ted and they hunted; they turned Thrudheim upside down, and set the
clouds to rolling wonderfully, as they peeped and pried behind and
around and under each billowy mass. But Mioelnir was not to be found.
Certainly, someone had stolen it.

Thor's yellow beard quivered with rage, and his hair bristled on end
like the golden rays of a star, while all his household trembled.

"It is Loki again!" he cried. "I am sure Loki is at the bottom of this
mischief!" For since the time when Thor had captured Loki for the dwarf
Brock and had given him over to have his bragging lips sewed up, Loki
had looked at him with evil eyes; and Thor knew that the red rascal
hated him most of all the gods.

But this time Thor was mistaken. It was not Loki who had stolen the
hammer--he was too great a coward for that. And though he meant, before
the end, to be revenged upon Thor, he was waiting until a safe chance
should come, when Thor himself might stumble into danger, and Loki need
only to help the evil by a malicious word or two; and this chance came
later, as you shall hear in another tale.

Meanwhile Loki was on his best behaviour, trying to appear very kind and
obliging; so when Thor came rumbling and roaring up to him, demanding,
"What have you done with my hammer, you thief?" Loki looked surprised,
but did not lose his temper nor answer rudely.

"Have you indeed missed your hammer, brother Thor?" he said, mumbling,
for his mouth was still sore where Brock had sewed the stitches. "That
is a pity; for if the giants hear of this, they will be coming to try
their might against Asgard."

"Hush!" muttered Thor, grasping him by the shoulder with his iron
fingers. "That is what I fear. But look you, Loki: I suspect your hand
in the mischief. Come, confess."

Then Loki protested that he had nothing to do with so wicked a deed.
"But," he added wheedlingly, "I think I can guess the thief; and because
I love you, Thor, I will help you to find him."

"Humph!" growled Thor. "Much love you bear to me! However, you are a
wise rascal, the nimblest wit of all the AEsir, and it is better to have
you on my side than on the other, when giants are in the game. Tell me,
then: who has robbed the Thunder Lord of his bolt of power?"

Loki drew near and whispered in Thor's ear. "Look, how the storms rage
and the winds howl in the world below! Someone is wielding your thunder
hammer all unskilfully. Can you not guess the thief? Who but Thrym, the
mighty gi