e water spirit they believed in. So I became
all the more sure that Gunnhild was there. It would be easy for her
to feign to be the White Lady and so terrify any man who sought
her. A man is apt to shape aught he sees into what he fears he may
see.

"Has the White Lady been seen of late?" I asked therefore.

"I have heard that the Danes say that they have seen her," he
answered. "They have seen also bale fires burning on the mound
where the great queen lies."

That last was an old tale among us also, but I had never seen any
light above the great mound. Ottar had many sagas that told of the
fires that burnt, unearthly, above buried heroes, and the Danes
would watch for them, and so, as I have said, would certainly see
them, or deem that they did so. Yet I suppose that these strange
fires may have burnt on the tombs of heathen men, else would not
the tales have been told thereof so certainly. But Christian
warriors rest in peace, and about their last bed is no unquiet. Nor
may Christian folk be frighted by the bale fires of the long-ago
heathen's mounds. For their sakes they have been quenched, as I
think.

So I stood and mused for a while, turning over in my mind how best
to find Gunnhild at the mere without leading others to her hiding
place. And at last I laughed to myself, the thing was so simple. I
had but to go into the mere woods at twilight or in the dusk, and
wander about until she heard and feared my coming. Then she would
play the White Lady's part on me to fray me away, and all was done.
She could not tell who I was, nor would she think it likely that I
would seek her there, and would easily forgive me for doing so,
when we met.

I bade Brand the thrall goodnight, and went back into the great
room of the house, where Olaf sat with Ottar resting and talking
together. There was no one else in the place, for we had no fear of
aught, and Olaf cared not to have many men about him. Some of his
men would come presently and sleep across the doorway, but the
evening was young yet.

"You seem as if you had heard somewhat pleasant," Olaf said when I
came in.

I suppose that my certainty of finding Gunnhild and Hertha pleased
me well enough to make my face bright.

Now both Olaf and Ottar knew of my wish to search for Hertha, and
who she was, for I had told them as we sailed to Maldon on the way
to my own country again, and they were eager to help me to take her
from hiding into what we thought would be grea