WHEN they came into the Hall, the hearth-fire had been quickened, and the
sleepers on the floor had been wakened, and all folk were astir. So the
old man sat down by the hearth while Gold-mane busied himself in fetching
wood and water, and in sweeping out the Hall, and other such works of the
early morning. In a little while Hall-face and the other young men and
warriors were afoot duly clad, and the Alderman came from his chamber and
greeted all men kindly. Soon meat was set upon the boards, and men broke
their fast; and day dawned while they were about it, and ere it was all
done the sun rose clear and golden, so that all men knew that the day
would be fair, for the frost seemed hard and enduring.
Then the eager young men and the hunters, and those who knew the mountain
best drew together about the hearth, and fell to talking of the hunting
of the elk; and there were three there who knew both the woods and also
the fells right up to the ice-rivers better than any other; and these
said that they who were fain of the hunting of the elk would have no
likelier time than that day for a year to come. Short was the rede
betwixt them, for they said they would go to the work at once and make
the most of the short winter daylight. So they went each to his place,
and some outside that House to their fathers’ houses to fetch each man
his gear. Face-of-god for his part went to his shut-bed, and stood by
his chest, and opened it, and drew out of it a fine hauberk of ring-mail
which his father had made for him: for though Face-of-god was a deft
wright, he was not by a long way so deft as his father, who was the
deftest of all men of that time and country; so that the alien merchants
would give him what he would for his hauberks and helms, whenso he would
chaffer with them, which was but seldom. So Face-of-god did on this
hauberk over his kirtle, and over it he cast his foul-weather weed, so
that none might see it: he girt a strong war-sword to his side, cast his
quiver over his shoulder, and took his bow in his hand, although he had
little lust to shoot elks that day, even as Stone-face had said;
therewithal he took his skids, and went forth of the hall to the gate of
the Burg; whereto gathered the whole company of twenty-three, and
Gold-mane the twenty-fourth. And each man there had his skids and his
bow and quiver, and whatso other weapon, as short-sword, or wood-knife,
or axe, seemed good to him.
So they went out-a-gates, and clomb the stairway in the cliff which led
to the ancient watch-tower: for it was on the lower slopes of the fells
which lay near to the Weltering Water that they looked to find the elks,
and this was the nighest road thereto. When they had gotten to the top
they lost no time, but went their ways nearly due east, making way easily
where there were but scattered trees close to the lip of the sheer
cliffs.
They went merrily on their skids over the close-lying snow, and were soon
up on the great shoulders of the fells that went up from the bank of the
Weltering Water: at noon they came into a little dale wherein were a few
trees, and there they abided to eat their meat, and were very merry,
making for themselves tables and benches of the drifted snow, and piling
it up to windward as a defence against the wind, which had now arisen,
little but bitter from the south-east; so that some, and they the wisest,
began to look for foul weather: wherefore they tarried the shorter while
in the said dale or hollow.
But they were scarcely on their way again before the aforesaid south-east
wind began to grow bigger, and at last blew a gale, and brought up with
it a drift of fine snow, through which they yet made their way, but
slowly, till the drift grew so thick that they could not see each other
five paces apart.
Then perforce they made stay, and gathered together under a bent which by
good luck they happened upon, where they were sheltered from the worst of
the drift. There they abode, till in less than an hour’s space the drift
abated and the wind fell, and in a little while after it was quite clear,
with the sun shining brightly and the young waxing moon white and high up
in the heavens; and the frost was harder than ever.
This seemed good to them; but now that they could see each other’s faces
they fell to telling over their company, and there was none missing save
Face-of-god. They were somewhat dismayed thereat, but knew not what to
do, and they deemed he might not be far off, either a little behind or a
little ahead; and Hall-face said:
‘There is no need to make this to-do about my brother; he can take good
care of himself; neither does a warrior of the Face die because of a
little cold and frost and snow-drift. Withal Gold-mane is a wilful man,
and of late days hath been wilful beyond his wont; let us now find the
elks.’
So they went on their ways hoping to fall in with him again. No long
story need be made of their hunting, for not very far from where they had
taken shelter they came upon the elks, many of them, impounded in the
drifts, pretty much where the deft hunters looked to find them. There
then was battle between the elks and the men, till the beasts were all
slain and only one man hurt: then they made them sleighs from wood which
they found in the hollows thereby, and they laid the carcasses thereon,
and so turned their faces homeward, dragging their prey with them. But
they met not Face-of-god either there or on the way home; and Hall-face
said: ‘Maybe Gold-mane will lie on the fell to-night; and I would I were
with him; for adventures oft befall such folk when they abide in the
wilds.’
Now it was late at night by then they reached Burgstead, so laden as they
were with the dead beasts; but they heeded the night little, for the moon
was well-nigh as bright as day for them. But when they came to the gate
of the Thorp, there were assembled the goodmen and swains to meet them
with torches and wine in their honour. There also was Gold-mane come
back before them, yea for these two hours; and he stood clad in his
holiday raiment and smiled on them.
Then was there some jeering at him that he was come back empty-handed
from the hunting, and that he was not able to abide the wind and the
drift; but he laughed thereat, for all this was but game and play, since
men knew him for a keen hunter and a stout woodsman; and they had deemed
it a heavy loss of him if he had been cast away, as some feared he had
been: and his brother Hall-face embraced him and kissed him, and said to
him: ‘Now the next time that thou farest to the wood will I be with thee
foot to foot, and never leave thee, and then meseemeth I shall wot of the
tale that hath befallen thee, and belike it shall be no sorry one.’
Face-of-god laughed and answered but little, and they all betook them to
the House of the Face and held high feast therein, for as late as the
night was, in honour of this Hunting of the Elk.
No man cared to question Face-of-god closely as to how or where he had
strayed from the hunt; for he had told his own tale at once as soon as he
came home, to wit, that his right-foot skid-strap had broken, and even
while he stopped to mend it came on that drift and weather; and that he
could not move from that place without losing his way, and that when it
had cleared he knew not whither they had gone because the snow had
covered their slot. So he deemed it not unlike that they had gone back,
and that he might come up with one or two on the way, and that in any
case he wotted well that they could look after themselves; so he turned
back, not going very swiftly. All this seemed like enough, and a little
matter except to jest about, so no man made any question concerning it:
only old Stone-face said to himself:
‘Now were I fain to have a true tale out of him, but it is little likely
that anything shall come of my much questioning; and it is ill forcing a
young man to tell lies.’
So he held his peace, and the feast went on merrily and blithely.