wondrous colours they take in this light!"

When he heard this, Steinar burst out laughing till tears came into his
blue eyes and his broad shoulders shook. But Ragnar, who cared nothing
for scenery or sunsets, did not laugh. On the contrary, as was usual
with him when vexed, he lost his temper and swore by the more evil of
the gods. Then he turned on me and said:

"Why not tell the truth at once, Olaf? You are afraid of this beast, and
that's why you let us come on here when you knew it was in the wood. You
hoped that before we got back there it would be too dark to hunt."

At this taunt I flushed and gripped the shaft of my long hunting spear,
for among us Northmen to be told that he was afraid of anything was a
deadly insult to a man.

"If you were not my brother----" I began, then checked myself, for I was
by nature easy-tempered, and went on: "It is true, Ragnar, I am not so
fond of hunting as you are. Still, I think that there will be time to
fight this bear and kill or be killed by it, before it grows dark, and
if not I will return alone to-morrow morning."

Then I pulled my horse round and rode ahead. As I went, my ears being
very quick, I heard the other two talking together. At least, I suppose
that I heard them; at any rate, I know what they said, although,
strangely enough, nothing at all comes back to me of their tale of an
attack upon a ship or of what then I did or did not do.

"It is not wise to jeer at Olaf," said Steinar, "for when he is stung
with words he does mad things. Don't you remember what happened when
your father called him 'niddering' last year because Olaf said it was
not just to attack the ship of those British men who had been driven to
our coast by weather, meaning us no harm?"

"Aye," answered Ragnar. "He leapt among them all alone as soon as our
boat touched her side, and felled the steersman. Then the British men
shouted out that they would not kill so brave a lad, and threw him into
the sea. It cost us that ship, since by the time we had picked him up
she had put about and hoisted her large sail. Oh, Olaf is brave enough,
we all know that! Still, he ought to have been born a woman or a priest
of Freya who only offers flowers. Also, he knows my tongue and bears no
malice."

"Pray that we get him home safe," said Steinar uneasily, "for if not
there will be trouble with your mother and every other woman in the
land, to say nothing of Iduna the Fair."

"Iduna the Fair would li