metimes a thane would
stay and speak with me from the wharf alongside which my own ship
was with one or two others, and they were pleasant enough, though
they troubled me with over many thanks, which was Odda's fault.
However, I will say this, that if every man made as little of his
own doings and as much of those of his friends as did the honest
ealdorman, it were well in some ways.

By and by, while we were talking, having got through my grumble,
Kolgrim came along the shore with some Saxon noble whom he had met;
and this stranger was asking questions about each ship that he
passed. I suppose that Kolgrim had answered many such curious folk
already; for when he came near and we could hear what he was
saying, I was fain to laugh, for, as sailors will, he was telling
the landsman strange things.

"What do we pull up the anchor with?" he was saying. "Why, with
yonder big rope that goes from masthead to bows." and he pointed to
the great mainstay of our ship. "One must have a long purchase, if
you know what that is."

"Ah, 'tis wonderful," said the Saxon.

Then he caught my eye, and saw that I was smiling. He paid no heed
to me, however, but looked long at the ship that lay astern of
ours--one of the captured Danes. Thord had set a gang of shore folk
to bend the sail afresh to a new yard, for the old one had been
strained in the gale that came before the fight.

"What are those men doing, friend?" he asked Kolgrim directly.

"Bending a sail," answered my comrade listlessly, trusting, as it
would seem, to the sea language for puzzlement enough to the
landsman.

"So," said the Saxon, quite quietly. "It was in my mind that when a
sail was bent to the yard it was bent with the luff to the fore end
thereof."

At which words Kolgrim started, in a way, and looked first at the
riggers and then back at the Saxon, who moved no muscle of his
face, though one might see that his eyes twinkled. And I looked at
the riggers also, and saw that the Saxon was right, and that the
men had the square-cut sail turned over with the leech forward and
the luff aft. The sail was half laced to the yard, and none but a
man who knew much of ships would have seen that aught was wrong.

Then Kolgrim's face was so red, and angry, and full of shame all at
once, that I had the best laugh at him that had come to me for many
a day. And he did not bide with the Saxon any longer, but went on
board the ship hastily, and said what he had to say to t