o had bidden us come, "yonder is the sign of
hope, leading us as it were the pillar of fire of Holy Writ!"

"Men say there is ever treasure hidden under the end of a rainbow,"
said the reeve; "but never yet did I meet with a man who had found
it. Yet I have never seen the like of this. I have heard that they
may be seen at night."

And so said another and another; for indeed men look to their feet
rather than to the sky at night, and thereby miss the things they
might see. But a strange thought came to my mind, and I spoke it.

"Under the end of that pillar does indeed lie the treasure we seek.
See, it is not on the wood, but on the river bank. We searched not
there, comrade."

"Ay, we shall find it there," Erling answered. "It is
Bifrost--Allfather's bridge. He takes his son home across it."

The rainbow faded and passed to the north and east with the rain,
and it went across the land through which Ethelbert had ridden so
gaily but a few days agone. Sometimes I love to think that its end
rested here and there on house or village or church which had been
the happier for the bright presence of the king, and betimes I
think that a strange fancy for a rough warrior like myself. Yet I
had ridden with Ethelbert, and the thoughts he set in the minds of
men are not as common thoughts. I hold that once I rode and spoke
with a very saint.

There fell a sort of awe and a silence on us after that. Silently
we went on up the riverside track, for I was leading with Erling,
and that strange belief that by the river we should find what we
sought would not leave me; and when we came below the place where
the cart was, I saw marks where its wheels had riven the soft earth
close to the water. Without a word I signed my companions to spread
abroad and search, and I dismounted, and with the bridle of my
horse over my arm, I went scanning each foot of the ground in the
moonlight.

Twenty yards, not more, from the water, where some winter flood had
left a wide patch of sand and little pebbles, I saw the marks of
the cart again. It had stopped there, and round the spot were deep
footprints of men. They went on for a few yards, and then there was
a little fresh-turned place. Out of that lapped a piece of cloth,
plain to be seen in the light of the moon, but easily overlooked in
the haste of those who had left it. And then I knew that I had
indeed found the king.

Now I lifted my hand, and the rest saw me, one by one, and came to
my