Therewith the big man drew in the oars and came to the afterpart of the
boat, and drew meat and drink out of a locker thereby; and they ate and
drank together, and Hallblithe grew strong and somewhat less downcast;
and he went forward and gat the oars into his hands.

Then the big red man stood up and looked over his left shoulder and said:
"Soon shall we have a breeze and bright weather."

Then he looked into the midmost of the sail and fell a-whistling such a
tune as the fiddles play to dancing men and maids at Yule-tide, and his
eyes gleamed and glittered therewithal, and exceeding big he looked. Then
Hallblithe felt a little air on his cheek, and the mist grew thinner, and
the sail began to fill with wind till the sheet tightened: then, lo! the
mist rising from the face of the sea, and the sea's face rippling gaily
under a bright sun. Then the wind increased, and the wall of mist
departed and a few light clouds sped over the sky, and the sail swelled
and the boat heeled over, and the seas fell white from the prow, and they
sped fast over the face of the waters.

Then laughed the red-haired man, and said: "O croaker on the dead branch,
now is the wind such that no rowing of thine may catch up with it: so in
with the oars now, and turn about, and thou shalt see whitherward we are
going."

Then Hallblithe turned about on the thwart and looked across the sea, and
lo! before them the high cliffs and crags and mountains of a new land
which seemed to be an isle, and they were deep blue under the sun, which
now shone aloft in the mid heaven. He said nought at all, but sat
looking and wondering what land it might be; but the big man said: "O
tomb of warriors, is it not as if the blueness of the deep sea had heaved
itself up aloft, and turned from coloured air into rock and stone, so
wondrous blue it is? But that is because those crags and mountains are
so far away, and as we draw nigher to them, thou shalt see them as they
verily are, that they are coal-black; and yonder land is an isle, and is
called the Isle of Ransom. Therein shall be the market for thee where
thou mayst cheapen thy betrothed. There mayst thou take her by the hand
and lead her away thence, when thou hast dealt with the chapman of
maidens and hast pledged thee by the fowl of battle, and the edge of the
fallow blade to pay that which he will have of thee."

As the big man spoke there was a mocking in his voice and his face and in
his whole hug