A Sea Queens Sailing | Page 4

have the deed they threatened set in
all its shame before them was a new thing to them.
"Let the prince go, chief," I said, seeing this look. "He is a guest, and if
this is some old feud with my father of which I have not heard, he does
not come into it. He is a guest of the house."
"Faith," answered Heidrek savagely, "he has made it his own affair. He

has been the bane of three of my best men. Aye, I have a feud here, and
with all who dwell at ease. I am Heidrek the Seafarer."
He turned away, and left us with some sign to his men; but Asbiorn
stood still and spoke again to us.
"You bear a Scottish name," he said. "Have you no Scottish kin besides
Melbrigda?"
I shook my head, whereon Dalfin spoke for me.
"Here," he said, "if it is just a matter of ransom, let us both go; and
come to Belfast in a year's time, or six months' time, an you will. Then
my father will pay chief's ransom for the two of us. My word as a
prince on it."
"It is a new thing with us to take ransom, or the word of any man,"
answered Asbiorn doubtfully, yet as if the plan seemed good to him.
One of the men who followed him broke in on that,
"No use, Asbiorn. We cannot put into any Irish port in safety. And over
there princes are thick as blackberries, and as poor as the brambles that
bear them."
"Aye, and as prickly," said Dalfin. "Have you learned that also?"
The men laughed. One of them said that the Irishman's Danish speech
was not bad, and that it was a pity--
"So it is," Asbiorn put in hastily. "I will speak to my father."
The old chief was back with his crew, settling the sharing of the
plunder. His son took him aside, and their talk was long; and, as it
seemed, not altogether peaceful. Soon the men began to gather round
them, and those with us went to hear what was going on. So we were
left alone for a moment.
"Men," I said, "save your lives as this chief bids you. Join him now,
and leave him when you may."
"Do you join him?" said one in answer.
Not I."
"Neither do we. We live or die with you. What else should courtmen of
the jarl's do?"
So said one of our Norsemen; but the eyes of the Scots were on the
bleak hills, and for them the choice was harder, I think. They had no
ties to us but those of common work and life together, and it was the
old land that they must think of leaving. They said nothing, for until he
has made up his mind a Scot will not answer.

They would have to decide directly, for now Heidrek was coming back
to us. After him were a score or more of his men, and the rest were
loading themselves with the plunder and starting one by one towards
the haven, into which the two ships were just bearing up. They would
be alongside the little wharf by the time the men reached it. Our own
good longship lay there also, and I wondered what they would do with
her. She was too good to burn.
Now Heidrek stood before me and looked at me, glowering, for a
moment.
"Well," he said curtly, "do you join me? Mind you, I would not give
every man the chance, but you and yours are men."
Before I could say aught, and it was on my mind to tell the pirate what
I thought of him, if I spent my last breath in doing it, the courtman who
had spoken with me just now answered for himself.
"We do what the young jarl does," he said; "we follow him."
"The choice was whether you would follow me or not," answered
Heidrek coldly; "I will have no leader but myself."
Some of his wilder followers cried out now that we were wasting time,
and that an end should be made, while a sword or two were drawn
among them. It was the way in which Heidrek's crew were wont to deal
with captives when they had no hope of ransom from them. That I and
my men should join such a crew was not to be thought of, if for a
moment I had half wondered if I ought to save the lives of these
courtmen of ours by yielding. Both I and they would be shamed, even
as Dalfin had said.
So I made no answer, and Heidrek was turning away with a shrug of his
broad shoulders, while the men were only waiting his