The Thrall of Leif the Lucky | Page 8

as I passed. And yet those garments,
Helga! By St. Michael, you look well-fitted to be the Brynhild we used
to hear about!"
Helga's fair face flushed, and Alwin smiled inwardly. He was curious

to know what the young Viking would do if the young Amazon boxed
his ears, as he thought likely. But it seemed that Helga was only
ungentle toward those whom she considered beneath her friendliness.
While she motioned Alwin with an imperious gesture to hand her the
rein she had dropped, she responded good-naturedly to Sigurd: "Nay,
now, my comrade, you will not be mean enough to scold about my
short kirtle, when it was you who taught me to do the things that make
a short kirtle necessary! Have you forgotten how you used to steal me
away from my embroidery to hunt with you?"
"By no means," Sigurd laughed. "Nor how Thorhild scolded when we
came back! I would give a ring to know what she would say if she were
here now. It is my belief that you would get a slap, for all your warlike
array."
Helga's spur made her horse prance and rear defiantly. "Thorhild is not
here, nor do I expect that she will ever rule over me again. She struck
me once too often, and I ran away to Leif. For two years now I have
lived almost like the shield-maidens we were wont to talk of. Oh,
Sigurd, I have been so happy!" She threw back her head and lifted her
beautiful face up to the sunlit sky and the fresh wind. "So free and so
happy!"
Alwin thrilled with sudden sympathy. He understood then that it was
not boldness, nor mere waywardness, that made her what she was. It
was the Norse blood crying out for adventure and open air and freedom.
It did not seem strange to him, as he thought of it. It occurred to him,
all at once, as a stranger thing that all maidens did not feel so,--that
there were any who would be kept at spinning, like prisoners fettered in
trailing gowns.
Tyrker nodded in answer to Sigurd's look of amazement. "The truth it is
which the child speaks. Over winters, stays she at the King's house with
one of the Queen's women, who is a friend of Leif; and during the
summer, voyages she makes with me. But to me it appears that of her
we have spoken enough. Tell to us how it comes that you are in
Norway, and--whoa! Steady!--Wh--o--a!"

"And tell us also that you will ride on to the camp with us now," Helga
put in, as Tyrker was obliged to transfer his attention to his restless
horse. "Rolf Erlingsson and Egil Olafsson, whom you knew in
Greenland, are there, and all the crew of the 'Sea-Deer'."
"The 'Sea-Deer'!" ejaculated Sigurd. "Surely Leif has got rid of his ship,
now that he is in King Olaf's guard."
The backing and sidling and prancing of Tyrker's horse forced him to
leave this also to Helga.
"Certainly he has not got rid of his ship. When he does not follow King
Olaf to battle with her, Tyrker takes her on trading voyages, and she
lies over-winter in the King's ship-shed. There are forty of the crew,
counting me,--there is no need for you to smile, I can take the helm and
stand a watch as well as any. Can I not, Tyrker?"
The old man relaxed his vigilance long enough to nod assent;
whereupon his horse took instant advantage of the slackened rein to
bolt off homeward, despite all the swaying and sawing of the rider.
That set the whole party in motion once more.
"You will come with me to camp, Sigurd my comrade?" Helga urged.
"It is but a little way, on the bank across the river. Come, if only for a
short time."
Sigurd gathered up his rein with a smile and a sigh together. "I will
give you a favorable answer to that. It seems that you have not heard of
the mishap that has befallen me. The lawman has banished me from the
district."
It pleased Alwin to hear that he was likely to see more of the young
Norseman. Helga was filled with amazement. On the verge of starting,
she stopped her horse to stare at him.
"It must be that you are jesting," she said at last. "You, who are the
most amiable person in the world,--it is not possible that you can have

broken the law!"
Sigurd laughed ruefully. "In my district I am not spoken of as amiable,
just now. Yet there is little need to take it heavily, my foster-sister. I
have done nothing that is dishonorable,--should I dare to come before
Leif's face if I had? It will blow over in