by that time had got to his feet again and was now
leaning against the wall, axe in hand and his face covered with
blood. Karin had not seen the fleeing men; she supposed that
Ingmar was the one who had attacked Hellgum and wounded him. She
was so horrified that her knees shook. "No, no!" she thought, "it
can't be possible that any one in our family is a murderer." Then
she recalled the story of her mother. "That accounts for it," she
muttered, and hurried past Ingmar over to Hellgum.

"Ingmar first!" cried Hellgum.

"The murderer should not be helped before his victim," said Karin.

"Ingmar first! Ingmar first!" Hellgum kept shouting. He was so
excited that he raised his axe against her. "He has fought the
would-be murderers and saved my life!" he said.

When Karin finally understood, and turned to help Ingmar, he was
gone. She saw him stagger across the yard, and ran after him,
calling, "Ingmar! Ingmar!"

Ingmar went on without even turning his head. But she soon caught
up with him. Placing her hand on his arm, she said:

"Stop, Ingmar, and let me bind up your wound!"

He shook off her hand and went ahead like a blind man, following
neither road nor bypath. The blood from his open wound trickled
down underneath his clothes into one of his shoes. With every step
that he made, blood was pressed out of the shoe, leaving a red
track on the ground.

Karin followed him, wringing her hands. "Stop, Ingmar, stop!"
she implored. "Where are you going? Stop, I say!"

Ingmar wandered on, straight into the wood, where there was no
one to succor him. Karin kept her eyes fixed on his shoe, which
was oozing blood. Every second the footprints were becoming
redder and redder.

"He's going into the forest to lie down and bleed to death!"
thought Karin. "God bless you, Ingmar, for helping Hellgum!" she
said gently. "It took a man's courage to do that, and a man's
strength, too!"

Ingmar tramped straight ahead, paying no heed whatever to his
sister. Then Karin ran past him and planted herself in his way. He
stepped aside without so much as glancing at her. "Go and help
Hellgum!" he muttered.

"Let me explain, Ingmar! Halvor and I were very sorry for what
we said to you this morning, and I was just on' my way to Hellgum
to let him know that, whichever way it turned out, you were to keep
the sawmill."

"Now you can give it to Hellgum," was Ingmar's answer. He walked
on, stumbling over stones and tree stumps.

Karin kept