Black Tarn," said Oddo,
"you will see that you have no business to carry such a face as yours to
the seater. Erica will die of terror at you for the mountain-demon,
before you can persuade her it is only you."

"I was thinking," observed one of the rowers, who relished the idea of
going down to posterity in a wonderful story,--"I was just thinking that
your wisest way will be to take a rest in my bed at Holberg's, without
anybody knowing, and shave yourself with my razor, and dress in my
Sunday clothes, and so show yourself to your betrothed in such a trim as
that she will be glad to see you."

"Do so, Rolf," urged Peder. Everybody said "Do so," and agreed that
Erica would suffer far less by remaining five or six hours longer in her
present state of mind, than by seeing her lover look like a ghastly
savage, or perhaps hearing that he was lying by the roadside, dying of
his exertions to reach her. Rolf tried to laugh at all this: but he
could not contradict it. He would not hear a word of any messenger
being sent. He declared that it would only torment her, as she would
not believe in his return till she saw him: and he dropped something
about everybody being so wanted at home that nobody ought to stray.

All took place as it was settled in the boat. Before the people on
Holberg's farm had come in to breakfast, Rolf was snug in bed, with a
large pitcher of whey by the bedside, to quench his still insatiable
thirst. No one but the Holbergs knew of his being there; and he got
away unseen in the afternoon, rested, shaven, and dressed, so as to look
more like himself, though still haggard. Packing his old clothes into a
bundle, which he carried with a stick over his shoulder, and laden with
nothing else but a few rye-cakes, and a flask of the everlasting
corn-brandy, he set forth, thanking his hosts very heartily for their
care, and somewhat mysteriously assuring them that they would hear
something soon, and that meantime they had better not have to be sought
far from home.

As he expected, he met no one whom he knew. Nine-tenths of the
neighbours were far away on the seaters, and of the small remainder,
almost all were attending the bishop on the opposite shore of the lake.
Rolf shook his head at every deserted farm-house that he passed,
thinking how the pirates might ransack the dwellings, if they should
happen to discover that few inhabitants remained in them but those whose
limbs were too old to climb the mo