e passengers of ours; and what
Thormod did about the men he sought I know not, nor did I care to
know.

There is a dead tree which marks the place where I had been cast
ashore in Lodbrok's boat, and which is the last point of land on
which one looks as the ship passes to the open sea from the haven.
And there we saw Ingvar the king for the last time. All alone he
stood with his hands resting on his sword, looking at our ship as
she passed. Nor did he move from that place all the time we could
see him.

Silently Thormod gave the tiller into my hands, and went to the
flag halliards. Thrice he dipped Halfden's flag in salute, but
Ingvar made no sign, and so he faded from our sight, and after that
we spoke no more of him. But Osritha wept a little, for she had
loved him even while she dreaded him, and now she should see him no
more.

Very quietly passed the voyage, though the light wind was against
us, and we were long on the way, for we were too short handed to
row, and must beat to windward over every mile of our course. Yet I
think of the long days and moonlit evenings on the deck of
Halfden's ship with naught but keenest pleasure, for there I
watched the life and colour come back into Osritha's face, and
strove to make the voyage light to her in every way. And I had
found my heart's desire, and was happy.

Then at last one night we crossed the bar of our own haven, and the
boats came out to meet us, boarding us with rough voices of hearty
welcome; and from her awning crept Osritha, standing beside me as I
took the ship in, and seeing the black outline of hill and church
and hall across the quiet moonlit water. And when the red light
from wharf and open house doors danced in long lines on the ripples
towards us, and voices hailed our ship from shore, and our men
answered back in cheery wise, she drew nearer me, saying:

"Is this home, Wulfric?"

"Aye," I answered. "Your home and mine, Osritha--and peace."

Now have I little more to say, for I have told what I set out to
tell--how Lodbrok the Dane came from over seas, and what befell
thereafter. For now came to us at Reedham long years of peace that
nothing troubled. And those years, since Osritha and I were wedded
at Reedham very soon after we came home, have flown very quickly.

Yet there came to us echoes of war from far-off Wessex, as man
after man crept back to Anglia from the great host where Guthrum
and Hubba warred with Alfred the king. And tired and w