r listened to the story with a preternatural
solemnity of countenance.

Mrs. Harrison, the girls, and small children stared and were dumb, as
Lowrie enlarged upon the baby wails which had stirred his soul, and the
great glowing eyes that had appeared for one brief moment at the small
window. It was all the most remarkable tale that had ever been told at
Noostigard, and it was not spoilt by any verbal interruption.

When the story was ended Harrison asked, in a curious low voice that
seemed shaken by some strange emotion, "And so ye'll be for letting out
Mr. Neeven's prisoners instead o' shutting up your ain? Weel, my boys,
tak care that ye dinna find yoursel's in a trap, as mony a wild fellow
o' a sea-rover has found himsel' in times past. Mind ye, yon Vikings,
that ye hae sae muckle sang about, did not aye come aff wi' the best o'
it. Sometimes they had tae tak their turn in the prisons too."

"Yaspard will tak care _we_ don't come off second best," said the boys
confidently; but their father shook his head.

"I'm thinking," he said, "ye'll find ye've got a _rale_ Viking tae deal
wi' if ye tackle Mr. Neeven, or meddle wi' ony o' his affairs. I wadna
be in Yaspard Adiesen's shoes if he gets intil Mr. Neeven's birse." [2]

"But, faither, it's a crying shame of him to keep such puir critters
prisoned in such a place; and surely Yaspard is right to wish to set
them free."

"I'll no say he's wrang. I think it is a shame, but I'm just warning
you tae be careful;--I mean that ye tell your chief (as ye ca' him) tae
be careful--very careful."

"We'll tell him what you say," they answered.

Harrison would not allow his wife or girls to discuss the matter, and a
significant look he gave them served to silence them on the subject for
that time.

[1] "Maute," a comrade, chum, or _mate_.

[2] Bristles.

CHAPTER IX.

"NO NEED OF BINDING OR SALVING HERE."

That afternoon the _Osprey_, with the three young rovers and Pirate
aboard, went out the voe. They were not so jubilant as they had
expected to be when sailing to meet the foe, for they were not at all
sure how the lads of Lunda would receive their story of Gloy's
disappearance.

The place of meeting was Havnholme, and when they neared that island
Yaspard's quick eyes detected the _Laulie_ moored by the crags and a
group of boys standing near the skeoe watching for the Boden boat.

"They've come in force!" our Viking exclaimed. "Five of them, no