s," I said; "but I have nothing ill to say of
that faith, for I have known many of them in Scotland. I am Odin's
man."

"I have heard nothing but ill," she said. "I was frightened when I
knew that they were not Odin's men. Will they keep faith with me?"

"To the last," I answered. "Have no fear of that. It is one thing
which the Christian folk are taught to do before all else."

"I think that I could not mistrust these two in any case," she
said; "but all this is not what I would speak of, though it came
uppermost. What I am troubling about is this which lies here," and
she set her hand for a moment on the penthouse. "What shall be
done? For now we cannot fire the ship."

"If we make the Shetland Islands," I answered, "there are Norsemen
who will see that all is done rightly. There they will lay the king
in mound as becomes a chief of our land."

"And if not?"

"We might in any case make the Danish shore."

"Where a Norse chief will find no honour. Better that he were sunk
in the sea here. I would that this might be done, if we have any
doubt as to reaching a land where your folk were known."

"It may be done, Lady Gerda," I answered, while into my mind came
the words which the old chief seemed to have spoken to me in the
night. "It may be the best thing in the end. But let us wait. Shall
I speak of this to the others for you?"

"Aye, do so," she said. "What have they thought?--for you three
must have spoken thereof already."

"It has been in the mind of all of us to take the chief back to
some land where he will be honoured. We have spoken of naught else
as yet. I will say that it has seemed to me that the Christian folk
have more care for the honour of the dead than have we."

"That is all I needed to hear," she said simply. "I have feared
lest it had been rather the other way."

Now I looked aft, and saw Bertric staring under his hand astern,
and stepped to the other gunwale to see what it was at which he
looked. But I could make out nothing. The sea was rising a little,
but that was of course as the breeze freshened steadily. There was
no sign of change or of heavier weather to come, and no dark line
along the eastward sea warned me of a coming squall. Yet Bertric
still turned from the helm and looked astern.

"What is it?" asked Gerda. "Go and see, and call me if it is
aught."

So I went aft again, and stood beside Bertric, asking him what had
caught his eye.

"I cannot say for certain," he sai