und which surprised Rolf,--voices of men,
who seemed, if he could judge from so rapid a hint, to be talking
angrily. He began to consider whom, besides Oddo, Erlingsen could have
thought it safe or necessary to bring with him, or whether it was
somebody met with by chance. At all events, it would be wisest not to
show himself, and to approach with all possible caution. Cautiously,
therefore, he drew near, keeping a vigilant watch all around, and ready
to pop down into the grass on any alarm. Being unable to see any one
near the tarn, he was convinced the talkers must be seated under the
crags on its margin, and he therefore made a circuit, to get behind the
rocks, and then climbed a huge fragment, which seemed to have been
toppled down from some steep, and to have rolled to the brink of the
water. Two stunted pines grew out from the summit of this crag, and
between these pines Rolf placed himself, and looked down from thence.

Two men sat on the ground in the shadow of the rock: one was Hund, and
the other must undoubtedly be one of the pirate crew. His dress, arms,
and broken language all showed him to be so; and it was, in fact, the
same man that Erica had met near the same place; though that she had had
such an adventure was the last thing her lover dreamed of as he surveyed
the man's figure from above. This man appeared surly. Hund was
extremely agitated.

"It is very hard," said he, "when all I want is to do no harm to
anybody,--neither to my old friends nor my new acquaintances,--that I
cannot be let alone. I have done too much mischief in my life already.
The demons have made sport of me;--it is their sport that I have as many
lives to answer for as any man of twice my age in Nordland; and now that
I would be harmless for the rest of my days--"

"Don't trouble yourself to talk about your days," interrupted the
pirate; "they will be too _few_ to be worth speaking of, if you do not
put yourself under our orders again. You are a deserter; and as a
deserter you go back with me, unless you choose to go as a comrade."

"And what might I expect that your orders would be, if I went with you?"

"You know very well that we want you for a guide. That is all you are
worth. In a fight, you would only be in the way, unless--indeed, you
could contrive to get out of the way."

"Then you would not expect me to fight against my master and his
people?"

"Nobody was ever so foolish as to expect you to fight, more