nd he
thought much of it.

When we had ended with song and tale, and it was near time for rest,
Sigurd bade Biorn, the sheriff, take us to his house for the night,
telling him that he must answer for our safety, and specially that of
the fair lady who had come from so far. And then he gave us a good guard
of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.

"Why, jarl," said Biorn, "our guests will have a bad night if they think
that in our quiet place they need twenty men to see them to bed thus!"

"Nay, but the town is strange to the lady," answered Sigurd; "and who
knows what she may fear in a foreign land!"

So Biorn laughed, and was content; and we bade farewell to the jarl, and
went out. And then I found that it was to my father's house we were to
go, for it had been given to Biorn.

Now, I was next to Goldberga as we came to the door, and there was a
step into the house which we always had to warn strangers of when it was
dark; and so, in the old way, without thinking for a moment, I said to
her, "One step into the house, sister."

"Ho, Master Radbard, if that is you, you have sharp eyes in the dark,"
said Biorn at once; "I was just about to say that myself."

"I have some feeling in my toes," I answered; and that turned the
matter, for they laughed.

And then, when we were inside, and the courtmen had gone clattering down
the street homewards, Biorn took the great door bar from its old place
and ran it into the sockets in the doorposts, as I had done so many
times; and the runes that my father had cut on it when he made the house
were still plain to be seen on it, with the notches I had made with the
first knife that I ever had. More I will not say, but everywhere that my
eyes fell were things that I knew, even to fishing gear, for it seemed
that Biorn was somewhat of a fisher, like Grim himself.

Then they put me and my brothers into our old loft, and Havelok and
Goldberga had the room that had been my father's. As for Biorn, he would
be in the great room, before the fire. There was only this one door to
the house, and therefore he would guard that. His thralls were in the
sheds, as ours used to be, so that we and he were alone in the house.

Now, as soon as we three had gone into our old place of rest, Raven went
at once, as in the old days, to the little square window that was in the
high-pitched gable, and looked out over the town and sea. We used to
laugh at him for this, f