The Treasure | Page 7

come to Marstrand to find a ship for Scotland, but when we
came hither we found every channel and firth frozen over, and here we
must bide and wait. We have no business to employ us, and therefore
we range about the quays to meet whom we may. We should be happy,
mistress, if you would let us hear your tale."
Elsalill knew that he had talked thus long to let her recover from her
emotion. At last she thought to herself: "You can surely show that you
are not too homely to speak to a noble gentleman, Elsalill! For you are
a maiden of good birth and no fisher lass."
"I was but telling of the great butchery at Solberga parsonage," said
Elsalill. "There are so many who have heard that story."
"Yes," said the stranger, "but I did not know till now that any of Herr
Arne's household had escaped alive."
Then Elsalill told once more of the wild robbers' deed. She spoke of
how the old serving-men had gathered about Herr Arne to protect him
and how Herr Arne himself had snatched his sword from the wall and
pressed upon the robbers, but they had overcome them all. And the old
mistress had taken up her husband's sword and set upon the robbers,
but they had only laughed at her and felled her to the floor with a billet
of wood. And all the other women had crouched against the wall of the
stove, but when the men were dead the robbers came and pulled them
down and slew them. "The last they slew," said Elsalill, "was my dear
foster sister. She begged for life so piteously, and two of them would
have let her live; but the third said that all must die, and he thrust his
knife into her heart."
While Elsalill was speaking of murder and blood the three men stood
still before her. They did not exchange a glance with each other, but
their ears grew long with listening, and their eyes sparkled, and
sometimes their lips parted so that the teeth glistened.
Elsalill's eyes were full of tears; not once did she look up whilst she
was speaking. She did not see that the man before her had the eyes and
teeth of a wolf. Only when she had finished speaking did she dry her

eyes and look up at him.
But when he met Elsalill's glance his face changed in an instant. "Since
you have seen the murderers so well, mistress," said he, "you would
doubtless know them again if you met them?"
"I have no more than seen them by the light of the brands they snatched
from the hearth to light their murdering," said Elsalill; "but with God's
help I'll surely know them again. And I pray to God daily that I may
meet them." "What mean you by that, mistress?" asked the stranger. "Is
it not true that the murderous vagabonds are dead?"
"Indeed, I have heard so," said Elsalill. "The peasants who set out after
them followed their tracks from the parsonage down to a hole in the ice.
Thus far they saw tracks of sledge-runners upon the smooth ice, tracks
of a horse's hoofs, tracks of men with heavy nailed boots. But beyond
the hole no tracks led on across the ice, and therefore the peasants
supposed them all dead."
"And do you not believe them dead, Elsalill?" asked the stranger.
"Oh, yes, I think they must be drowned," said Elsalill; "and yet I pray
to God daily that they may have escaped. I speak to God in this wise:
'Let it be so that they have only driven the horse and the sledge into the
hole, but have themselves escaped.'"
"Why do you wish this, Elsalill?" asked the stranger.
The tender maid Elsalill, she flung back her head and her eyes shone
like fire. "I would they were alive that I might find them out and seize
them. I would they were alive that I might tear their hearts out. I would
they were alive that I might see their bodies quartered and spiked upon
the wheel."
"How do you think to bring all this about?" said the stranger. "For you
are only a weak little maid."
"If they were living," said Elsalill, "I should surely bring their

punishment upon them. Rather would I go to my death than let them go
free. Strong and mighty they may be, I know it, but they would not be
able to escape me."
At this the stranger smiled upon her, but Elsalill stamped her foot.
"If they were living, should I not remember that they have taken my
home from me, so that I am now a poor lass, compelled to stand here
on the cold quay and clean