red way, and was heeling a little to the wind, and the
foam gathered round her bows and slid along her side aft as she
headed southward with the wind on her beam.

"Now, Lady Gerda," said Bertric, "we are under way once more, and
the question is, Whither? How far are we from the Norway coast?"

"I cannot tell," she answered. "It was a little before noon,
however, when the ship was set afloat, as I have told you."

"We overhauled her at sunset," he said thoughtfully. "At that time
she was not doing more than four knots. Maybe we are fifty miles
from shore, for she may have done better than that, though I doubt
it, seeing how wildly she sailed. Now we can hardly beat back
there, for we are too few to work the sail."

"It is as well," she answered sadly. "There wait Arnkel and
Heidrek."

"We think that Arnkel may have made an end of Heidrek's power," I
said.

At that she shook her head.

"Arnkel has had old dealings with Heidrek. He has sailed with him,
I know. It is more likely that after he had done with me, he made
some sort of terms with him, finding out who the attackers were. We
did not know at first, but I heard the men name Heidrek as the ship
was fired."

"Well, then," Bertric said, after a little thought, "we must try to
make the Shetlands or the Orkneys. Malcolm will find us friends
there."

So, that being quite possible if the wind held, and I being sure of
welcome for my father's sake, we set a course for Shetland as
nearly as we could judge it. The ship sailed wonderfully well and
swiftly, even under the shortened canvas, and Bertric was happy as
he steered her. And at his side on the bench sat the Lady Gerda,
silently looking ever eastward toward the home she had lost, while
I and Dalfin well-nigh dozed in the sun on the warm deck amidships
in all content, for things went well with us.

Presently Gerda rose up and came forward, as if she would go to her
awning, and I went to help her over the timbers again.

"Come forward with me," she said; "I have something I must say to
you."

I followed her, and she went to the gunwale, close to the
penthouse, where she was screened from Dalfin, and leant on it.

"You are of my own folk," she said, "and of the old faith, and
therefore I can tell you what is troubling me. These other two good
friends are of the new faith I have heard of, for I saw them sign
their holy sign ere they ate, and you signed Thor's hammer over the
meat."

"They are Christian