's son at her
side. "It is certain that Leif recognized him; yet he chooses him to
accompany them. I do not understand it."

Nothing could have been sturdier than Sigurd's manner; she did not think
to look at his face.

"That may easily be," he returned. "Since it angered the chief to find
you two together, it would be no more than natural that he should wish
to make sure of your separation."

Helga did not appear to hear him. She stood transfixed with the horror
of a sudden conviction.

"It is to kill him!" she gasped. "That is why he has taken him away,
that he may kill him quietly and without interference. I will go after
them... By running, I can catch up--let me go, Sigurd!"

The fact that his foreboding was quite as black as hers did not prevent
Sigurd from tightening his grasp, almost to roughness.

He said sternly, "Be still. You have done harm enough by such crazy
actions. If by any chance he is not discovered, you would be certain to
betray him. You can do nothing but harm in any case."

As he felt her yield to his grasp, he added, less harshly, "More likely
than not, nothing of any importance will happen; if Tyrker is found
unharmed, Leif's joy will be too great to allow him to injure anyone,
whatever his offence."

She interrupted him with a low cry of anguish. "But if Tyrker is not
found, Sigurd! If Tyrker is not found, Leif will vent his rage upon the
nearest excuse. A Norseman in grief is like a bear with a wound: it
matters not whom he bites."

Burying her face in her hands, she sank upon the ground and rocked
herself back and forth. Out from the bower of long hair that streamed
over her, came pitiful moans.

"He will slay him and leave him out there in the darkness... I shall not
be by to raise his head and weep over him, as I did before .... Oh, thou
God, if there is help in Thee--! I shall not be with him... Leif will
slay him and leave him out in the darkness, alone..."

Sigurd's face grew white as he watched her, and he clenched his hands so
that the nails sank deep in the flesh.

"There is nothing to do but to wait," he said, briefly. "If Tyrker is
found, all will be well." He paced to and fro before her, his ear set
toward the river.

Over in front of the cook-house, Kark's fires began to twinkle out like
altars of good cheer. Like votaries hurrying to worship at them, the
hungry men went and threw themselves on the grass in a circle; with dice
and stories and jests they whiled aw