d her. "To no one are we more anxious to show friendship than to
Canute's ward; and you act like no true man if you cannot, when occasion
requires, leave off your high-born ways and be a plain comrade among
plain men."

Again a murmur approved his words: "That is well spoken. Frode of
Avalcomb would be the first to thank us for teaching it to you."... "He
carried no such haughty head, young boy. I fought more than one battle
at his heels."... "Come on, now!"... "Make haste! We want to get into
place before they come to land."

This time it was not a shadow but a sparkle of sunshine that mocked in
Randalin's ear: "You have not dared to be a woman, so you must dare
to be a man." She acknowledged the pitiless truth with a sigh of
submission.

"Take your hands off me, and it shall be as you wish." The big Swede
released her wrist to catch her around the waist and toss her like a
bone upon the platter of his shield, which four of them promptly raised
between them and bore along, laughing uproariously at her sprawling
efforts for dignity. When they came to a spot along the bank which
was open enough to give them an unobstructed view of the island, they
permitted her to scramble down and seat herself upon the grass, where
they ringed themselves around her, twenty deep.

"Now for it! While they are waiting for Edmund to land; before there is
anything to watch," the Scar-Cheek commanded. "Tell what you told Canute
with regard to the English King which made him so reckless as to agree
to this bargain."

There was nothing for it but obedience. A flower in a thicket of
thistles, a lamb in the midst of wolves, she sat and watched the tipping
of the scales that had her fortune among their weights.

A shout from the surging mass of English opposite told when the Ironside
had landed; and as soon as it was seen whom he had chosen to accompany
him as his witness, a buzz of excitement passed along the Danish line.

"Edric! by all the gods, Edric Jarl!"

"Now, for the first time, I believe that victory will follow Canute's
sword!" Brass Borgar ejaculated. "Since nothing less than the madness
betokening death could cause Edmund to continue his trust in the Gainer,
it is seen from this that he is a death-fated man."

From the others there came a volley of epithets, so foul a flight that
the girl's knuckles whitened in her struggles to keep her hands down
from her ears. A picture rose in her mind of Sebert's dream-lady,
passing her