The Thrall of Leif the Lucky | Page 5

the wheat were no bluer than
the eyes that looked out from under her rippling golden tresses.
When the wrist was set and bandaged, the trader presented them with a
silken scarf to make into a sling, and had them served with horns of
sparkling mead. This gave a turn to the affair that proved of special
interest to Alwin. There is an old Norse proverb which prescribes "Lie
for lie, laughter for laughter, gift for gift;" so, while he accepted these
favors, Tyrker began to look around for some way to repay them.
His gaze wandered over fabrics and furs and weapons, till it finally fell
upon the slaves' bench. "Donnerwetter!" he said, setting down his horn.
"To my mind it has just come that Leif a cook-boy is desirous of, now
that Hord is drowned."
The girl saw his purpose, and nodded quickly. "It is unlikely that you
can make a better bargain anywhere."
She turned to examine the slaves, and her eyes immediately
encountered Alwin's. She did not blush; she looked him up and down
critically, as if he were a piece of armor, or a horse. It was he who
flushed, with sudden shame and anger, as he realized that in the eyes of
this beautiful Norse maiden he was merely an animal put up for sale.
"Yonder is a handsome thrall," she said; "he looks as though his
strength were such that he could stand something."
"True it is that he cannot a lame wolf be who with the pack from

Greenland is to run," Tyrker assented. "That it was, which to Hord was
a hindrance. For sport only, Egil Olafson under the water took him
down and held him there; and because to get away he was not strong
enough, he was drowned. But to me it seems that this one would bite.
How dear would this thrall be?"
"You would have to pay for him three marks of silver," said the trader.
"He is an English thrall, very strong and well-shaped." He came over to
where Alwin sat, and stood him up and turned him round and bent his
limbs, Alwin submitting as a caged tiger submits to the lash, and with
much the same look about his mouth.
Tyrker caught the look, and sat for a long while blinking doubtfully at
him. But he was a shrewd old fellow, and at last he drew his
money-bag from his girdle and handed it to the trader to be weighed.
While this was being done, he bade one of the servants strike off the
boy's fetters.
The trader paused, scales in hand, to remonstrate. "It is my advice that
you keep them on until you sail. I will not conceal it from you that he
has an unruly disposition. You will be lacking both your man and your
money."
The old man smiled quietly. "Ach, my friend," he said, "can you not
better read a face? Well is it to be able to read runes, but better yet it is
to know what the Lord has written in men's eyes." He signed to the
servant to go on, and in a moment the chains fell clattering on the
ground.
Alwin looked at him in amazement; then suddenly he realized what a
kind old face it was, for all its shrewdness and puny ugliness. The
scowl fell from him like another chain.
"I give you thanks," he said.
The wrinkled, tremulous old hand touched his shoulder with a kindly
pressure. "Good is it that we understand each other. Nun! Come. First
shall you go and Helga's horse lead, since it may be that with her one

hand she cannot manage him. Why do you in your face so red grow?"
Alwin grew still redder; but he could not tell the good old man that he
would rather follow a herd of unbroken steers all day, than walk one
mile before a beautiful young Amazon who looked at him as if he were
a dog. He mumbled something indistinctly, and hastened out after the
horses.
Helga rose stiffly from the pile of furs; it was evident that every new
motion revealed a new bruise to her, but she set her white teeth and
held her chin high in the air. When she had taken leave of the trader,
she walked out without a limp and vaulted into her saddle unaided. The
sunlight, glancing from her silver helm, fell upon her floating hair and
turned it into a golden glory that hid rents and stains, and redeemed
even the kirtle, which stopped at the knee.
As he helped the old man to mount, Alwin gazed at her with unwilling
admiration. Perhaps some day he would show her that he was not so
utterly contemptible as...
She made him an