half a mile from the nearest houses, and
being, as one may suppose, not altogether in holiday trim, so that Grim
and his boys with their loads of fish and nets looked as though a
fisher's hovel were all the home that they might own, we saw a horseman,
followed at a little distance by two more, riding towards us. The dusk
was gathering, and at first we thought that this was Jarl Sigurd, who
would ask us maybe to send fish to his hall, and so we set our loads
down and waited for him.

But it was not our lord, and I had never seen this man before. From his
arms, which were of a new pattern to me, he might be one of the host of
Hodulf, as I thought.

"Ho, fisher!" he cried, when he was yet some way from us; "leave your
lads, and come hither. I have a word for you."

He reined up and waited, and now I was sure that he was a Norseman, for
his speech was rougher than ours. He was a tall, handsome man enough;
but I liked neither his voice nor face, nor did I care to hear Grim, my
father, summoned in such wise, not remembering that just now a stranger
could not tell that he was aught but a fisher thrall of the jarl's.

But my father did as he was asked, setting down the nets that he was
carrying, and only taking with him the long boathook on which he had
slung them as he went forward. I suppose he remembered the old saying,
that a man should not stir a step on land without his weapons, as one
never knows when there may be need of them; and so, having no other, he
took this.

I heard