valuables
are in the same chest. I will not have him pawing them over. Let me go,
I say!" He managed to slide out of his cloak and dodge under Rolf's arm.

A spark of something very like anger kindled the Wrestler's usually mild
eyes; he caught the Norman around the waist, as the latter tried to pass
him, and swung him bodily into the air. For an instant it seemed
possible that he might hurl him over the ship's side into the ocean. But
he finally threw him lightly upon a pile of skin sleeping-bags, and
turned and hastened after the jarl's son.

Guessing that some friendly squabble was in progress, the sailors made
way for him good-humoredly, and he reached the forecastle only a moment
behind Sigurd. Kark's taper was just disappearing among the shadows
beneath the deck.

Before the pursuers could speak, the bowerman leaped back upon them with
a shriek that cut the air.

"Ran is in there! I saw her hair hanging over a barrel. It was long and
yellow. It is Ran herself! We shall drown--"

Sigurd Haraldsson dealt him a cuff that felled him like a log.

"The simpleton is not able to tell a piece of yellow fox-fur from a
woman's hair," he said, contemptuously. "Since you are here, Rolf, hold
the light for me, and I will get the chess-bag myself." He spoke loudly
enough so that the men on the benches heard, laughed, and turned back to
their amusements. Then he drew Rolf further into the room, laid a hand
over his mouth, and pointed to the farthest comer, where barrels and
piled-up bales made a screen half-way across the bow.

Hair long and yellow there was, as the simpleton had said; but it was
not the vengeful Ran who looked out from under it. Tumbled and
dishevelled, paling and flushing, short-kirtled and desperate-eyed,
Helga the Fair stood before them.

"Behold how a prudent shield-maiden helps matters that are already in a
snarl," the jarl's son said, dryly.

The Wrestler started back in consternation.

Helga dropped her eyes guiltily. "I cannot blame you for being angry,"
she murmured. "I have become a great hindrance to you."

"It is an unheard-of misfortune!" gasped Rolf. "In flying from Gilli you
have broken the Norwegian law; and by causing Leif to aid you in your
flight you have made him an accomplice. A bad result is certain."

Helga's head bent lower. Then suddenly she flung out her hands in
passionate entreaty.

"Yet I could not help it, comrades! As I live, I could not help it! How
could I have t