to be more than--"

He was interrupted by the sound of approaching thunder. Valbrand
descended upon them, his new tunic drenched, the scars on his battered
old face showing livid red.

"Is it likely that I will wait all day while two thralls quarrel over
precedence?" he roared. "The Troll take me if I do not throw one of you
to Ran before the journey is over! Go instantly--"

"I am sharpening Leif's blade," Kark struck in; he had indeed drawn a
knife and sharpening-stone from his girdle. "It is not becoming for me
to leave the chief's work for another task."

The argument was unassailable. To the unlucky man-of-all-work the
steersman's anger naturally reverted.

"Then you, idle dog that you are! What is it that keeps you? Would you
have him attend on Leif and do your work as well? You may choose one of
two conditions: go instantly or have your back cut into ribbons."

If he had not added that, it is possible that Alwin would have obeyed;
but to yield in the face of a threat, that was too low for his
stiff-necked pride to stoop. The earl-born answered haughtily, "Have
your will,--and I will have mine."

If he had had any idea that they would not go so far, it was quickly
dashed out of him. One moment of struggle and confusion, and he found
himself stripped to the waist, his hands bound to the mast, a man
standing over him with a knotted thong of walrus hide. All Sigurd's
furious eloquence could not restrain the storm of sickening blows.

On the other hand, if they had had the notion that their victim's
obstinacy would run from him with his blood, they also were mistaken.
The red drops came, but no sign of weakening. At last, with the
subsiding of his anger, Valbrand ordered him to be set free.

"The same shall overtake you if you are disobedient to me again," was
all he said.

Stripped and bloody, dizzy with pain and blind with rage, Alwin
staggered forward, caught at Sigurd to save himself from falling, and
looked unsteadily about him. When he found what he sought, his wits were
cleared as a foggy night by lightning. With a hoarse cry, he caught up a
fragment of broken oar and struck Kark over the head so that he fell
stunned upon the deck, blood reddening his colorless face.

"In the Troll's name!" Valbrand swore, after a moment of utter
stupefaction.

Alwin laughed between his teeth at Sigurd's despairing glance, and
waited to feel the steersman's knife between his ribs. Instead, he was
dragged aft to