of earth and
air are against us? You think me as helpless, under Nipen's breath, as
the poor infant that put out into the fiord the other day in a tub."

"I am not speaking of Nipen now,--(not because I do not think of it;)--I
am speaking of Hund. Do promise me not to go more than four miles down
the fiord. After that, there is a long stretch of precipices, without a
single dwelling. There is not a boat that could put off,--there is not
an eye or an ear that could bear witness what had become of you, if you
and Hund should meet there."

"If Hund and I should meet there, I would bring him home, to settle what
should become of him."

"And all the pirates? You would bring them all in your right hand, and
row home with your left! For shame, Rolf, to be such a boaster!
Promise me not to go beyond the four miles."

"Indeed I can only promise to go where the shoal is. Four miles!
Suppose you say four furlongs, love."

"I will engage to catch herrings within four furlongs."

"Pray take me with you; and then I will carry you four times four miles
down, and show you what a shoal is. Really, love, I should like to
prove to you how safe the fiord is to one who knows every nook and
hiding-place from the entrance up. If fighting would not do, I could
always hide."

"And would not Hund know where to look for you?"

"Not he. He was not brought up on the fiord, to know its ways, and its
holes and corners: and I told him neither that, nor anything else that I
could keep from him; for I always mistrusted Hund.--Now, I will tell
you, love. I will promise you something, because I do not wish to hurt
you, as you sometimes hurt me with disregarding what I say,--with being
afraid, in spite of all I can do to make you easy. I will promise you
not to go further down, while alone, than Vogel islet, unless it is
quite certain that Hund and the pirates are far enough off in another
direction. I partly think, as you do, and as Erlingsen does, that they
meant to come for me the night you carried off their boat: so I will be
on the watch, and go no further than where they cannot hurt me."

"Then why say Vogel islet? It is out of all reasonable distance."

"Not to those who know the fiord as I do. I have my reasons, Erica, for
fixing that distance and no other; and that far I intend to go, whether
my friends think me able to take care of myself or not."

"At least," pleaded Erica, "let me go with you."

"Not for the world,