leif that the thane waited to
speak with him, and he was gone from the ships for half an hour
with Thrond. When he came back his face was grimmer than ever, and
a red scar which crossed his forehead was burning crimson. He
stayed to speak to the men on the wharves, and some order he gave
was passed from one to another, and in ten minutes every man had
left the wharves and had passed inland, with him at their head.

"Ho, that is it!" said one of the ship guard from the deck below
me.

"What is it?" I asked, for I had been talking to the man in all
friendly wise, of ship and sea and strange lands.

"Why, your folk will not pay, and so we must needs take payment for
ourselves in the viking's way."

I said no more, nor did the man. I think he was sorry for me; but
it was not long before he called to me and pointed to the hillside
above the town. On it was a black throng of folk, slowly coming
down toward us.

"Your people coming to drive us out," he said, laughing a short
laugh.

Then he and his comrades bustled about the ship, setting every
loose thing in place, until the decks were clear. In the other
ships the guard were at the same work, and at last they cast off
all the shore lines but one at stem and stern. The ships might sail
at the moment their men were on board if they were beaten back.

About that time the farther houses in Weymouth began to burn, and I
heard the Wessex war cry rise, hoarse and savage, as the foes met.
There were more of our men coming over the hill, and it was good to
me to see that the Danes, who watched as eagerly as I, waxed silent
and anxious. One said that there seemed a many folk hereabout, as
if the gathering against them was more than they cared for.

Now I did not know what I had best wish for. Sometimes I thought
that if our men were beaten back they might come to terms, and I
should be freed. And it being a thing impossible that I could hope
that Wessex was to be beaten, and next to impossible that I should
so much as imagine she could, I mostly wondered what would happen
to me when the Danes had to seek the ships. But as the noise of the
fight drew nearer, and the black smoke from burning houses grew
thicker, I forgot myself, and only wished I was with Elfric in that
struggle; and at last I could stand it no longer.

"Let me go, men," I said; "I cannot bide here."

"We must, and you have to," said the friendly man. "We want to help
as much as you, but here we have to st