g party
might land after a three days' journey along the winding highway of the
river.

In the bow stood the chief, and behind him were Sigurd Haraldsson and
Rolf; and behind them, Robert the Norman.

With a great racket of joyous hallooing for the benefit of their
camp-mates, the crew leaped ashore. While some stayed to load themselves
with the skins and game stowed under the seats, the rest began to climb
the trail, laughing and talking noisily.

Sigurd leaped along between Rolf and the Norman, a hand on the shoulder
of each, shaking them when their sentiments were unsatisfactory.

"How long am I to wait for you to have a free half-day?" he demanded of
his friend from Normandy. "It was over a week before we left that I
found those bear tracks, and still am I putting off the sport that you
may have a share in it. Is it Leif's intention to keep you dangling at
his heels forever, like a tassel on an apron? Certainly he cannot think
that there is danger of your talking love to Helga while you are
fighting bears."

"Though once I would have said that wooing a shield-maiden was a very
similar sport," Rolf added, pleasantly.

Whereupon Sigurd shook them both, with an energy that sent all three
sprawling on their faces, to the huge amusement of those who came after.

They scrambled to their feet in front of a tall sumach bush that grew
half-way up the slope. Alwin's eyes fell upon a narrow ledge-like path
that showed plainly between the bare branches, and he nodded toward it
with a smile.

"Missing bear-fights is certainly undesirable," he said. "But it was not
long ago--and on this same bank--that I anticipated a worse fate than
that."

"Nevertheless, I have never seen so much service exacted from a king's
page," Sigurd growled, as he bent to brush the dirt from his knees.

But Rolf shook his head with quiet decision.

"One need never tell me that it is only to keep you from saying fine
things to Helga that the chief demands your constant presence. It is
because he has come to take comfort in your superior intelligence, and
to value your attendance above ours. There, he is calling you now! I
foretell that you will not fight bears to-morrow either." He gave the
broad back a hearty slap that was at the same time a friendly shove
forward.

The chief's voice had even taken on an impatient accent by the time the
young squire reached his side.

"I should like much to know what is the cause of your deafness! Are yo