The Norse maidens who
watched him knew this, and although slightly alarmed, felt on the whole
more inclined to laugh than to tremble as his head emerged and sank
again several times, while the fish which he had struck dragged him
about the pool. After a few seconds of violent and wild exertion it
rushed down the pool into the rapid, and then it was that the girls
perceived that Alric had struck and was clinging to one of the
largest-sized salmon that ever appeared in Horlingdal river.

Fortunate it was for the boy that the fish took the rapid, for it had
almost choked him in the deep pool; but now he scrambled on his feet,
and began to do battle gallantly--endeavouring to thrust the fish
downwards and pin it to the stones whenever it passed over a shallow
part, on which occasions its back and silver sides became visible, and
its great tail--wide spreading, like a modern lady's fan--flashed in the
air as it beat the water in terror or fury. Alric's spirit was ablaze
with excitement, for the fish was too strong for him, so that every time
it wriggled itself he was made to shake and stagger in a most
ridiculously helpless manner, and when it tried to bolt he was pulled
flat down on his face and had to follow it--sometimes on his knees,
sometimes at full length, for, over and over again, when he was about to
rise, or had half-risen, there was another pull, and down he went again,
quite flat, while the roaring torrent went right over him.

But no limpet ever stuck to rock with greater tenacity than did Alric to
the handle of that trident; and it is but just to add, for the
information of those who know it not, that the difficulty of retaining
one's foothold on the pebbly bed of a river when knee-deep in a foaming
rapid is very great indeed, even when one has nothing more to do than
attend to the balancing of one's own body--much greater, of course, in
circumstances such as we describe.

At last the salmon made a rush, and was swept over a shallow part of the
rapid, close under the bank on which the girls stood. Here Alric
succeeded in thrusting it against a large stone. For the first time he
managed to stand up erect, and, although holding the fish with all his
might, looked up, and breathed, or rather gasped, freely:

"Hoch! hah! _what_ a fish! sk-ho!"

"Oh, I wish we could help thee!" exclaimed the girls, with flashing eyes
and outstretched hands, as if they could hardly restrain themselves from
leaping into the