e body, which made the sword of Hallblithe uneasy in his
scabbard; but he refrained his wrath, and said: "Big man, the longer I
look, the less I can think how we are to come up on to yonder island; for
I can see nought but a huge cliff, and great mountains rising beyond it."

"Thou shalt the more wonder," said the alien, "the nigher thou drawest
thereto; for it is not because we are far away that thou canst see no
beach or strand, or sloping of the land seaward, but because there is
nought of all these things. Yet fear not! am I not with thee? thou shalt
come ashore on the Isle of Ransom."

Then Hallblithe held his peace, and the other spake not for a while, but
gave a short laugh once or twice; and said at last in a big voice,
"Little Carrion-biter, why dost thou not ask me of my name?"

Now Hallblithe was a tall man and a fell fighter; but he said: "Because I
was thinking of other things and not of thee."

"Well," said the big man, in a voice still louder, "when I am at home men
call me the Puny Fox."

Then Hallblithe said: "Art thou a Fox? It may well be that thou shalt
beguile me as such beasts will but look to it, that if thou dost I shall
know how to avenge me."

Then rose up the big man from the helm, and straddled wide in the boat,
and cried out in a great roaring voice: "Crag-nester, I am one of seven
brethren, and the smallest and weakest of them. Art thou not afraid?"

"No," said Hallblithe, "for the six others are not here. Wilt thou fight
here in boat, O Fox?"

"Nay," said Fox, "rather we will drink a cup of wine together."

So he opened the locker again and drew out thence a great horn of some
huge neat of the outlands, which was girthed and stopped with silver, and
also a golden cup, and he filled the cup from the horn and gave it into
Hallblithe's hand and said: "Drink, O black-fledged nestling! But call a
health over the cup if thou wilt." So Hallblithe raised the cup aloft
and cried: "Health to the House of the Raven and to them that love it! an
ill day to its foemen!" Then he set his lips to the cup and drank; and
that wine seemed to him better and stronger than any he had ever tasted.
But when he had given the cup back again to Fox, that red one filled it
again, and cried over it, "The Treasure of the Sea! and the King that
dieth not!" Then he drank, and filled again for Hallblithe, and steered
with his knees meanwhile; and thus they drank three cups each, and Fox
smiled and was peac