und; and Hreidmar said, "Bring shining gold and precious
stones enough to cover every part of this otter-skin. When you have paid
so much ransom, you shall have your freedom."

"That we will do," answered Odin. "But one of us must have leave to
go and fetch it: the other two will stay fast bound until the morning
dawns. If, by that time, the gold is not here, you may do with us as you
please."

Hreidmar and the two young men agreed to Odin's offer; and, lots being
cast, it fell to Loki to go and fetch the treasure. When he had been
loosed from the cords which bound him, Loki donned his magic shoes,
which had carried him over land and sea from the farthest bounds of
the mid-world, and hastened away upon his errand. And he sped with the
swiftness of light, over the hills and the wooded slopes, and the deep
dark valleys, and the fields and forests and sleeping hamlets, until he
came to the place where dwelt the swarthy elves and the cunning dwarf
Andvari. There the River Rhine, no larger than a meadow-brook, breaks
forth from beneath a mountain of ice, which the Frost giants and blind
old Hoder, the Winter-king, had built long years before; for they had
vainly hoped that they might imprison the river at its fountain-head.
But the baby-brook had eaten its way beneath the frozen mass, and
had sprung out from its prison, and gone on, leaping and smiling, and
kissing the sunlight, in its ever-widening course towards Burgundy and
the sea.

Loki came to this place, because he knew that here was the home of the
elves who had laid up the greatest hoard of treasures ever known in the
mid-world. He scanned with careful eyes the mountain-side, and the deep,
rocky caverns, and the dark gorge through which the little river rushed;
but in the dim moonlight not a living being could he see, save a lazy
salmon swimming in the quieter eddies of the stream. Any one but Loki
would have lost all hope of finding treasure there, at least before the
dawn of day; but his wits were quick, and his eyes were very sharp.

"One salmon has brought us into this trouble, and another shall help us
out of it!" he cried.

Then, swift as thought, he sprang again into the air; and the magic
shoes carried him with greater speed than before down the Rhine valley,
and through Burgundy-land, and the low meadows, until he came to the
shores of the great North Sea. He sought the halls of old AEgir, the
Ocean-king; but he wist not which way to go,--whether acros