ow far off it was, for fog of any sort confuses
distance; but the brook seemed to run in the direction of the fire,
and it was likely that any house stood near its banks.

"Let us follow the brook and see what we can find," I said
therefore. "These mists are chill, and I will confess that I am
hungry. We cannot lose our way if we keep to the water, and the
horses will be safe enough."

Anything was better, as it seemed to us, than trying to think that
we slept comfortably here, and so we rose up and went down the
banks of the stream at once; and the way proved to be easy enough,
if rocky. The bank on this side was higher, and dry therefore, so
that we had no bogs to fear. We knew enough of them in the Orkneys
and on the Sutherland coast.

The white mist grew very thick, but the firelight glow grew redder
as we went on, and at last we came near enough to hear many voices
plainly; but presently, when one shouted, we found that the tongue
was not known to us.

"Now it is plain whom we have come across," I said. "This is a camp
of the Cornish tin traders, of whom the king told us. They are
honest folk enough, and will put us on the great road. They must be
close to it."

That seemed so likely that we left the brook and began to draw
nearer to the fire, the voices growing plainer every moment, though
we could see no man as yet.

Now, all of a sudden, every voice was silent, and we stopped,
thinking we were heard perhaps; though it did seem strange to me
that no dogs were about a camp of traders. I was just about to call
out that we were friends, when there began a low, even beating, as
of a drum of some sort, and then suddenly a wild howl that sounded
like a war cry of maddened men, and after that a measured tramping
of feet that went swiftly and in time to a chant, the like of which
I had never heard before, and which made me grasp Harek by the arm.

"What, in Odin's name, is this?" r said, whispering.

"Somewhat uncanny," answered the scald. "Let us get back to the
horses and leave this place."

Then we turned back, and Kolgrim's foot lit on a stone that rolled
from under it, and he fell heavily with a clatter of weapons on the
scattered rocks of the stream bank.

There was a howl from the firelight, and the chanting stopped, and
voices cried in the uncouth tongue angrily, and there came a
pattering of unshod feet round us in the thickness, with a word or
two that seemed as if of command, and then silence, bu