y. I said in answer to Dalfin
that he was right, and that we must set the matter thus before
Gerda.

"The sooner the better," said Bertric. "Do you go and speak with
her. We must not let the night pass without this being done, as I
think"

Chapter 7: The Treasure Of The King.

Gerda heard me coming, and met me at the same spot where we had
first spoken of this matter. She saw that I had come to tell her
what we had said thereof.

"What of the others?" she asked anxiously.

"They have spoken in all thought for you, even as I knew they
would," I answered. "We are at one in thinking that the sea grave
is most fitting."

She asked me why, as if to satisfy some doubts which she yet had,
and I must needs tell her therefore what our own dangers were,
though I made as light of them as I could. I told of the perils of
a lee shore to this under-manned ship; of the chance of meeting
another ship at any time here on the Norway coast; of crews and of
wreckers who would hold naught sacred; of the chance of our
drifting thus idly for many days in this summer weather--all
chances which were more likely than the quiet coming to the islands
where my father's name was known and honoured enough for us to find
help. From these chances it was best to save the king, who was our
care, and at once. She heard me very bravely to the end.

"So let it be," she said, sighing. "You will suffer the treasure to
go with him?"

"That is as you will, lady," I said; "it is yours. Was it the wish
of Thorwald that it should pass to the mound with him?"

She glanced at me, half proudly and half as in some rebuke.

"Thorwald would ask for naught but his arms," she said. "The
treasure was mine, for he did but hoard to give. I would set him
forth as became Odin's champion. He was no gold lover."

"Should it not be, then, as he would have wished?" I said. "Let him
pass to the depths with his war gear, and so through Aegir's halls
to the place of Odin, as a warrior, and unburdened with the gold he
loved not at all."

She looked sharply at me, and shrank away a little, half turning
from me.

"Is the treasure so dear to you men after all?" she asked coldly.

That angered me for the moment, and I felt my face flush red, but I
held myself in.

"No," I answered as coldly. "These arms you have given us are all
the treasure we need or could ask. They are a warrior's treasure,
and mayhap we hold them as dear as did Thorwald. What else may lie