e nailed to the roof
beam, against which they were set too firmly for us to move them,
and we must look for some axe or other tool.

"One of the chests forward is the ship's carpenter's," said Dalfin.
"I opened it when we sought for food just now."

He slipped round the house and came back with a heavy hammer and a
broad chisel. Bertric took them, and prised away the upper end of
the midmost timber without any trouble. Then he drew it toward him,
and the lower end wrenched free at once, for the nails that held
this building which was to be burnt were not long. And while he did
this, he stood on one side, that he might not pry into the chamber
idly, as it were, while Dalfin and I could see nothing from where
we stood. Only a little peat smoke seemed to come out gently when
the timber had gone.

It did but need that two more timbers should be moved thus, and
there was room enough for a man to pass through. Then Bertric set
down the hammer, and took off his rough sea cap, smiling a little,
yet with grave eyes, and so looked in. Dalfin pressed close to him,
but I stood aside still.

"The place is full of the peat smoke. I can see nothing," Dalfin
said.

"Somewhat white on the floor," said Bertric; "but we block the
light."

He stood aside, and the shadowless brightness shone across the
chamber through the thinning peat smoke. I saw him start a little,
and Dalfin signed himself with his holy sign once or twice. Then I
must look also, almost in spite of myself, and I went forward
quietly.

Chapter 4: By Sea And Fire.

It was even as I thought. There lay in state, as his men had left
him, a wonderful old chief, whose long, white beard swept like a
snowdrift down the crimson cloak in which he was shrouded. They had
set him on just such a low, carved bedstead as that which we had
found outside the house, dressed in his full mail, and helmed, and
with his sword at his side, such a priceless weapon, with
gold-mounted scabbard and jewelled hilt, as men have risked the
terrors of grave mounds to win. His white hand rested on the
pommel, and he was facing forward as if looking toward the far
shore which he was to reach through the flames. But there was
naught terrible in his look, and even my fears passed as I saw the
peacefulness of that last sleep.

The smoke thinned quickly from the chamber; for it had only soaked
into it from the peat against its roughly made walls, over which
the fagots had been piled too he