es trembling unceasingly in the
playing winds. By the soft light, the Jotun, who was striding across the
camp, saw a graceful boyish form leave the circle around the King's fire
and join a group of mounted men waiting on the river bank, some fifty
yards away.

"Ho there, Fridtjof!" he roared wrathfully.

The figure turned, and he had a fleeting glimpse of a hand waved in
mocking farewell. Then the boy sprang into the saddle of a horse that
one of the warriors was holding, and the whole band moved forward at a
swinging pace.

"If you had waited a little, you would be less light on your feet,"
the Jotun growled as he strode on, striking his heels savagely upon the
frosty ground.

"Where is the King?" he demanded, as soon as he had reached the ring of
nobles sipping mead around the royal fire. Between swallows, they were
carrying on a heated discussion of the day's events; but Eric of Norway
stopped long enough to nod toward the wattled hut beneath the silken
banner.

"In there; and I will give you this chain off my neck if you can guess
what he is doing."

"It is likely that he is busy with messengers," Rothgar said with
an accent of vexation. "I had hoped to reach him before he finished
drinking, but there was a brawl among my men which--"

"He is playing chess," Eric said dryly.

"Chess!"

The Norwegian nodded as he swallowed. "Heard you ever anything to
equal that? He has the appearance of a boy who has been released from a
lesson. I wish that you had been here to see him at meal-time. So full
of jests and banter was he that I could scarcely eat for laughing. Yet
when I took courage from his good-nature to ask him concerning his plans
for the future, he pretended that he did not hear me, and put an end
to questioning by bidding Ulf come and play chess with him in the hut.
Whether he is mad, or bewitched, or feigning like Amleth, it is not easy
to tell."

"I do not think it is any of these," Rothgar said slowly. "I think it
is because he likes it so well that he has got peace in which to amuse
himself. Sooner would he hunt than fight, any day; and I have often seen
him express pleasure in this manner. I remember how his wife Elfgiva
once said of him that it was well his crown was no more than a ring of
gold, for then, when his mood changed, he could use it for such a gold
hoop as kings' children are wont to play with."

"Said Elfgiva of Northampton that?" Eric asked in surprise. "Never would
I have belie