ncle gave you leave to come and to
stay overnight, Mootie."

"I wish she might remain some days," said Mrs. Holtum; but the Doctor,
understanding best the kind of man Mr. Adiesen was, remarked, "That
will be next time. We must not take more than his lairdship has
conceded. By-and-by we may venture to stretch a point with him."

"What has been settled about the captive Viking?" Harry Mitchell then
asked. "I am sorry to remind you, Yaspard, in such an abrupt manner of
your precarious position; but we must not forget that we have to make
capital of you."

"I offered him free, gratis, and for nothing to this high and haughty
miss; but she tossed her curls and declined my civility," answered Tom.

"There would be no fun in that," Yaspard said in an aside; and Signy
remarked, "Brodhor is worth a great deal to me, and he ought to be
worth a lot to his captors. Just put a price on him that I am able to
pay, and you shall have it."

"Bravo!" shouted the boys in chorus.

"Do you then absolutely refuse my princely offer?" Tom asked her, and
the little girl replied boldly--

"Yes. I'd be ashamed to take him for nothing."

"The lads of Lunda," answered he loftily, "don't make bargains with
ladies. If you won't take my offer you're 'out of it,' miss! Now, Sir
Viking, let me tell you under what condition I will set you free. You
shall give me your royal word--on the faith of a Viking--that you will
give me your assistance in a deed of high emprise which I have vowed to
perform."

"Why, Harry," exclaimed Bill, "you could not have said that in a more
booky way yourself!"

"I haven't got another word of the sort in my vocabulary, so must
return to my usual style, gentlemen," said Tom. "The long and the
short of it is, when I was a prisoner at Trullyabister, I discovered
that I was not the only poor wretch whom the ogre had nabbed. There
are others----"

"Oh, goloptious!" shouted Yaspard, interrupting Tom without the least
ceremony. "You have found out the very thing I meant to tell you. I
meant to ask you fellows to help me."

"Then it would seem," said Dr. Holtum, smiling--for he had had a
private talk with Tom, and had come to a conclusion of his own--"that
Yaspard's 'knightly quest' and Tom's 'deed of high emprise' are one and
the same. You have my approval, boys; only let me warn you to be very
wary, for if you do _not_ succeed you will have no support from any
one, and may find yourselves in an awkward f