my
mother, who wasn't old then, would be at the back door with a laugh and a
joke to see that her Gunnar had come home whole, and to make him wash his
hands properly. And the supper table, Odin! You ought to have seen it. It
groaned. There was no end to our food in those days. And after supper, the
younguns of the neighborhood would play outside until dark. One of our
games was like one of yours. Some lad shut his eyes and counted while all
of us hid. And then, after the counting was done, he came hunting us. And
toward the last he would sing out for those who were still hiding: 'Bee,
bee, bumblebee, all's out's in free.' It was a great game, and then the
night would fall and we would hurry home. One had no trouble sleeping in
those days." Gunnar paused to sigh a great sigh. "But it didn't work out.
No one got in free. The homes, the pastures, the players, most of them are
gone--and time took a heavy price. And only Gunnar is left to toss the last
coin upon the counter. Well, I am ready to pay, so long as I get my hands
on Grim Hagen."

Jack Odin gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, for Gunnar's thoughts
seemed to be growing more dismal by the minute. "Well, little man, it was
all a bright dream that went too fast. And are we to stay here on this
ledge 'til doomsday while you try to re-spin the broken threads of the
past?"

So Gunnar's thoughts came back to the present and his big shoulders heaved
when he laughed. "Eh! Spoken like a Nors-King, Odin. I must be getting old.
Well, there's a way from here to the sea. If we were cliff-swallows we
could make it easily. But being men we had better trudge--"

* * * * *

He led the way along the ledge which did not appear to have much of a
descent until they came to a place where a rocky slide had taken trail
and all into the sea. The avalanche that had made it must have been a
granddaddy of avalanches, for there was a steep slope of rocks and
rubble from here to the water below. There, the stones had spilled out
in all directions and the waves moiled over and about them for several
hundred yards. Far out, the rocks had piled up into a little sea-wall,
with gaps here and there where the breakers foamed through.

"We go down here now," Gunnar instructed. "But don't start anything
rolling. The stones are loose, and we might end up in the water with a
hundred feet of granite over us for a tombstone."

Gunnar led the way. Crawling backwards