a
Glumm said last night?"

"Little need for me to do that, since thou can tell me."

Snorro spoke not.

"Snorro?"

"Yes, master."

"How many years hast thou been with me?"

"Thou knows I came to thee a little lad."

"Who had neither home nor friends?"

"That is true yet."

"Have I been a just master to thee?"

"Thou hast."

"Thou, too, hast been a just and faithful servant. I have trusted
thee with every thing. All has been under thy thumb. I locked not gold
from thee. I counted not after thee. I have had full confidence in
thee. Well, then, it seems that my good name is also in thy hands.
Now, if thou doest thy duty, thou wilt tell me what Tulloch said."

"He said thou had been the ruin of a better man than thyself."

"Meaning Jan Vedder?"

"That was whom he meant."

"Dost thou think so?"

"Yes, I think so, too."

"What did Suneva Glumm say?"

"Well, then, last night, when the kitchen was full, they were talking
of poor Jan; and Suneva--thou knowest she is a widow now and gone back
to her father's house--Suneva, she strode up to the table, and she
struck her hand upon it, and said, 'Jan was a fisherman, and it is
little of men you fishers are, not to make inquiry about his death.
Here is the matter,' she said. 'Snorro finds him wounded, and Snorro
goes to Peter Fae's and sends Jan's wife to her husband. Margaret
Vedder says she saw him alive and gave him water, and went back for
Peter Fae. Then Jan disappears, and when Snorro gets back with a
doctor and four other men, there is no Jan to be found.' I say that
Margaret Vedder or Peter Fae know what came of Jan, one, or both of
them, know. But because the body has not been found, there hath been
no inquest, and his mates let him go out of life like a stone dropped
into the sea, and no more about it."

"They told thee that?"

"Ay, they did; and John Scarpa said thou had long hated Jan, and he
did believe thou would rather lose Jan's life than save it. Yes,
indeed!"

"And thou?"

"I said some angry words for thee. Ill thou hast been to Jan, cruel
and unjust, but thou did not murder him. I do not think thou would do
that, even though thou wert sure no man would know it. If I had
believed thou hurt a hair of Jan's head, I would not be thy servant
to-day."

"Thou judgest right of me, Snorro. I harmed not Jan. I never saw him.
I did not want him brought to my house, and therefore I made no haste
to go and help him; but I hurt not a hair of hi