inactive. He descended by a
circuitous path to the shore, and, keeping carefully out of sight, set
off in the direction of Horlingdal. The distance between the two places
was little more than nine or ten miles, but being separated from each
other by a ridge of almost inaccessible mountains, that rose to a height
of above five thousand feet, neither sight nor sound of the terrible
tragedy enacted at the Springs could reach the eyes or ears of the
inhabitants of Ulfstede. Swart ran round by the coast, and made such
good use of his legs that he reached the valley in little more than an
hour. Before arriving at Ulfstede his attention was attracted and his
step arrested by the sight of a warship creeping along the fiord close
under the shadow of the precipitous cliffs. He at once conjectured that
this was one of the Danish vessels which had been dispatched to
reconnoitre Horlingdal. He knew by its small size (having only about
twenty oars) that it could not be there for the purpose of attack. He
crouched, therefore, among the rocks to escape observation.

Now, it happened at this very time that Erling's brother Alric, having
executed his commission by handing the war-token to the next messenger,
whose duty it was to pass it on, came whistling gaily down a
neighbouring gorge, slashing the bushes as he went with a stout stick,
which in the lad's eyes represented the broadsword or battle-axe he
hoped one day to wield, in similar fashion, on the heads of his foes.
Those who knew Erling well could have traced his likeness in every act
and gesture of the boy. The vikings happened to observe Alric before he
saw them, as was not to be wondered at, considering the noise he made.
They therefore rowed close in to the rocks, and their leader, a stout
red-haired fellow, leaped on shore, ascended the cliffs by a narrow
ledge or natural footpath, and came to a spot which overhung the sea,
and round which the boy must needs pass. Here the man paused, and
leaning on the haft of his battle-axe, awaited his coming up.

It is no disparagement to Alric to say that, when he found himself
suddenly face to face with this man, his mouth opened as wide as did his
eyes, that the colour fled from his cheeks, that his heart fluttered
like a bird in a cage, and that his lips and tongue became uncommonly
dry! Well did the little fellow know that one of the Danish vikings was
before him, for many a time had he heard the men in Haldorstede descri