ck here, and you and I, friend
Redwald, will go a-viking with him. He says he wants to go to
Jerusalem Land some day--and that would be a good cruise."

Now the day after the housecarles left Pevensea, there befell a
matter which would have brought them back hastily had we not been
in the haven. There was always a beacon fire ready to recall them,
and they watched for it even as they wrought in the upland fields,
or if they were among the woods. Turn by turn one would climb to a
place whence it could be seen, for one may never know what need
shall be on our English shores, and I was to learn that need for
arms might be in a forest-girt land also, from foes at home.

Olaf and I were in the ships. The wind was unsteady, and it seemed
that a shift was coming with that night's new moon, and we were
preparing for sailing. And from our decks we saw a little train of
people crossing the difficult path from the mainland to the island
that folk can only use when the tide is low, and then only if they
know it well or have a guide to lead them. They say that once the
path was always under water, but that the land grows slowly, and
that at some time the island will be joined to the low hills that
are nearest to it on the northwest.

We went back almost as these folk came into the castle garth by the
western gate, and met them in the courtyard. Then it was plain that
there was trouble on hand, for the leader of the party was a thane
whom I knew by sight, as he had been called to our feasting when
first we came, and he had brought with him two ladies, who came in
no sort of state; and, moreover, there were one or two wounded men
among the twenty rough housecarles who followed them, and bore such
burdens of household stuff as had been taken by us when we fled
from Bures.

I had seen the like too often to mistake these signs, and I said to
Olaf:

"Here is fighting on hand, my king."

And then before he answered, came Wulfnoth out of the great door
and hurried up to the party, doffing his velvet cap as he saw the
ladies.

"Ho, friend Relf," he said, "what is amiss?"

"Outlaws, earl," said the thane, "and in strong force."

"This is the pest of my life," answered the earl angrily, "for no
sooner are our men gone harvesting than these forest knaves begin
to give trouble.

"When were you last burnt out, Relf of Penhurst?" and he laughed in
an angry way that had no mirth in it.

"Four years agone--after our trouble with Brih