full mail on him, and was sinking, when I
gripped his hair and held it. Then he got his hands on the gunwale
and stared at us.

Gerda had hidden her face in her hands, for he was not the only one
who had been swept past us. There were still cries, which rang in
my ears, from men who were sinking as we passed on.

Bertric felt the boat lurch, and looked round. He saw the head
above the gunwale, and the clutching hands on it, and reached for
his oar.

"Hold hard!" I cried, staying the thrust which was coming. "It is
Asbiorn!"

He dropped the oar again with a short laugh.

"Lucky for him that so it is," he said; "but I am glad you saved
him."

"It is not to be supposed that I am welcome," said Asbiorn, mighty
coolly; "but on my word I did not know it was you whom I was
chasing. You ought to be in Shetland. Now, if you think this a
mistake, I will let go."

"Well," said Bertric, "you are the only man of your crews whom we
could make welcome. Get to the stern and we will help you into the
boat."

He shifted his hands along the gunwale and we got him on board,
while Gerda looked on in a sort of silent terror at all that had
happened in that few minutes. There was a row of faces watching us
over the rail of the ship by this time, and now Hakon came aft.

"Why," he said, "you have a lady with you. I had not seen that
before. We will get you alongside."

So it came to pass that in five minutes more we were on the deck, and
some of Hakon's men were helping Phelim to get his still-swooning
brother on board. There were a dozen men of rank round us at once,
with Hakon at their head. There were not so many warriors to be seen
as one might have expected, but all were picked men and well armed.

As for Hakon himself, I have never seen a more handsome young man.
He was about seventeen at this time, and might have been taken for
three years older, being tall and broad of shoulder, with the
wonderful yellow hair and piercing eyes of his father Harald, whom
he was most like, as all men knew. It was certain that he did the
great English king, Athelstane, who had fostered him, credit, for
he was in all ways most kinglike even now.

He took off the blue cap he wore as he went to meet Gerda, and
greeted her with all courtesy, asking to know her name. She
answered him frankly, though it was plain that the gaze of all the
strange faces disquieted her.

"I am Gerda, granddaughter of that Thorwald who was a king in the
south la