It is a matter which was forced on you once; but now you shall
have your choice whether you will undertake it with your free will
or not."

He spoke gravely, but his eyes had the light of a jest in them, and
I had to smile.

"This sounds a terrible matter, King Hakon," said I. "Let me know
the worst of it."

"Someone has to take Gerda back to her own place and turn out
Arnkel for me. Thereafter, he will have to hold the land for me
quietly, and make ready for a rising for me if need is. I think
there will be little trouble, but I do not know what men of his own
this Arnkel may have. Will you do it?"

"Seeing that the care of a lady is in the matter, I will not, for
shame's sake, say that I will do it with a light heart," I
answered. "But you could have asked me nothing more after my own
mind. But what of the lady?"

"If you do not know that by this time," he said gaily, "I am
mistaken. Maybe you had better ask her."

"Am I to take her with me?"

"Yes," he said, gravely enough. "There may be fighting here, and
she is best out of the way. Her folk will hail her, and she will be
safe with them, Arnkel notwithstanding. Thoralf will send his wife
and daughter with her that they, too, may be safe."

Then he laughed at me again, and said that if all his followers
were so ready to leave him, he would be a lonely man shortly, and
so on. Yet I knew that for him to have one loyal haven in the south
lands would be no little gain, so that I was serving him as well as
Gerda.

"That is well," he said at last. "And I wonder how long I may be
able to jest thus. Now, I will give you the ship we took from
Heidrek, and Bertric will be shipmaster, for this is his affair
also. You shall have crew enough, at least, to make sure that
Gerda's men will join you without fear. And you shall sail
tomorrow, before ever Arnkel hears that I am in the land. Take him,
if you can, and deal with him as you will. Maybe a rope at the end
of the yardarm is what he deserves. But, anywise, do not let him
get to Eric if you can help it."

Then I had to fetch Bertric, and thereafter we arranged all that
was needful as to ship and crew. We were to have thirty men, and
that would be as many as we should want, seeing that Gerda's folk
would join us so soon as they knew that she had returned. Also we
must find a pilot, for Gerda's place lay some four days' sail down
the coast, at the head of the fjord which men call Hvinfjord, or
Flekkefjord, which l