them the choice was harder, I think. They had
no ties to us but those of common work and life together, and it
was the old land that they must think of leaving. They said
nothing, for until he has made up his mind a Scot will not answer.

They would have to decide directly, for now Heidrek was coming back
to us. After him were a score or more of his men, and the rest were
loading themselves with the plunder and starting one by one towards
the haven, into which the two ships were just bearing up. They
would be alongside the little wharf by the time the men reached it.
Our own good longship lay there also, and I wondered what they
would do with her. She was too good to burn.

Now Heidrek stood before me and looked at me, glowering, for a
moment.

"Well," he said curtly, "do you join me? Mind you, I would not give
every man the chance, but you and yours are men."

Before I could say aught, and it was on my mind to tell the pirate
what I thought of him, if I spent my last breath in doing it, the
courtman who had spoken with me just now answered for himself.

"We do what the young jarl does," he said; "we follow him."

"The choice was whether you would follow me or not," answered
Heidrek coldly; "I will have no leader but myself."

Some of his wilder followers cried out now that we were wasting
time, and that an end should be made, while a sword or two were
drawn among them. It was the way in which Heidrek's crew were wont
to deal with captives when they had no hope of ransom from them.
That I and my men should join such a crew was not to be thought of,
if for a moment I had half wondered if I ought to save the lives of
these courtmen of ours by yielding. Both I and they would be
shamed, even as Dalfin had said.

So I made no answer, and Heidrek was turning away with a shrug of
his broad shoulders, while the men were only waiting his word to
end the affair. Then Asbiorn, whose face was white and pitying as
he looked at us, gripped his father by the arm and faced him.

"I will not have it thus," he said hoarsely. "The men are brave
men, and it were shame to slay them. Give them to me."

Heidrek laughed at him in a strange way, but the men yelled and
made a rush at us, sword in hand. Whereon Asbiorn swung his round
shield into place from off his shoulder, and gripped his light axe
and faced them. It was the lightness of that axe which had spared
me; but the men knew, and feared it and the skill of the wielder,
and