ABOUT THE-FIRE-THAT-RUNS-ON-THE-WAVES
Where an arm of the big Vinland bay met a narrow river so far inland
that it was hard to tell when bay ended and river began, the band of
Vinland Champions was at work. Before the invasion of their young
voices, the stillness of the primeval forest had taken flight; and the
age-old trees had fallen victim to the greed of their young hands even
as the old-world cities were falling before the might of the young
North. On the river bank, sweating in the June sun, some of them were
toiling to bring a great log down to the stream which was to float it on
to the building place. Along the edge of the clearing, others were busy
lopping from the fallen monarchs their green crowns. And the song of
axes, ringing from the depths of the cool shade, told of conquests still
in progress. This last task, however, was so nearly completed that in
the intervals of their work the choppers talked of the untrimmed logs
as though they were already in the form of a ship.
"What we stand in need of is red paint for that hull--" "If Gudrid will
only make the sail--" "--so long as we get gilding for the dragon's
head, I do not care--" "The dragon's head will be a weapon in itself!"
"I expect the wild men will run at sight of it!" "There will not be many
to equal this ship when it is done."
Lowering his ax to moisten his palms, Brand cast his bright impatient
eyes around severely. "If ever it is done," he supplemented. "At this
rate, it is the summer which will be finished first. If we had worked as
we should have done, it would be completed now."
"Then why did you not work as you should have done?" laughed Ketil the
Glib.
And Erlend, pausing to take a gauzy fanged fly off his neck, observed:
"Certainly I think you ought to be the last one to make a fuss. Every
time I have told you off to work on it, you have preferred to go
hunting, or even help Karlsefne's men with the fence."
"What difference what I prefer?" the Red One retorted. "You are the
chief; it is your duty to see that work is done as it is necessary."
The difficulty of answering that, left Erlend rubbing his plump neck in
silence; and in the pause Brand returned to work, swinging the ax over
his shoulder with a forcefulness which brought it near to smashing the
head of a man who had just appeared in the underbrush behind him.
"It is my advice that you see what you are doing," the man spoke in a
harsh voice which they recognized.
It was but faintly that Brand was apologetic as he glanced around. "Why
do you creep up like a cat if you are not willing to risk something?" he
inquired, and aimed another stroke.
But for once Thorhall the Huntsman did not dismiss them in contempt.
Breast-high in saplings he lingered, regarding them with curiosity; when
he had swallowed the irritation attendant upon dodging, he spoke
politely: "My excuse is that if the leaves had not muffled my steps, I
should have missed hearing tidings of great interest. I ask of you to
tell me what all this is about a ship?"
"How does that concern you?" muttered Gard the Ugly.
Erlend, however, lowered his ax readily. That there should be any one
willing to listen to the ship-plan who had not already heard it as many
times as he would endure, seemed too good for belief. Feigning that his
ax edge needed attention, he drew out a sharpening-stone; and while he
plied it, he talked happily.
The ship, he said, was to be so long and so wide, with a fore-deck to
shelter the provisions, but nothing so womanish as a cabin. The mast was
to be that pine-tree yonder, and the sail was to be woven by Gudrid,
Karlsefne's wife--that is, they were going to ask her to do it for
them--and he thought the colors would be red and yellow, and the name
would probably be The-Fire-That-Runs-On-The-Waves. It sounded very well
as he told it; gradually Brand's blade also became silent, and Ketil and
Harald and half a dozen others crept nearer to listen with kindling eyes
that now and again shot triumphant glances at the Huntsman.
It was something of a triumph to make him who was usually so sneering
listen so respectfully. When the recital was finished, he was even
flattering.
"Certainly you are foremost among youths in energy! Where is it your
intention to voyage when The Fire is built?"
Gard, who alone had kept on working, gave his tree a resounding blow.
"How does that concern you?" he demanded a second time. "You will not be
invited to take the steering oar."
Now any one can see that it is bad manners to insult a man who is
complimenting you. Eight glances fixed the Ugly One angrily, while
Erlend spoke in mild reproof:
"What is the need of talking in that way?" he asked him; then, to the
Huntsman: "If the ship is done before the summer is, we are going
against the Skraellings. It comes like a piece of luck that there is
enmity between us; otherwise I do not know whom we could fight."
"Since it is unadvisable to do what we want and fight Karlsefne," Brand
added vindictively; and there was a murmur of acquiescence.
The Huntsman's eyes, trained to detect prey in the very darkness, went
from one to another of the young faces. "Now that is a strange way to
speak of the Lawman," he remarked.
The answers rose in his face like a covey of birds: "How else would you
expect us to speak?" "--after the way he behaved toward Alrek
Ingolfsson--" "I think he deserves worse words--" "To my backbone I hate
him!"
Parting the sapling screen, the Huntsman came out and seated himself on
a prostrate tree, as though he found the field worthy of his attention.
"Yet it is a foolish way after all," he began, "for only see how Alrek's
bane has been Erlend's good fortune----"
The Amiable One's handsome brown face flushed. "We have given no thanks
on that score, nor shall give any," he answered hastily. "I have seen
Alrek only once since the day that bad luck overtook him, and then I
dared not speak to him; but the first chance I get, I shall offer the
chiefship back."
The murmur which greeted that was almost a cheer; only Thorall made a
sound of dissent.
"Now do you act after the manner of boys rather than of men," he said.
"Pity Alrek Ingolfsson you may if you will, but in so doing you should
not undervalue the leader you have got in his----"
"Now what trap are you baiting?" grumbled Gard, at the same instant that
Erlend interrupted.
"I beg of you to leave that and give us instead your advice how the
Skraellings may be found. You, more than any other, know the secrets of
the south country."
Some of the band drew breath rather quickly as their chief said that,
and looked to see the Huntsman rise in offense; but again he surprised
them. Re-crossing his legs and settling his broad back against a stump,
he did nothing worse than to sit gazing away at the sunshine of the
open. His voice was still amiable when at last he spoke:
"It would be useless to deny that many wonders may be told of the south
country. I will begin by telling you that it contains bigger game than
Skraellings and--" his hand strayed to the deerskin cord looping his
neck and ending in the breast of his stained green tunic--"and more
valuable things than furs." He paused to cough, and no one moved for
fear of breaking the spell. He recovered himself with a covert smile.
"It may be that I will even do better than telling you. What should you
say if I would show you the paths that lead to the treasure? I have some
thought of going south myself this summer----"
Gard answered with an unexpectedness that made them jump: "I should say
that we were rabbit-brained if we allowed you to lead us anywhere!
Because Erlend is caught with your chaff, it is not proved that you can
trap us all. I would not follow you a pace. To your face I tell you that
I believe it was your hand that slew the Skraelling, though your body
was further off than could be seen by a raven hovering in the sky!" He
broke off and began making rune-signs with his fingers, as the small
eyes turned toward him.
But it was not the Huntsman's anger which he had to reckon with, but the
resentment of those who feared to lose a tidbit from their watering
mouths.
"Hold your tongue!" "You know that is an old woman's story--" "For what
purpose should you interfere?" "You are not all of us!" the mouths
growled, while the elbows belonging to them made themselves felt
admonishingly in his ribs.
Erlend spoke with unprecedented severity. "You have no right to show
enmity toward a man who is behaving well toward you. You may take your
choice either to go off by yourself or else sit down and keep quiet like
the rest of us."
Nine times out of ten, Gard would have subsided in sulky submission; but
this was the tenth time. Moving toward the bush whereon his cap and bow
and quiver hung as on a rack, he sent the Huntsman a glance of such
hatred as springs from fear.
"I choose the best company," he said; and gathering up his things, he
slung his ax over his shoulder and slouched away. Those at work in the
clearing refrained from addressing him when they saw the expression of
his swarthy face; and those toiling on the river bank agreed with polite
alacrity when he deigned to growl in passing that the day was unbearably
hot.
It was, moreover, easier to assent to that remark than to deny it. Far
and near, blue water and green land were ablaze with sun. When the Ugly
One had forded the river and plowed through the treeless meadows where
Karlsefne's cattle stood knee-deep in the reed-fringed pools, his linen
clothes were wet on his body; and he gave up a vague plan to spend his
unexpected holiday in fishing.
"There will be fewer chances of the juice drying in my skull if I go to
that wood place where the red berries grow," he decided, and struck
across the grove toward the camp to leave his burden in the booth.
The camp was not so easily entered as of old, for now there rose around
the twelve huts a fence of mighty logs with sharpened tops; and at each
of the three gates there stood a man on guard. Yet neither was the watch
strict enough to justify the precautions of Strong Domar who chanced to
hold this post. With his joyous bellow, he promptly barred the passage
with his spear until the newcomer had answered a catechism that began by
asking his age and ended by demanding a list of the things he had eaten
for breakfast. The Ugly One's patience had run as dry as the Strong
One's power of invention, by the time he was permitted to make his
exasperated entrance. Repulsing a pack of affectionate hounds, he
stamped across the clover-sprinkled grass and would have stamped into
the booth if he had not glimpsed through the open door a figure that had
come to seem, almost as much as Hallad's, to belong to another
world,--the gaunt form of Alrek the Exile, rummaging in the chest which
had been his treasure-box in the days of his prosperity and still
remained reverently untouched. Evidently he had known that at this hour
the booth would be empty, for there was no watchfulness in his ears; he
neither heard nor saw when his comrade stopped on the threshold and
stood gazing at him.
It seemed to Gard that he had never seen so great a change in any one.
From the unkempt brown hair to the black cloak that hung about his heels
in rusty rags, he was as different from what he had been as November
from June. His face showed the change most of all, for no glow of red
was left in the brown, and his eyes were like cinders out of which the
fire had died. From Gard's throat there burst suddenly a dry sob; and
before the Swordless could move, his one-time follower was kneeling
before him, clutching at his tattered cloak.
"Alrek! Come back and let me make it up to you. I can not sleep at night
with thinking what I brought upon you. I beg you to come back!"
When he had stood a while looking down at him, Alrek spoke with
suppressed scorn: "Are you still trying to spend your money and keep it
too? You do not want to bear the burden of your deed, yet you knew when
you slew him that some one must suffer for it----"
"I slay him? I did not! I did not! I only told that lie----"
"So that I repeated it and became also a liar. I would not believe you
though you swore with your hand on the Boar's head. You tried to take
back the weapon which Brand gave, and the Skraelling resisted and you
struck--with my hatchet which you had found where it dropped when I
fell. I tell you I would not believe you though you took oath on the
Cross. Let go my cloak and get away from me. If you had more than a
dog's wit you would know better than to talk of making it up to me; you
would know that I am disgraced forever. Let go my cloak before I kick
you away as I would a dog." Freeing himself, he was gone. Gard reached
the door only in time to see him pass out of the gate, Domar eagerly
saluting; then the forest took him again into its silent keeping.
Thrusting his hands through his belt, the Ugly One leaned against the
casing and spoke heavily to the hound that had left a noonday nap to
come and fawn upon him. "It is likely that we have low minds as he says,
Fafnir.... Yet, for all he says, we are faithful.... We do not lay it up
against a friend if it happen that he ill-use us...." Seeing the
bristles begin suddenly to rise along the hound's spine, he looked up to
find Thorhall the Huntsman swinging past over the grass. He finished
with a sound very like the one coming from the dog's great throat: "And
both of us can tell a foe when we see him!"