"If you speak in his favor," he thundered, seizing her wrist, "I will
sheathe my knife in you!" But even before she had freed herself, and
Rolf and Sigurd had turned upon him, he realized that he had gone too
far. Leaving them abruptly, he went and stood a little way off with his
back toward them, his head bowed, his hands clenched, struggling with
himself.

For a long time no one spoke. Sigurd questioned with his eyes, and Rolf
answered by a shrug. Once, as Helga offered to approach the Black One,
Sigurd made a warning gesture. They waited in dead silence. While the
voices of the other men came to them faintly, and the insects chirped
about their feet, and the birds called in the trees above them.

At last Egil came slowly back, sullen-eyed and grim-mouthed. He held a
branch in his hands and was bending and breaking it fiercely. "It is
shame enough," he began after a while, "that any man should have had it
in his power to spare me. I wonder that I do not die of the disgrace!
But it would be a still fouler shame if, after he had spared my life, I
let myself keep a wolf's mind toward him." His eyes suddenly blazed out
at Alwin, but he controlled himself and went on. "The reason for my
enmity I will not tell; wild steers should not tear it out of me.
But,--" He stopped and drew a hard breath, and set his teeth afresh;
"but I will forego that enmity. It is more than my life is worth. It is
worth a dozen lives to him,--" his voice broke with rage,--"yet because
it is honorable, I will do it. If you, Sigurd Haraldsson, and you, Rolf,
will pledge your friendship to this man, I will swear him mine." It was
well that he had reached the end, for he could not have spoken another
syllable.

Bewilderment tied Alwin's tongue. Sigurd was the first to speak.

"That seems to me a fair offer; and half the condition is already
fulfilled. I clasped his hand last night."

Rolf answered with less promptness. "I say nothing against the
Englishman's courage or his skill; yet--I will not conceal it--even in
payment for a comrade's life, I do not like to give my friendship to one
of thrall-birth."

That loosened Alwin's tongue. "In my own country," he said haughtily,
"you would be done honor by a look from me. Editha will tell you that my
father was Earl of Northumbria, and my mother a princess of the royal
blood of Alfred."

Helga uttered an exclamation of surprise and interest; but he would not
deign to look at her. For a while lon