The Wanderers Necklace | Page 8

rope. Wake up, now, brother Olaf, and tell us: Is not the bear dead?"
Then I answered, "Why, of course, a bear is dead; see its skull, also
pieces of its hide?"
"There!" exclaimed Ragnar. "Our family prophet has settled the matter.
Let us go home."
"Olaf said that /a/ bear was dead," answered Steinar, hesitating.
Ragnar, who had already swung himself round in his quick fashion,
spoke back over his shoulder:
"Isn't that enough for you? Do you want to hunt a skull or the raven
sitting on it? Or is this, perchance, one of Olaf's riddles? If so, I am too
cold to guess riddles just now."
"Yet I think there is one for you to guess, brother," I said gently, "and it
is: Where is the live bear hiding? Can't you see that there were two
bears on that ice-head, and that one has killed and eaten the other?"
"How do you know that?" asked Ragnar.

"Because I saw the slot of the second as we passed the birch wood
yonder. It has a split claw on the left forefoot and the others are all
worn by the ice."
"Then why in Odin's name did you not say so before?" exclaimed
Ragnar angrily.
Now I was ashamed to confess that I had been dreaming, so I answered
at hazard:
"Because I wished to look upon the sea and the floating ice. See what
wondrous colours they take in this light!"
When he heard this, Steinar burst out laughing till tears came into his
blue eyes and his broad shoulders shook. But Ragnar, who cared
nothing for scenery or sunsets, did not laugh. On the contrary, as was
usual with him when vexed, he lost his temper and swore by the more
evil of the gods. Then he turned on me and said:
"Why not tell the truth at once, Olaf? You are afraid of this beast, and
that's why you let us come on here when you knew it was in the wood.
You hoped that before we got back there it would be too dark to hunt."
At this taunt I flushed and gripped the shaft of my long hunting spear,
for among us Northmen to be told that he was afraid of anything was a
deadly insult to a man.
"If you were not my brother----" I began, then checked myself, for I
was by nature easy-tempered, and went on: "It is true, Ragnar, I am not
so fond of hunting as you are. Still, I think that there will be time to
fight this bear and kill or be killed by it, before it grows dark, and if not
I will return alone to-morrow morning."
Then I pulled my horse round and rode ahead. As I went, my ears being
very quick, I heard the other two talking together. At least, I suppose
that I heard them; at any rate, I know what they said, although,
strangely enough, nothing at all comes back to me of their tale of an
attack upon a ship or of what then I did or did not do.

"It is not wise to jeer at Olaf," said Steinar, "for when he is stung with
words he does mad things. Don't you remember what happened when
your father called him 'niddering' last year because Olaf said it was not
just to attack the ship of those British men who had been driven to our
coast by weather, meaning us no harm?"
"Aye," answered Ragnar. "He leapt among them all alone as soon as
our boat touched her side, and felled the steersman. Then the British
men shouted out that they would not kill so brave a lad, and threw him
into the sea. It cost us that ship, since by the time we had picked him up
she had put about and hoisted her large sail. Oh, Olaf is brave enough,
we all know that! Still, he ought to have been born a woman or a priest
of Freya who only offers flowers. Also, he knows my tongue and bears
no malice."
"Pray that we get him home safe," said Steinar uneasily, "for if not
there will be trouble with your mother and every other woman in the
land, to say nothing of Iduna the Fair."
"Iduna the Fair would live through it," answered Ragnar, with a hard
laugh. "But you are right; and, what is more, there will be trouble
among the men also, especially with my father and in my own heart.
After all there is but one Olaf."
At this moment I held up my hand, and they stopped talking.
CHAPTER II
THE SLAYING OF THE BEAR
Leaping from their horses, Ragnar and Steinar came to where I stood,
for already I had dismounted and was pointing to