CONCERNING THORFINN KARLSEFNE, THE LAWMAN
And that night was as long as two nights; and the sunrise into which it
melted lasted until noon; and the day which finally grew out of that
sunrise had no end whatever! Apparently, the Weathercock had managed to
tie walrus thongs around Time's ankles also.
Glimpses of banks, caught through the doorway, showed when they turned
from the highroad of the ocean up the river-lane which led into the
Vinland bay; but the banks kept on unraveling like witch's weaving that
has no end. They had turned their attention from watching the landscape
to robbing a fish keg, when the drone of voices on the deck above broke
suddenly into shouts:
"A boat! Coming from behind that island!" "Who--" "--thralls, the two in
white--" "But the man in blue?" "Karlsefne is wont to wear blue----"
"By the Hammer, I believe it is the Lawman himself!"
If cheers rose from the forecastle, silence fell on the foreroom. Eager
as they were to reach camp, to run upon this portion of it in midstream
was little less than startling. The face of every Greenlander confirmed
Domar's fervent gasp:
"Now I am thankful that Karlsefne is not my chief!"
Into Alrek's quiet came a kind of constraint. "Other men wear blue
mantles," he suggested. "Hold your tongues and listen."
Crouching on rope-coils and piles of fur, they held their breath as well
as their tongues while they tried to separate the tumult into meanings;
the scuffle of feet on the deck above was like a blur over all other
sounds. But finally the feet rushed down the steps; there was a lull in
which could be heard the sound of oars backing water; then, through the
quiet a new voice, deep and kindly:
"Greeting and welcome, friends! Tell me before anything else if you are
all here, sound and whole?"
The prisoners' mouths shaped one word as they gazed into one another's
faces: "Karlsefne!"
How thinly and sputteringly the Weathercock's voice fell on their ears
after that! "All here, Lawman! And all sound,--saving this eye of mine
which has met with a mishap of which I will tell you later."
Very likely he rambled on with his wonted long windedness, but the five
eavesdropping in the foreroom heard no more. The throng that had surged
forward receded noisily; and through the rift the prisoners had a
glimpse of the gunwale and a sinewy blue-clad form rising beside the fat
helmsman like a tree beside a bush, a towering might-full figure with a
face of rugged beauty framed in locks of iron gray. Even after the rift
had closed up again they crouched motionless, staring at the shifting
backs and straining their ears for tones of that deep voice,
until--jangling through it like clattering pottery--came the helmsman's
lament:
"But ask not what success we have had, Lawman, for I will tell you
without delay that the plan you had most at heart has been marred past
mending! By no fault of mine, but through the blood-thirstiness of your
brother's son; who has not only thrown your commands aside, but has
kindled outlawry in the heart of every boy on board, who would otherwise
be obedient to my----"
Brand got on his bound feet--no one knows how--and on them got to the
door.
"That is not true, though you or others say it!" he shouted; and when
his leader stopped out of sheer amazement and every one turned, gaping,
he followed his voice through the door. "We endure him altogether
against our will. To obey him is a disgrace to all with manhood in them.
Domar made his eye black----"
"Yes, that is true," bellowed Domar. Followed by Gard and little Olaf,
he in his turn worked his way to the door, where a sudden lurch of the
ship caught them and rolled them in a struggling heap almost to
Karlsefne's feet; when the crew began to laugh and the Weathercock began
to accuse and the rebels began to deny.
Looking after them Alrek's lips curled in soldier scorn; that gave way
to amusement when the clamor ended abruptly at a single word from the
deep voice, and he had a glimpse of Brand's fiery locks drooping like
captured flags. But after a moment, he turned and stretching his bound
arms across a cask, hid his face upon them.
"Whatever they do, they can not serve him so badly as I have done.
Certainly I can find no fault with his act if he hangs me up like a
sheep-killing dog, for little better has my service been," he murmured;
and lay there with his face hidden until the jar of Hjalmar's heavy foot
brought him suddenly upright.
"Karlsefne sends for you," the Thick-Skulled announced in his wonted
roar; then, coming close to cut the thongs, he spoke in hoarse whispers;
"Hear great wonders! Your luck has not quite shown its heels, after all.
It has happened that the Lawman also has seen the Skraellings! The day
after you met the one on the Cape, a host of them appeared before the
Vinland booths,--to see, it is likely, if the others had your mind
toward them. But Karlsefne made so plain his good intentions that they
went away after doing nothing worse than stare. And yesterday they came
again, with bundles of fur which they traded with much friendliness. It
is his belief that they also have young fire-heads among them so that
they understand how little value is to be put upon----"
Stretching out his freed arms, the Sword-Bearer gripped Hjalmar's hand
to the point of crushing. "You make my heart merry in my breast!" he
breathed.
"Yes, certainly; I am in high spirits also," Hjalmar assented, returning
the pressure. "It is an exceedingly useful thing for you. But see to it
that you bear yourself boldly as a hawk; and keep it all the time before
his mind that no real harm has been done."
Alrek began suddenly to laugh. "It may be that I would better tell him
that he owes me thanks for sending the Skraellings to him?"
"That might have no small power," the Thick-Skulled responded gravely;
and Alrek laughed again, as he caught at the huge shoulder to steady
himself in rising upon his stiff legs.
If the shoulder had been Grimkel's, the mouth belonging to it would have
advised differently. During all the time that the helmsman was bewailing
the evils to come out of such rashness, and Karlsefne was courteously
explaining how luck had warded off such evils, the old seaman's weather
eye had scanned the sky of his chief's face with deepening gravity. Now
his speculations broke out into words.
"If the boy tries to make light of his disobedience because it ended
luckily, the Lawman will spare him neither in words nor deeds," he
muttered to himself; and the impulse came to him to try to push through
the crowd pressing him mast-ward and impart this prognostication to the
Sword-Bearer. But even as he moved to carry out his kindly intention,
the boy's erect red-cloaked figure appeared in the doorway of the
foreroom and it was too late to do anything.
Though his dress of blue was merchant garb and the staff in his hand was
a farmer's symbol, the face of Karlsefne was the face of a law-giver.
Above the beard of iron gray his mouth showed firm-lipped as a mouth of
stone, and the gaze of the steel-bright eyes under the bushy brows was
such as none with guilt in their hearts might sustain. Meeting it, the
Sword-Bearer's eyes fell and the blood was drawn to his cheeks, and he
came forward and bent his knee before the Lawman.
Hard as measured steel were Karlsefne's measured words: "For a long time
I have been watching to know whether you deserved favor or starkness,
and held my hand from you lest it deal unjustly. I thought, long ago,
that I smelled hot blood which would one day break out and sweep away
all bounds. Now that day has come, and the worst things I have thought
of you are proved the true things."
As he bowed his head under the rebuke, Alrek's teeth cut a blood-line on
his lip; but he attempted no defense. For the space of a second it
seemed to Grimkel that the Lawman's face showed surprise.
Yet his voice was even sterner when he spoke again. "They are no less
true things because good fortune has enabled me to ward off the damage
which would otherwise have been caused by your deed. If you are at all
versed in camp ways, you know that this happening does not make you any
less liable to punishment."
Rising from his knee, the young Sword-Bearer faced him without fear. "My
fate is for you to decide over, kinsman, according to your pleasure,"
he said with soldier submissiveness.
Then there was no question whatever about Karlsefne's surprise. After a
moment's silence, he spoke slowly; "I think it best to hear first from
your own mouth about this happening."
"I have no excuse why you should withhold your anger from me, yet I
would not have you believe that I wished the thing to happen," Alrek
answered. "When I set out for the light, my one thought was to get honor
with you by finding out the news you wanted; and I think I should have
remembered your order if the Skraelling had been where I first looked
for him. But after I had given him up I saw him suddenly, hiding in the
shadow; and something in me cried out that he was aiming and--and I have
not been wont to jump backward when I saw a foe. Yet I ask you to
believe that I wished least of anything to hinder your plans."
A while the steel-keen eyes probed him; but he did not flinch. "That is
not in every respect as the helmsman relates the story," Karlsefne
remarked at last.
"That is very likely," Alrek replied, "for the helmsman knows nothing
whatever about the matter." Whereupon the helmsman let his stored-up
breath go from him in a snort.
A dozen seamen endeavored suddenly to hide laughter under fits of
coughing; but the Lawman said gravely: "Nevertheless, I now see that
there is truth in the other things he told me about your behavior toward
him;" then turned away and stood a long time pondering, his hands
gripping his silver-shod staff, his half-closed eyes resting on the
group of gaping boys. And gazing at them, he seemed to forget the
Sword-Bearer in a new problem.
"Here are more rebels," he said to the helmsman, with a sweep of his
staff. "Little order will there be in camp if they are turned loose on
it in no better state of mind. How is it your intention to deal with
them?"
The Weathercock shifted his weight peevishly; he was tired of standing;
and his mind was upset within him; and he wanted besides to get back to
his ale horn. "Since they are free-born, it seems that I can not even
give them the flogging they deserve," he snapped, "but if they were
thralls, I would drown them."
"It may be then that you would be willing that I should offer them to
come under my rule?" Karlsefne suggested; and went on to say more in an
undertone.
Astonishment opened the helmsman's eyes at first; then, slowly, he
wrinkled into a fat smile. At last he reached out and grasped
Karlsefne's hand.
"If you will rid me of the twenty plagues, who are turning me thin, I
will feel as though you had given me twenty marks of gold," he declared.
Whereupon the Lawman turned to the group of blank faces.
"Now this is my offer to you," he said, "that you part from the rest of
the Greenlanders and form yourselves into a band and build your own
booth and choose one of your own number to rule over you."
The faces lighted in ecstasy,--then gloomed in unbelief. Brand spoke for
all when he inquired timidly:
"Is this a _punishment_?"
"It is not a reward," Karlsefne answered; and for a moment his gaze
sharpened so that the Red One winced under it. "If I did not believe
that it is because you know no better that you act thus, there would be
hard things in store for you. I take this way to show you why lawfulness
is needful. Yet is there no trick to it; all I have promised shall be
fulfilled,--and more. You shall have your own table if you can furnish
it; your own boat if you can build it; in every way like men----"
They thought his pause the end, and burst into jubilant chorus; "It will
not take us long to know what to answer to this!"
But he raised his hand for silence. "Answer nothing until you have heard
the whole. If you form yourselves upon the manner of men, so must you
also bear men's burdens. You must furnish your share of hunters and
fishers and of workers in the fields; and you must do your share of
guarding against outside foes or lawlessness within. Even as Thorvard,
here, and Snorri and Biorn, answer to me for the behavior of their
following, so must your chief answer for you----"
"Yes! Yes!" they cried eagerly.
But he lifted his hand again; his measured tones became like tolling
bells. "Think well! I speak not in jest. If you accept, I take you in
grim earnest. You may not have men's liberty without men's care, and I
shall hold you like men to your word though the matter cause death
itself. Think well!"
They did pause; his manner was impressive enough to insure that. But in
a moment, Brand flung back his red locks daringly.
"Much should we lack in manhood if we would refuse a fair offer! Take
our word!"
Every one of the twenty echoed him wildly. "Take our word!"
"It is taken," Karlsefne said gravely; then bent his gaze on the Red
One. "It appears likely that you will be the chosen head, since you seem
always to speak for your comrades?"
Brand flushed with delight. But before he could answer, Domar spoke
bluntly:
"I do not see in what Brand is above the rest of us Greenlanders. I
raise my voice for Alrek Ingolfsson."
"Alrek Ingolfsson, by all means!" Erland seconded; and Brand joined him
generously.
In another moment, all were shouting, "Alrek! Alrek!"
Plainly, this was something the Lawman had not expected. "Alrek?" he
repeated in surprise. "Yet I do not know that it would not be a
punishment to answer for such a band!" Turning, he looked again where
the Sword-Bearer stood with folded arms, awaiting his sentence.
Perhaps with mouth firm-set and troubled eyes he looked more than ever
like his father. Old Grimkel's watchful gaze saw the Lawman's hardness
break up like Greenland ice before a warm land wind. Taking a slow step
forward, he laid his hands upon the square young shoulders and looked
long into the brown young face.
"Since you left in the spring," he said, "a son was born to me, but I
swear I do not love him more than I love you when that look is on you,
bringing back my brother and my boyhood and the time before our ways
parted." His voice softened to very grave gentleness. "Since you did not
mean offense toward me, I will take none; and you shall accept this
chiefship and use it to prove what nature is in you. All I have of love
and honor lies ready for your gaining,--it will not gladden you more
than me if you are strong enough to take them. Will you accept the
test?"
He held out his hand, and the Sword-Bearer grasped it in both of his and
looked him full in the face, his eyes in a golden glow. "I accept the
test,--and I give you thanks for it from the bottom of my heart," he
said.
END OF PART FIRST
PART SECOND
ALREK'S CHAMPIONS