he was not blamed for his
blunders. His listener caught at the meanings hungrily, and pieced out
their deficiencies with his keen wit and dressed their nakedness in his
vivid imagination. Now his great chest heaved with passion, and his
strong hand gripped his sword-hilt; now he crossed himself and sighed,
and again his eyes flashed like smitten steel. When at last the failing
light compelled Alwin to lay down the book, the chief sat for a long
time staring at him with keen but absent eyes.

After a while he said, half as though he was speaking to himself: "It is
my belief that Heaven itself has sent you to me, that I may be
strengthened and inspired in my work." His face kindled with devout
rapture. "It must have been by the guidance of Heaven that you were
trained in so unusual an accomplishment. It was the hand of God that led
you hither, to be an instrument in a great work."

Awe fell upon Alwin, and a shiver of superstition that was almost
terror. He bowed his head and crossed himself.

But when he looked up, the thread had snapped; Leif was himself again.
He was eying the boy critically, though with a new touch of something
like respect.

He said abruptly: "It is not altogether befitting that one who has the
accomplishments of a holy priest should go garbed like a base-bred
thrall. What is the color of the clothes that priests wear in England?"

Alwin answered, wondering: "They wear black habits, lord. It is for that
reason that they are called Black Monks."

Rising, Leif beckoned to Valbrand. When the steersman stood before him,
he said: "Take this boy down to my chests and clothe him from head to
foot in black garments of good quality. And hereafter let it be
understood that he is my honorable bowerman, and a person of breeding
and accomplishments."

The old henchman looked at the new favorite as dispassionately as he
would have looked at a weapon or a dog that had taken his master's
fancy. "I would not oppose your will in this, any more than in other
things; yet I take it upon me to remind you of Kark. If you make this
cook-boy your bowerman, to keep the scales balancing you must make him
who was your bowerman into a cook-boy. It is in my mind that Kark's
father will take that as ill as--"

A sweep of Leif's arm swept Kark out of the path of his will. "Who is it
that is to command me how I shall choose my servants? The Fates made
Kark a cook-boy when he was born; let him go back where he belongs. I
ha