.

"Let us ask the brothers," I said, "for here are many things to be
thought of; and, first of all, where to get men."

That was the greatest trouble to our minds, but none at all to hers.

"Get them in Denmark," she said, when we were all together in the great
room of the house that evening. "Let us go as merchant folk, and find
Sigurd, or his son if he is dead. If I am not much mistaken, all the
land will rise for the son of Gunnar so soon as it is known that he has
come again."

"Sigurd is yet alive," Arngeir said; "and more than that, he is waiting.
For he promised Grim that he would be ready, and I heard the promise. I
think that this plan is good, and can well be managed. Here is the ship
that Griffin was to have taken today, and he is not here. Gold enough I
have, for Grim hoarded against this time."

Then he showed us the store that, through long years, my father had
brought together to take the place of that of Sigurd's which had been
lost; and it was no small one. And so we planned at once; and in the end
we three brothers were to go with Havelok and Goldberga, leaving Mord to
get to Ragnar and tell him that Goldberga was following the fortunes of
her husband, and would return to see to her own if all went well.
Berthun would go with him, and Arngeir would bide at home, for we needed
one to whom messages might come; and while none would know us now in
Denmark, either Arngeir or Mord might be seen, and men would tell Hodulf
that the men of Grim had come home, and so perhaps spoil all. Word might
go to Denmark from Griffin even yet.

We had little thought of any sorry ending to our plans, for the dreams
that had come so true so far cheered us. And so, with the evening tide
of the next day, we sailed in the same ship that had been hired for Griffin.

But first Havelok spent a long hour on my father's mound alone, thinking
of all that he owed to him who rested there. And to him came Goldberga
softly, presently, lest he should be lonely in that place. And there she
spoke to him of her own faith, saying that already he owed much to it.
For he was making his vows to the Asir for success.

"Shall you pray yet again to the Asir, my husband?" she asked.

"Why should I? I have vowed my vows, and there is an end. If they heed
them, all is well; and if not, the Norns hinder."

"There is One whom the Norns hinder not at all," she said gently, and so
told him how that her prayers would go up every day.

Fain was