The Story of the Glittering Plain | Page 9

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 huge 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 peaceful and said but little, but Hallblithe sat
wondering how the world was changed for him since yesterday.
But now was the sky blown all clear of clouds and the wind piped shrill
behind them, and the great waves rose and fell about them, and the sun
glittered on them in many colours. Fast flew the boat before the wind as
though it would never stop, and the day was waning, and the wind still
rising; and now the Isle of Ransom uphove huge before them, and
coal-black, and no beach and no haven was to be seen therein; and still
they ran before the wind towards that black cliff- wall, against which
the sea washed for ever, and no keel ever built by man might live for
one moment 'twixt the surf and the cliff of that grim land. The sun grew
low, and sank red under the sea, and that world of stone swallowed up
half the heavens before them, for they were now come very nigh
thereto; nor could Hallblithe see aught for it, but that they must be
dashed against the cliff and perish in a moment of time.
Still the boat flew on; but now when the twilight was come, and they
had just opened up along reach of the cliff that lay beyond a high ness,
Hallblithe thought he saw down by the edge of the sea something
darker than the face of the rock-wall, and he deemed it was a cave: they
came a little nearer and he saw it was a great cave high enough to let a
round-ship go in with all