The Treasure | Page 9

he raised his eyes to the dwelling
house, and then he saw that the old timber hall stood unharmed and
stately as before the fire. And yet that very morning Torarin had seen
the naked rafters thrusting out into the air.
He looked and looked and rubbed his eyes, but there was no doubt of it,
the parsonage stood there unharmed, with thatch and snow upon its
roof. He saw smoke and sparks streaming up through the louver, and
rays of light gleaming through the illclosed shutters upon the snow.
A man who travels far and wide on the cold highway knows no better
sight than the gleam that steals out of a warm room. But the sight made
Torarin even more terrified than before. He whipped up his horse till he
reared and kicked, but not a step would he go from the stable door.
"Come in with me, Torarin!" said the groom. "I thought you had
enough remorse already over this business."
Then Torarin remembered the promise he had made himself on the road

and, though a moment before he had stood up and lashed his horse
furiously, he was now meek as a lamb.
"Well, Olof groom, here am I!" he said, and sprang down from the
sledge. "It is true that I wish to have no more remorse over this
business. Take me in to Herr Arne!"
But it was with the heaviest steps he had ever known that Torarin went
across the yard to the house.
When the door was opened Torarin closed his eyes to avoid looking
into the room, but he tried to take heart by thinking of Herr Arne. "He
has given you many a good meal. He has bought your fish, even when
his own larder was full. He has always shown you kindness in his
lifetime, and assuredly he will not harm you after death. Mayhap he has
a service to ask of you. You must not forget, Torarin, that we are to
show gratitude to the dead as to the living."
Torarin opened his eyes and looked down the room. He saw the great
hall just as he had seen it before. He recognized the high brick stove
and the woven tapestries that hung upon the walls. But he glanced
many times from wall to wall before daring to raise his eyes to the table
and the bench where Herr Arne had been wont to sit.
At last he looked there, and then he saw Herr Arne himself sitting in
the flesh at the head of the table with his wife on one side and his
curate on the other, as he had seen him a week before. He seemed to
have just finished his meal, the dish was thrust away, and his spoon lay
on the table before him. All the old men and women servants were
sitting at the table, but only one of the young maids.
Torarin stood still a long time by the door and watched them that sat at
table. They all looked anxious and mournful, and even Herr Arne was
gloomy as the rest and supported his head in his hand.
At last Torarin saw him raise his head.
"Have you brought a stranger into the house with you, Olof groom?"

"Yes," answered the man, "it is Torarin the fish hawker, who has been
this day at the assize at Branehog."
Herr Arne's looks seemed to grow more cheerful at this, and Torarin
heard him say: "Come forward then, Torarin, and give us news of the
assize! I have sat here and waited for half the night."
All this had such a real and natural air that Torarin began to feel more
and more courageous. He walked quite boldly across the room to Herr
Arne, asking himself whether the murder was not an evil dream and
whether Herr Arne was not in truth alive.
But as Torarin crossed the room, his eyes from old habit sought the
four-post bed, beside which the great money chest used to stand. But
the ironbound chest was no longer in its place, and when Torarin saw
that a shudder again passed through him.
"Now Torarin is to tell us how things went at the assize today," said
Herr Arne.
Torarin tried to do as he was bid and tell of the assize and the inquest,
but he could command neither his lips nor his tongue, and his speech
was faulty and stammering, so that Herr Arne stopped him at once.
"Tell me only the main thing, Torarin. Were our murderers found and
punished?"
"No, Herr Arne," Torarin had the boldness to answer. "Your murderers
lie at the bottom of Hakefjord. How would you have any take revenge
on them?"
When Torarin returned this answer Herr Arne's old temper seemed