lone
with Swanhild.

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Now, when Atli had been gone three days, it chanced on an afternoon that
Swanhild heard how a man from Iceland sought speech with her. She bade
them bring him in to where she was alone in her bower, for Eric was not
there, having gone down to the sea to fish.

The man came and she knew him at once for Koll the Half-witted, who
had been her mother Groa's thrall. On his shoulders was the cloak that
Ospakar Blacktooth had given him; it was much torn now, and he had a
worn and hungry look.

"Whence comest thou, Koll?" she asked, "and what are thy tidings?"

"From Scotland last, lady, where I sat this winter; before that, from
Iceland. As for my tidings, they are heavy, if thou hast not heard them.
Asmund the Priest is dead, and dead is Unna his wife, poisoned by thy
mother, Groa, at their marriage-feast. Dead, too, is thy mother, Groa.
Bjoern, Asmund's son, shot her with an arrow, and she lies in Goldfoss
pool."

Now Swanhild hid her face for a while in her hands. Then she lifted it
and it was white to see. "Speakest thou truth, fox? If thou liest, this
I swear to thee--thy tongue shall be dragged from thee by the roots!"

"I speak the truth, lady," he answered. But still he spoke not all the
truth, for he said nothing of the part which he had played in the deaths
of Asmund and Unna. Then he told her of the manner of their end.

Swanhild listened silently--then said:

"What news of Gudruda, Asmund's daughter? Is she wed?"

"Nay, lady. Folk spoke of her and Ospakar, that was all."

"Hearken, Koll," said Swanhild, "bearing such heavy tidings, canst thou
not weight the ship a little more? Eric Brighteyes is here. Canst thou
not swear to him that, when thou didst leave Iceland it was said without
question that Gudruda had betrothed herself to Ospakar, and that the
wedding-feast was set for this last Yule? Thou hast a hungry look, Koll,
and methinks that things have not gone altogether well with thee of
late. Now, if thou canst so charge thy memory, thou shalt lose little
by it. But, if thou canst not, then thou goest hence from Straumey with
never a luck-penny in thy purse, and never a sup to stay thy stomach
with."

Now of all things Koll least desired to be sent from Straumey; for,
though Swanhild did not know it, he was sought for on the mainland as a
thief.

"That I may do, lady," he said, looking at her cunningly. "Now I
remember that Gudruda the Fair charged me with a ce