stayed her.

"It is the boat which we fear," I said. "There are Danes in her,
and we think they are seeking the wreck."

She looked me in the face for a moment, and read what was written
there.

"We might welcome the coming of honest Vikings," she said, "whether
Dane or Norse. They know how to befriend a woman who needs help.
These men whom you fear and who seek the wreck can only be the men
of our enemy."

Then Bertric said:

"I cannot mistake the boat which I have helped to pull so many a
weary time. It is Heidrek's. He has followed us, and has somewhere
heard of the fate of the ship. We have sunk the little boat, lest
the sight of it should bring them ashore straightway."

"Then we must hide somewhere," she said, looking round her as if to
see what place might be.

"Aye, we must hide. There will be fifteen men, or more, in the
boat. Malcolm and I cannot stay their landing."

Gerda caught her breath suddenly. "What of the hermits?" she said.

"We waste time," said I. "Come and let us tell them. They may have
some hiding place."

Then we went swiftly to the cells. Once we looked back to the
strait, from the little rise behind which the cells were sheltered,
and saw the boat still working against the tide along the far
shore. Heidrek had certainly not heard that the wreck was on the
island itself. Most likely it was thought that we had made for the
shelter of the strait, and had gone ashore in trying to reach it.
Unless the ship which we had seen knew the coast well, her crew
could hardly have told that an island was here.

There were no hermits to be seen, for they were either in their
cells, or at their tasks about the place. So I went to the first
cell and looked in, and finding it empty, went to the next. Fergus
sat there, writing in some beautiful book which he was busied with.
One never found a brother idle.

"Father," I said, "I must disturb you. There is danger at hand, I
fear."

"Ah," he answered, setting down his pen, and rising hastily. "The
Danes at last. Well, we have long expected them to come to us, as
to our brethren elsewhere. But what shall the poor queen do?"

"Is there no place where you can hide her?" I said.

"None," he answered gloomily. "Tell me more."

I told him, and he shook his head.

"Men in the narrow waters, and men in the open," he muttered.
"Hemmed in on every side."

"Danes in the open sea?" I said, with a new fear on me. The end
might be nearer than we deemed