overtake it.
Yet I will not swear that it was not a wolf. The sun was in my eyes--"

Robert the Fearless burst into a scornful laugh. "Oh, call it a wolf,
and let us end this talk!" he said, contemptuously. "I shall not die
until my death-day comes, though you see a pack of them. Call it a wolf,
craven serf, if that will stay your tongue."

There was no chance for more, for at that moment Valbrand joined them.
"There is naught to be seen which is different from what we have already
experienced," he said shortly; and they began the return march.

They reached the landing-place first; but it was not long before the
heads of their companions appeared above a rocky ridge. This party, it
was evident, had had better sport. Several men carried hats filled with
sea-birds' eggs. Another explorer had under his arm a fat little bear
cub that he had picked up somewhere. Rolf's deftness at stone-throwing
had secured him a bushy yellow fox-tail for a trophy.

The party had gone inland far enough to discover that creeping bushes
grew on the hills, and rushes on the bogs; that it was an island, as
Biorn had stated, and that forests equal in size to those of Greenland
grew in sheltered places. But they had seen nothing to alter their
unflattering first opinion. Vikings though they were, warriors who would
have been flayed alive without flinching, relief was manifest on every
face when the leader finally gave the word to embark.

Probably it was because he understood the danger of pushing their
fidelity too far, that the chief gave the order to return so soon. For
his own part, he did not seem to be entirely satisfied. With one foot on
the stern of the boat, and one still on the rocks, he lingered
uncertainly.

"Yet we have not acted with this land like Biorn, who did not come
ashore," he muttered. Rolf displayed the fox-tall with a flourish.

"We have accomplished more than Eric after he had been in Greenland an
equally short time, chief. We have taken tribute from the inhabitants."
Leif deigned to smile slightly. He stepped into his place, and from the
stern he swept a long critical look over the barren coast,--from the
fox-dens up to the high-peaked mountains, and back again to the sea.

"We will give as well as take," he said at last. "I will give a name to
the land, and call it Helluland, for it is indeed an icy plain."

They were welcomed on board with a hubbub of curiosity. Almost every
article of value upon the ship was