a boulder.

When the moment of departure arrived, and the cavalcade poured out of
the courtyard gates, with a clanking of armor and a flapping of gorgeous
new mantles, warmed by the horns of parting ale that had steamed down
their throats, singing and boasting and laughing, and cheered by the
rabble that ran alongside, their way down to the shore lay directly over
the head of this insignificant pebble. Who would have thought of
avoiding it? Yet, though a score of children's feet danced over it
unharmed, and sixty pairs of horses' hoofs pranced over it unhindered,
when Eric reached it his good bay mare stumbled against it and fell, so
that her rider was thrown from his saddle and rolled in the dust.

There were no bones broken; he was no more than shaken; he was up before
they could reach him; but his face was gray with disappointment, and his
frame had shrunk like a withered leaf.

"It is a warning from the gods that I am on the wrong road," he said
hoarsely. "It is a sign that it cannot be my fate to be the discoverer
of any other land than the one on which we now live. My luck go with
you, my son; but I cannot."

Before they could remonstrate, he had wheeled his horse and left them,
riding with the bent head and drooping shoulders of an old, old man.

A stern sign from Valbrand restrained Leif's men from venting the cheers
they were bursting with; but the looks they darted at their leader, and
then at each other, said as plainly as words: "It is his never-failing
luck. Why did we ever doubt him? We would follow him into the Sea of
Worms and believe that it would end favorably."

In this promising frame of mind they left their friendly haven and
sailed away into an unknown world.

CHAPTER XXIV

FOR DEAR LOVE'S SAKE

He alone knows,
Who wanders wide
And has much experienced,
By what disposition
Each man is ruled
Who common sense possesses.
Ha'vama'l

The first night out was a moonless night, that shut down on the world of
waters and blotted out even the clouds and the waves that been company
for the solitary vessel. The little ship became a speck of light in a
gulf of darkness, an atom of life floating in empty space. Under the
tent roofs, by the light of flaring torches, the crew drank and sang and
amused themselves with games; but beyond that circle, there was only
blackness and emptiness and silence.

Sigurd gazed out over the vessel's side, with a yawn and a