for naught. But it may
be that a show of force will keep him off, so we will wait under arms
until we are sure what he will do."

Then the men broke out, saying that they had beaten this man before with
him as leader, and they were in no mind to give up without a fight.

"Well, then," my father answered, "it is plain that you will back me,
and so I will call on you if there is need or chance. But we have the
women folk to think of now, and we must not risk aught."

Now the longship held on her course steadily, never shifting her helm
for so much as a point. In half an hour or so we must be alongside one
another, at this rate, and that Arngeir did not altogether like the look
of, for it would seem as if she meant to find out all about us at least.
There was some little sea running, and it might be thought easier to
board us on the lee side, therefore. We could not get away from her in
any way, for even now, while she was closer hauled than we, she kept
pace with us, and had she paid off to the same course as ourselves, she
would have left us astern in a very short time.

Presently a man swarmed up her rigging in order to look down on our
decks, and as he went up, my father bade our men crawl over to windward,
so that he should see all one gunwale lined with men, and so think that
both were, and deem that we were setting a trap for them in order to
entice them alongside by pretending to be hardly manned. At the same
time, he sent the ladies and children into the cabin, so that they might
not be seen.

That did not please Havelok at all, for he seemed to scent a fight in
the air, and wanted weapons, that he might stand beside the other men,
asking for an axe for choice. It was all that I could do to quiet him by
saying that if there was any need of him I would call him, but that just
now we thought the Vikings would go away if they saw many warriors on
deck. Which indeed was all that we hoped, but he thought that would
spoil sport, and so hastened into the shelter.

After that there fell a silence on us, for at any moment now we might be
hailed by the other ship. And when we were but a bow shot apart the hail
came. The two vessels were then broadside on to each other, we a little
ahead, if anything. My father was steering now, fully armed, and Arngeir
was beside him with myself. I had the big shield wherewith one guards
the helmsman if arrows are flying.

The Viking bade us strike sail, and let him come alongside,