of incredulous
horror, she did not fall at his feet as everyone expected her to, and as
she herself had thought to do. Instead, she flung up her head with a
spirit that sent the long locks flying. Even when anger began to distort
his face,--anger headlong and terrible as Eric's,--her glance crossed
his like a sword-blade.

"You need not look at me like that, kinsman," she said, fiercely. "It is
your own fault for giving me into the power of a mean-minded brute,--you
who brought me up to be a free Norse shield-maiden!"

If the planks of the deck had risen against them, the men could not have
looked at each other more aghast. Her boldness seemed to paralyze even
Leif. Or was it the grain of truth in the reproach that stayed him? He
let moment after moment pass without replying. He sat plainly struggling
to hold back his fury, gripping his chair-arms until the knuckles on his
fists gleamed white.

After peering at him curiously for awhile, as though trying to divine
his wishes, his shrewd old foster-father put aside the chess-board on
which they had been playing, and hobbled over and laid a soothing hand
on the girl's arm.

"Speak you of Gilli?" he inquired. "Tell to us how he has ill-treated
you."

It was only very slightly that the pause had cooled Helga's valor.

"He has treated me like a horse that traders deck out in costly things,
and parade up and down for men to see and offer money for," she answered
hotly.

Though they knew Gilli's conduct was entirely within the law, and there
was not a man there who might not have done the same thing, they all
grunted contemptuously. Tyrker stroked his beard, with an-other sidelong
glance at his foster-son, as he said, cautiously:

"So? _Aber_,--how have you managed it from him to escape?"

"Little was there to manage. As I told you, he loaded me with precious
things; after which he left me to sit at home with his weak-minded wife,
while he went on a trading voyage, as was his wont. A horse brought me
to Nidaros; gold bought me a passage with Arnor Gunnarsson, and his ship
brought me into Eric's Fiord."

Then, for the first time, Leif spoke. His words leaped out like wolves
eager for a victim.

"Do not stop there! Tell how you passed from his ship into mine. Tell
whom you found in Eric's Fiord who became a traitor for your gold."

She answered him bravely: "No one, kinsman. No one received so much as a
ring from me. May the Giant take me if I lie! I swam the dist