seemed as one walking in a dream.

"It is mine now," he murmured: "it is all mine, now,--the Hoard of the
swarthy elf-folk, the garnered wisdom of ages. The strength of the world
is mine. I will keep, I will save, I will heap up; and none shall have
part or parcel of the treasure which is mine alone."

Then his eyes fell upon Siegfried; and his cheeks grew dark with wrath,
and he cried out,--

"Why are you here in my way? I am the lord of the Glittering Heath: I am
the master of the Hoard. I am the master, and you are my thrall."

Siegfried wondered at the change which had taken place in his old
master; but he only smiled at his strange words, and made no answer.

"You have slain my brother!" Regin cried; and his face grew fearfully
black, and his mouth foamed with rage.

"It was my deed and yours," calmly answered Siegfried. "I have rid the
world of a Terror: I have righted a grievous wrong."

"You have slain my brother," said Regin; "and a murderer's ransom you
shall pay!"

"Take the Hoard for your ransom, and let us each wend his way," said the
lad.

"The Hoard is mine by rights," answered Regin still more wrathfully. "I
am the master, and you are my thrall. Why stand you in my way?"

Then, blinded with madness, he rushed at Siegfried as if to strike him
down; but his foot slipped in a puddle of gore, and he pitched headlong
against the sharp edge of Balmung. So sudden was this movement, and so
unlooked for, that the sword was twitched out of Siegfried's hand, and
fell with a dull splash into the blood-filled pit before him; while
Regin, slain by his own rashness, sank dead upon the ground. Full of
horror, Siegfried turned away, and mounted Greyfell.[EN#12]

"This is a place of blood," said he, "and the way to glory leads not
through it. Let the Hoard still lie on the Glittering Heath: I will go
my way from hence; and the world shall know me for better deeds than
this."

And he turned his back on the fearful scene, and rode away; and so
swiftly did Greyfell carry him over the desert land and the mountain
waste, that, when night came, they stood on the shore of the great North
Sea, and the white waves broke at their feet. And the lad sat for a long
time silent upon the warm white sand of the beach, and Greyfell waited
at his side. And he watched the stars as they came out one by one, and
the moon, as it rose round and pale, and moved like a queen across the
sky. And the night wore away, and the stars gre