Havelok the Dane | Page 8

always in the best of order, and our kinsman, Arngeir, used and tended them when we were away in the ship in summertime.
Now, one evening, as we came up from the shore after beaching the boat on the hard below the town, and half a mile from the nearest houses, and being, as one may suppose, not altogether in holiday trim, so that Grim and his boys with their loads of fish and nets looked as though a fisher's hovel were all the home that they might own, we saw a horseman, followed at a little distance by two more, riding towards us. The dusk was gathering, and at first we thought that this was Jarl Sigurd, who would ask us maybe to send fish to his hall, and so we set our loads down and waited for him.
But it was not our lord, and I had never seen this man before. From his arms, which were of a new pattern to me, he might be one of the host of Hodulf, as I thought.
"Ho, fisher!" he cried, when he was yet some way from us; "leave your lads, and come hither. I have a word for you."
He reined up and waited, and now I was sure that he was a Norseman, for his speech was rougher than ours. He was a tall, handsome man enough; but I liked neither his voice nor face, nor did I care to hear Grim, my father, summoned in such wise, not remembering that just now a stranger could not tell that he was aught but a fisher thrall of the jarl's.
But my father did as he was asked, setting down the nets that he was carrying, and only taking with him the long boathook on which he had slung them as he went forward. I suppose he remembered the old saying, that a man should not stir a step on land without his weapons, as one never knows when there may be need of them; and so, having no other, he took this.
I heard the first questions that the man asked, for he spoke loudly.
"Whose man are you?"
"Sigurd's," answered my father shortly.
"Whose are the boats?"
"Mine, seeing that I built them."
"Why, then, there is somewhat that you can do for me," the horseman said. "Is your time your own, however?"
"If the jarl needs me not."
"Tonight, then?"
"I have naught to do after I have carried the nets home."
"That is well," said the stranger; and after that he dropped his voice so that I heard no more, but he and my father talked long together.
We waited, and at last the talk ended, and my father came hack to us, while the stranger rode away northward along the sands. Then I asked who the man was, and what he wanted.
"He is some chief of these Norsemen, and one who asks more questions of a thrall, as he thinks me, than he would dare ask Sigurd the jarl, or Grim the merchant either, for that matter."
Seeing that my father did not wish to say more at this time, we asked nothing else, but went homeward in silence. It seemed as if he was ill at ease, and he went more quickly than was his wont, so that presently Raven and little Withelm lagged behind us with their burdens, for our catch had been a good one.
Then he stopped outside the garth when we reached home, and told me not to go in yet. And when the others came up he said to them, "Do you two take in the things and the fish, and tell mother that Radbard and I have to go down to the ship. There is cargo to be seen to, and it is likely that we shall he late, so bid her not wait up for us."
Then he told me to come, and we left the two boys at once and turned away towards the haven. There was nothing strange in this, for cargo often came at odd times, and we were wont to work late in stowing it. I did wonder that we had not stayed to snatch a bit of supper, but it crossed my mind that the Norseman had told my father of some goods that had maybe been waiting for the whole day while we were at sea. And then that did not seem likely, for he had taken us for thralls. So I was puzzled, but held my peace until it should seem good to my father to tell me what we were about.
When we reached a place where there was no house very near and no man about, he said to me at last, "What is on hand I do not rightly know, but yon man was Hodulf, the new king, as I suppose we must call him.