him. We lay perhaps three hundred paces from
the shore, and there was no sight to fray them now.

So they and we went to the after deck and watched, and there was
not long to wait. But it was Dalfin who came alone, and mounted on
a fresh horse. It was plain that he had been fighting, because he
had his left arm in a sling, though he managed his horse none the
worse for that. He rode down to the beach in all haste, with a
dozen men after him, and waved his hand to us. Then he dismounted,
and the men put off the nearest boat, into which he stepped. In
five minutes he was on the deck, and greeting us.

"This is wonderful," he said. "All this morning I have been
crossing the hills to reach here in the nick of time. I heard no
news, and I saw no messengers. I did not even know that Heidrek had
sailed hence and returned. Now you are here first, and one comes
with a message from you on the spot. The luck of the torque lingers
with Queen Gerda even yet."

He bowed to her in his way, and she laughed, and looked for the
gold. He had not it on him now.

"Have you parted with it already?" she asked.

"With the torque, but not with the luck, as it is to be hoped," he
said. "You will see my father wearing it soon. It must needs be on
the neck of the head of the realm."

"What were you while you wore it?" asked Thoralf, who knew the
Irish ways.

"Deputy king for the time," answered Dalfin dryly. "And in a hurry
to hand it over to my father therefore."

Now, as Dalfin had elder brothers, and there were chiefs almost as
powerful as the king himself, that was to be expected. Otherwise,
our friend might have had an evil time between them. Unless he had
chosen to put himself at the head of the men whom he had just led
to victory, and called to them to set the torque wearer on the
throne. They would have done it, by reason of the magic of the
thing; but there was no thought of treason in the mind of Dalfin,
though many a king's son would have grasped at the chance, holding,
perhaps, that as the sign of royalty had come to him, the throne
must needs come with it, though his father held it.

Then he told us how the fight had gone--how Heidrek fell at the
forefront of his steadfast wedge, and how but few men had been
taken unhurt. Hakon asked what he would do with those who were
taken.

"Give them to you," Dalfin answered carelessly, "if you will take
them out of this land."

"I was going to ask for the ship," Hakon said.

"