moorings, swaying
with the tide.

One day, looking at the ship there, Gudrid asked him again what his
adventure was, and whether anything was settled. No, he said, nothing
was settled; but he hoped it might be settled soon. "It does not
depend altogether upon me," he said. "My mind was made up at once."

"But," said Gudrid, "if that adventure were settled and done with,
would you not then think of seeking the new country which Biorn saw?"

"Well, I might do that," Einar replied. "But a man tires of the sea
after a time, and I have had plenty of it. I am very well off, you
must know. I might set up my house-pillars, and find me a wife."

"But you would not do that?"

"Ah," said Einar, "but I am sure that I would." She kept her gaze for
the tide in the frith, feeling it would be indiscreet to say more.

A little later on he told her what the adventure was on which his heart
was set, and when she had heard it she gave him her hand. But she told
him that it did not rest with her--as he knew very well it did not.
They sat together on the brae in the sun, and her hand remained in his
keeping. Presently she said, "If my father says that we may, we will
go out to find the new country together."

"We will go where you will," said Einar. "It will be all one to me."

Again she thought, with her face set towards the sea. Then she turned
suddenly and put her arms round his neck.

IV

Einar spoke to Orme about the affair, and Orme put on a scared look,
though he had been expecting something of the kind. "You will find
Thorbeorn hard to deal with," he said.

Einar replied, "Hard or not, I intend to come at him, for I love
Gudrid, and she loves me. She is worth fighting for, being as good as
she is fair."

"She is so," said Orme; "but, to tell you the truth, I don't know how
you will set about it."

"I shall ask you to be my friend in it," Einar said. "He will listen
to you sooner than any one."

Orme put his head on one side. "I don't care much about your errand.
You will get me into hot water with Thorbeorn. Don't I tell you that
he is a great man, an old settler and what-not? He knows his
forefathers back to Baldur the Beautiful."

"You are telling me what I know already," said Einar, who was rather
red, and showed a frown. "My own birth is no such thing. My father
was a freedman. Well, I couldn't help that."

"If I am telling you stale news, neighbour," said Orme, "it is only
that you