CONCERNING A GRIM BARGAIN BETWEEN THE LAWMAN AND ALREK
"And I will seek out Gudrid, whose counsel is good in everything," Alrek
said as he and Erlend rose from the morning meal at the table under the
trees, "if so be you give me leave to be late to the work."
"If so be you need leave from me, you have it for anything you do,"
Erlend answered.
Then the Amiable One and all the Champions not bound to kitchen-posts
took their leisurely way through the cool green forest to the waiting
ship; and Alrek the Swordless turned in the opposite direction and
strolled past the empty tables and groups of trencher-laden thralls
toward Karlsefne's booth.
Before the door-step small Snorri tumbled about in the clover, shouting
lustily for his mother to come and play with him; which seemed to Alrek
so good a reason for expecting her prompt arrival that he troubled
himself to go no further. Stretching his lithe length on the grass, he
changed the cries into laughter by butting the crier over on his back
each time he opened his mouth; and the maneuver was crowned with
immediate success. After a very little time, Gudrid appeared in the
door, a piece of sewing in her hand, inquiry in her blue eyes.
"Oh! That is why he stopped screaming!" she said with an accent of
relief. "So long as he is crying, I know that he is safe. Now you are a
lazy-goer, kinsman, to be lying on the grass when every one else is at
work."
Shaking the clovers from his hair, Alrek sat up,--he would have stood up
if it were not that the Frowner had crept across his feet. "I wait only
to ask your advice, kinswoman, about a way to speak alone with
Karlsefne. For two days I have looked in vain for a chance. I want to
get his justice."
Coming out of the doorway, Gudrid seated herself on the step, and sat
absently stabbing holes in her work with her bronze needle. "Justice is
a heavy weapon to challenge unless you are sure that you stand very
firm on your legs, kinsman," she said at last.
He answered: "I stand very firm," and the sternness of his voice was in
singular contrast to the gentleness of his hand as he stretched it out
to steady the Frowner in his upward progress.
Watching them, Gudrid's pucker of anxiety smoothed into a fond smile.
"Now certainly I know that you are guiltless," she said. "I have only to
see your behavior toward the child to be sure of that." She did not
continue her assurances for Alrek's mouth had curved into amiable
derision.
"Why, that proves nothing," he said.
Gudrid's foot stirred the clovers. "I will give you the satisfaction of
knowing that Karlsefne has made me the same answer. Sometimes it seems
to me that a man's wit is like a bat, which disdains the good daylight
to go about in, but must show its skill by finding its way in the dark!
I can even guess that this very boldness of yours, which causes me to
believe in you, will seem to the Lawman to be but another trick of your
outlaw blood. Remember how they say in Greenland that a seal who tries
to swim against too strong a current has often to turn back and be
caught by the hunters. Kinsman, kinsman"--she put out her hand and
pressed his shoulder--"be very sure of your strength!"
"Yes," he said, and bent his head to touch his lips to her fingers.
More than the words, the rare caress told her that his mood was no light
one; and she warned no more. Rising, she spoke quietly: "I will do the
only thing I can to give you help. Karlsefne is making the round of the
meadows where the men are haying. I did not send his noon-meal with
him--because I did not think it fitting that he should eat old bread,
and the new is not yet out of the oven--but I had the intention to send
it out to him by a thrall. Now if you choose you may carry it, and so
get him apart for your purpose."
"That will serve well, and I give you thanks," Alrek answered.
Nodding, she went swiftly in to hurry the baking; and Alrek arose and
setting the Frowner upon his shoulder paced to and fro in the sunshine
that had settled over the camp like a golden spell, subduing the bustle
of morning activity to a drowsy drone.
Lulled by the hum and the slow motion, Snorri's yellow head began to
nod, swaying and bobbing until it rested heavily upon the brown locks of
his bearer. Gudrid received a bundle of sweet warm limpness in return
for the basket and skin of ale which she finally brought out.
"It is not unlike gathering up a jellyfish," she laughed as she took
him.
But Alrek's smile was faint in response. He had been thinking as he
paced, and the gravity of what he was about to do was full upon him.
"I give you thanks," he said a second time, gently, and left her.
Outside, in the great free world beyond the wall, it seemed to him that
everything was coaxing for a smile. The reach of woodland into which the
grove deepened was alluring with the song of hidden brooks and spicy
with the breath of pines and hospitable with berry thickets, black and
red and blue as the river to which the wood finally gave way. The elms
of the bank flaunted wreathing grape-vines; the rushes at the edge
sported dragon-flies like living jewels,--flashing in the sunlight, the
river itself was one broad smile. Dull anger took possession of him when
he found his spirits too heavy to rise in response.
"It may be that I should become a coward if this went on," he murmured.
"I was not any too quick about making up my mind."
And when, a little further on, he came to a finger of the stream and saw
on one of the mossy stepping-stones a water-snake struggling with a frog
which was only half swallowed, he made no move to release the victim.
"Better to die whole than to live crippled," he told himself grimly, and
kept on his way.
It seemed a very short way now before he came to the broad sunny valley
whose fragrant basin was strewed with ripening hay, which men were
tossing amid jests and laughter as became a crop planted without toil
and raised without care. Spying him, they shouted greetings of
good-humored banter; and he raised his hand mechanically, as his eyes
roved to and fro seeking the blue-clad figure of the Lawman. It formed
no part of the groups scattered over the valley, nor was it anywhere
alone in the open--Ah, yonder it was in the shade of the spreading
willow that rose solitary in the middle of the meadow! A smile twisted
Alrek's lips as he moved forward.
"I wonder," he mused, "if it is a bad omen that I find him ready under a
tree."
At least his luck was good enough so that he found the Lawman alone,
sitting where two rocks made a seat beneath the willow; nor did he turn
away when he saw who it was coming toward him through the sunshine. Over
the fist upon which his bearded chin was resting, he watched the
approach immovably.
When Alrek had come up and saluted him, he answered: "I shall know
better how to receive you when I hear your purpose in taking this
service on yourself."
"Gudrid allowed me to do this that I might speak alone with you," Alrek
made brief explanation.
It seemed that Karlsefne's challenging gaze relaxed a little. "There is
the greatest reason why Gudrid should wish to aid you," he said, "and
scarcely am I out of your debt. I should be glad to hear that your
errand hither is to ask a pardon from my gratefulness."
Sliding the ale-skin to the ground, the boy straightened proudly; but
before he could answer, Karlsefne spoke on, unclenching his hand to pass
it before his eyes:
"As you came toward me, you looked even as your father looked when he
came to the Assembly Plain to hear the judges condemn him for his
crimes; and now as then I hate the deeds and love the doer so that the
two feelings are like two fires raging within me." Taking away his hand
he showed the stern beauty of his face aglow with feeling, as some lofty
rock under the touch of a red Northern light. "I beg of you to throw
yourself upon my mercy. Defiance has gathered like drift-ice in your
breast, shutting out all that would come through to bring you good.
Break from it before it shuts you in forever. I beg of you to yield and
give me the joy of trusting you again."
Ending, his deep voice held a note of yearning love that made the boy's
heart swell strangely in his breast. He had to speak hardly and shortly
in order to be able to speak at all.
"Hard is it to know how to answer, for you offer me what I do not need.
I came here to get your justice. If I broke your order, I deserve an
evil death; if I did not, it is my right to live unshamed. If you know
that it is I who slew the Skraelling, I ask you to have me placed
against this tree and shot."
As a Northern light fades from a rock and leaves no warmth behind, so
the glow faded from the Lawman's face. "Do you like it so well to die?"
he asked.
"Sooner would I die than live as I have lived since your doom," Alrek
answered.
Silence settled heavily upon them. When a great fly boomed out of the
sunlit space and hung for a wink of time at the boy's ear, the sound
seemed thunder-loud. But at last the Lawman spoke, his voice as hard as
clanging iron:
"Not many men would go so far as to deal with me by force and
overbearing, but you play the game as well as is to be expected of your
father's son. Though I am sure of your guilt, you are right in believing
that I am not sure enough to take your life when you lay it in my hand.
And since it is proved that I am not sure, I may not punish you at all.
It is well played. There are two choices before you,--the one is to let
matters stand as they are now, so that your life is safe and the future
is yours to redeem your credit in; the other is to get back your honors
as you demand, with the condition that if ever this case comes again
before my high-seat and so much as a feather's weight more of evidence
is given against you, I shall declare your life to be forfeit."
The long safe way is seldom the way of youth; one must have traveled far
and fallen often to make that choice. The young Viking answered without
hesitation: "I will take my honors and the risk."
Rising, the Lawman made him a chief's salute. "So be it," he said.
"To-night in the hall, even as I took them from you, I will give them
back before all eyes. In this and whatever follows, it shall be as you
have chosen." He lifted his hand as the boy would have thanked him.
In obedience to the gesture, the Chief of the Champions halted and bowed
before him in silence; but his brown head was carried high when he
walked away, and his eyes were two radiant suns of hope.