ed Alwin, in amazement.

Sigurd echoed the cry. Yet as their minds ran back over Egil's strange
actions, they could not doubt that this was the key that unlocked their
mystery.

From an invisible corner came a stir, a creak, and then the sound of
feet lighting softly on the floor. A tiny figure appeared on the edge of
the shadows beyond the dying fire. The light fell upon furry gray feet;
and Alwin's first thought was that a monstrous cat had dropped down.
Then the flames leaped higher, and showed a furry cloak and a furry
hood, and from its fuzzy depths protruding, a sharp yellow beak for a
nose, and a hairy yellow peak for a chin. Of eyes, one saw nothing at
all.

Out of the fuzzy depths came a lisping voice. "When a thrall of Leif
Ericsson, who is also a Christian, thinks it worth while to risk his
life and his soul to consult me, I forgive it that I am wakened at
midnight. It is a compliment to my powers that I do not take ill. Say
what you wish to learn from me."

Alwin felt Sigurd touch him reproachfully, and shame burned in his
cheeks; but he had gone too far to retreat. He said bluntly: "I wish to
know whether Helga, Gilli's daughter, is to be given to Egil. Each time
he speaks across the floor to her, I am as though I were pricked with
sharp knives. I have endured it through three feasts; but I look upon
her with such eyes of love, that I can bear it no longer."

"I will dull those knives, even as Odin blunts the weapons of his
enemies. Helga will not be given to Egil, because he is too haughty to
ask for her since he knows that she loves you instead of him."

It had seemed to Alwin that if he could only know this, he would be
satisfied; yet now his questions piled upon each other.

"Then do you promise that she will be given to me? How am I to save her?
How am I to get my freedom? How long am I to wait?"

The Sibyl sank her head upon her breast so that her nose and chin quite
disappeared, and she stood before them like some furry headless beast.
There was a long pause. Alwin nervously followed the pairs of eyes,
noiselessly appearing and disappearing, from floor to ceiling, in every
part of the room. Sigurd set his back against the door and carried on a
silent struggle with the heavy lumps, hanging by teeth and claws upon
his cloak.

At last Skroppa raised her head and answered haltingly: "You ask too
much, according to the time and the place. To know all that clearly, I
should sit on a witches' pla