k and the Norman.

"Look there!" he cried. "Look there!"

Their alarm was in no way diminished when they had looked and seen that
the space was empty. The cold drops came out on their bodies, and the
hair rose on their heads.

Robert of Normandy, who had caught the cry but not the words, came
walking back, inquiring the cause of the excitement; and at that the
Icelander cried out louder than before:

"Have a care where you go! Do you not see it? You will get blood upon
your fine cloak. It is at your feet."

In blank amazement, the Norman stared first at the ground and then at
the seer.

"Have the wits been stolen out of you? There is not even so much as a
devil-fish where you are pointing."

The Icelander took off his cap, and commenced wiping the great beads
from his forehead. "You begin to listen after the song is sung," he
answered, peevishly. "The thing ran away as soon as you approached. It
was a fox that was bloody all over."

A yell of terror distended Kark's throat.

"A fox!" he screeched. "My guardian spirit follows me in that shape; a
foreknowing woman told me so. It is my death-omen! I am death-fated!"
His knees gave way under him so that he sank to the ground and cowered
there, wringing his hands.

The Icelander shot a look of triumph at the sceptical stranger. "They
have no call to hold their chins high who hear of strange wonders for
the first time," he said, severely. "It is as certain that men have
guardian spirits as that they have bodies. Yours, Robert of Normandy,
goes doubtless in the shape of a wolf because of your warrior nature;
and I advise you now, that when you see a bloody wolf before you it will
be time for you to draw on your Hel-shoes. The animal ran nearest the
thrall--"

Kark's lamentations merged into a shriek of hope. "That is untrue! It
lay at the Norman's feet; you told him so!"

While the seer turned to look rather resentfully at him, he climbed up
this slender life-line, like a man whom sharks are pursuing.

"It was not a fox that you saw, at all; it was a wolf! So excited were
you that your eyes were deceitful. It was a wolf, and it was nearest the
Norman. A blind man could see what that means."

The Icelander pulled off his cap again, but this time it was to scratch
his head doubtfully. "It was when the stranger approached it, that it
was nearest to him," he persisted. "While this may signify that he will
seek death, I am unable to say that it proves that he will