of the Ulster
kings. Kill me, and boast that once you slew a prince. No need to
say that I was bound when you did it."

He spoke the Danish of Waterford and Dublin well enough.

Asbiorn flushed, with some sort of manly shame, as I believe, and
even old Heidrek frowned uneasily. To have the deed they threatened
set in all its shame before them was a new thing to them.

"Let the prince go, chief," I said, seeing this look. "He is a
guest, and if this is some old feud with my father of which I have
not heard, he does not come into it. He is a guest of the house."

"Faith," answered Heidrek savagely, "he has made it his own affair.
He has been the bane of three of my best men. Aye, I have a feud
here, and with all who dwell at ease. I am Heidrek the Seafarer."

He turned away, and left us with some sign to his men; but Asbiorn
stood still and spoke again to us.

"You bear a Scottish name," he said. "Have you no Scottish kin
besides Melbrigda?"

I shook my head, whereon Dalfin spoke for me.

"Here," he said, "if it is just a matter of ransom, let us both go;
and come to Belfast in a year's time, or six months' time, an you
will. Then my father will pay chief's ransom for the two of us. My
word as a prince on it."

"It is a new thing with us to take ransom, or the word of any man,"
answered Asbiorn doubtfully, yet as if the plan seemed good to him.

One of the men who followed him broke in on that,

"No use, Asbiorn. We cannot put into any Irish port in safety. And
over there princes are thick as blackberries, and as poor as the
brambles that bear them."

"Aye, and as prickly," said Dalfin. "Have you learned that also?"

The men laughed. One of them said that the Irishman's Danish speech
was not bad, and that it was a pity--

"So it is," Asbiorn put in hastily. "I will speak to my father."

The old chief was back with his crew, settling the sharing of the
plunder. His son took him aside, and their talk was long; and, as
it seemed, not altogether peaceful. Soon the men began to gather
round them, and those with us went to hear what was going on. So we
were left alone for a moment.

"Men," I said, "save your lives as this chief bids you. Join him
now, and leave him when you may."

"Do you join him?" said one in answer.

Not I."

"Neither do we. We live or die with you. What else should courtmen
of the jarl's do?"

So said one of our Norsemen; but the eyes of the Scots were on the
bleak hills, and for