MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Middling wise
Should every man be,
Never too wise;
Happiest live
Those men
Who know many things well.
Ha'vama'l
They must have missed a great deal of enjoyment, to whom a new world
meant only a new source of gold and slaves. To these men from the frozen
north, the new world was an earthly paradise. A long clear day under a
warm sun was alone a gift to be thankful for. To plunge unstinted hands
into the hoarded wealth of ages, to be the first to hunt in a
game-stocked forest and the first to cast hook in a fish-teeming
river,--to have the first skimming of nature's cream-pans, as it
were,--was a delight so keen that, saving war and love, they could
imagine nothing to equal it. Like children upon honey, they fell upon
the gift that had tumbled latest out of nature's horn of plenty, and
swept through the vineyard in a devastating army. Snuffing the sweet
scent of the sun-heated grapes, they ate and sang and jested as they
gathered, in the most innocent carousal of their lives. Shouting and
singing, they brought in their burdens at night,--litters of purple
slain that bent even their stout backs. The roofs were covered with the
drying fruit, which was to be doctored into raisins, and cask after cask
of sour tangy wine was rolled into the provision shed beside the
garnered grain.
"The King of Norway does not live better than this," they congratulated
each other. "We have found the way into the provision house of the
world."
Their delight knew no bounds when they found that the arrival of winter
would not interfere with sport. Winter at Brattahlid meant icebergs and
blizzards, weeks of unbroken twilight and days of idling within doors.
Winter in this new land,--why, it was not winter at all!
"It is nothing worse than a second autumn," Helga said, wonderingly.
"They have patched on a second autumn to reach till spring."
The woods continued to be full of game, and the grass on the plains
remained almost unwithered. There was only enough frost in the air to
make breathing it a tonic, a tingling delight. Not even a crust formed
over the placid bay; and the waters of the river went leaping and
dancing through the sunshine in airy defiance of the ice-king's fetters.
On the last day of December, autumn employments were still in full
swing. The last rays that the setting sun sent to the bay through the
leafless branches, fell upon a group of fishermen returning with a load
of shining fish hanging from their spears. From the grove came the
ringing music of axes, the rending shriek of a doomed tree, the
crackling, crashing thunder of its fall. Down at the foot of the bluff a
boat was thrusting its snout into the soft bank, that an exploring party
might land after a three days' journey along the winding highway of the
river.
In the bow stood the chief, and behind him were Sigurd Haraldsson and
Rolf; and behind them, Robert the Norman.
With a great racket of joyous hallooing for the benefit of their
camp-mates, the crew leaped ashore. While some stayed to load themselves
with the skins and game stowed under the seats, the rest began to climb
the trail, laughing and talking noisily.
Sigurd leaped along between Rolf and the Norman, a hand on the shoulder
of each, shaking them when their sentiments were unsatisfactory.
"How long am I to wait for you to have a free half-day?" he demanded of
his friend from Normandy. "It was over a week before we left that I
found those bear tracks, and still am I putting off the sport that you
may have a share in it. Is it Leif's intention to keep you dangling at
his heels forever, like a tassel on an apron? Certainly he cannot think
that there is danger of your talking love to Helga while you are
fighting bears."
"Though once I would have said that wooing a shield-maiden was a very
similar sport," Rolf added, pleasantly.
Whereupon Sigurd shook them both, with an energy that sent all three
sprawling on their faces, to the huge amusement of those who came after.
They scrambled to their feet in front of a tall sumach bush that grew
half-way up the slope. Alwin's eyes fell upon a narrow ledge-like path
that showed plainly between the bare branches, and he nodded toward it
with a smile.
"Missing bear-fights is certainly undesirable," he said. "But it was not
long ago--and on this same bank--that I anticipated a worse fate than
that."
"Nevertheless, I have never seen so much service exacted from a king's
page," Sigurd growled, as he bent to brush the dirt from his knees.
But Rolf shook his head with quiet decision.
"One need never tell me that it is only to keep you from saying fine
things to Helga that the chief demands your constant presence. It is
because he has come to take comfort in your superior intelligence, and
to value your attendance above ours. There, he is calling you now! I
foretell that you will not fight bears to-morrow either." He gave the
broad back a hearty slap that was at the same time a friendly shove
forward.
The chief's voice had even taken on an impatient accent by the time the
young squire reached his side.
"I should like much to know what is the cause of your deafness! Are you
dead or moonstruck that I must shout twenty times before you answer? If
your wits go sleep-walking, then may we as well give up, for I have
depended upon them as upon crutches. I want you to keep it in mind for
me that it is after the river's second bend to the right, but its fourth
bend to the left, that the trees stand which I wish to mark. And the
spring--the spring is--"
"And the spring is beyond the third turning to the right," the young man
finished readily. "The chief need give himself no uneasiness. It is
written on my brain as on parchment."
Leif turned from him with something like an angry sigh.
"It needs to be more than written," he said. "It needs to be carved as
with knives."
On the crest of the bluff he paused suddenly to shake his fists in a
passion of impotence.
"A man who has no more than a trained body is of less account than a
beast!" he cried. "My brain is near bursting with the details which I
have sought to remember concerning these discoveries, and yet what
assurance have I that I have got even half of them correct? That I have
not remembered what was of least importance, and confused this place
with that, and garbled it all so that the next man who comes after me
shall call me a liar and laugh at my pretensions? And even though I
relate every fact as truly as the Holy Book itself, what will there be
left of it by the time it has passed through a hundred sottish brains in
Greenland yonder? I tell you, this stained rag of a cloak I wear is
nearer to what it was first, than that tale will be after swinish mouths
have chewed upon it a day. It is the curse of the old gods upon the
heathen. And I fling my curse back at them, for the chains they have
hung upon my free hands and the beast-dumbness with which they have
gagged my man's mouth."
In an abandonment of fury, he shook both fists high over his head at the
scattered star faces that were peering out of the pale sky.
Not till he had turned and stamped away over the snapping twigs, did his
men come out of their trance of bewilderment.
As they resumed their climbing, Eyvind the Ice-lander observed sagely,
"Never saw I any one whose speech reminded me so strongly of the hot
springs we have at home. All of a sudden, without warning or cause, the
words shoot up into the air, boiling hot; and it would be as much as
one's life is worth to try to stop them. It is incomprehensible."
Passing amused comments, they gained the crest and vanished over it,
without noticing that the Norman still stood where the chief had left
him, with every appearance of being equally bereft of his senses.
With parted lips, and hands nervously opening and shutting by his side,
he stood staring away into the dusk before him, until the voices of
those who were coming after with the spoils fell on his ear and aroused
him. Then he raised to the stars a face that was fairly convulsed with
excitement, and took the rest of the climb in three wild leaps.
"It is open to my sight at last!" he muttered over and over, as he
hurried through the darkness toward the lighted booths. "Heaven be
thanked, it is open to my sight at last!"
As he reached the end of the largest hut and was turning the corner in
eager haste, an arm reached quickly out of the shadow and touched his
cloak. Instinctively his hand went to his knife; but it fell away the
next instant in a very different gesture, as Helga's voice whispered in
his ear:
"Alwin,--it is I! I have waited for you since the first noise of the
landing. I have a--hush, you must not do that! I have need of my lips to
speak with No, no! Listen; I wish to warn you--"
"And I must tell you what has just occurred." Alwin's excitement bore
down her caution. "I have guessed the riddle of what my service is to
be,--or, to tell it truthfully, luck has guessed it for me, owl that I
am! Here has it--"
But Helga's hand fell softly over his mouth. "Dumb as well as blind
shall you be, till I have finished! Already I have stayed out long
enough to excite suspicion. Listen to my warning; Kark suspects that
your complexion is shallow. Yesterday I overheard him put the question
to Tyrker, whether or not it were possible that a paint could color a
man's skin dark so that it would not wear off."
"Devil take the--"
"Hush, that is not all! I have never thought it worth while to tell you,
in the few words we have had together; but now I know that the creature
has suspected us ever since the day when Leif came upon us on the bluff.
The day after that, Kark dared to say to me, 'Is a shield-maiden as
fickle as other women, for all her steel shirt? In Greenland, Helga,
Gilli's daughter, loved an Englishman.' I beat him soundly for it, yet I
could not uproot the thought from his mind; and now--"
"And now I tell you that it is of no consequence what he thinks," Alwin
interrupted her, eagerly. "I have to-night found out a means by which I
am as certain to win favor as--"
But he could not finish. Crackling steps in the grove behind them made
Helga spring away from him like a startled bird. He had only time to
whisper after her, "To-night,--watch me across the fire!" before she had
vanished among the shadows, like one of them.
After a moment the young man went his way around the corner of the cabin
and came in through the open doorway, where his companions sat at
supper.
The hall, which was also the larger of the sleeping-houses, was not an
unworthy off-shoot of the splendors of Brattahlid. Here, as there, the
rough walls were lined with gleaming weapons and shields that shone like
suns in the ruddy glow of the fire. And in lieu of tapestries, there was
a noble medley of bears' claws, fish nets, glistening birds' wings,
drying hides, branching antlers, and squirrels' tails. The bunk-like
beds, built against the walls, displayed a fortune in the skin covers
that were spread over them; fox skins covered the benches, and wolf
skins lay under foot. The chief's seat no longer boasted carven pillars
or embroidered pillows, but it missed none of these when the great bear
skin had been flung over the cushions of fragrant pine-needles. And if
the table-service was not so fine as the gilded vessels on Eric's board,
yet the fish and flesh and fowl that piled the trenchers, and the purple
juice that brimmed the horns, had never been equalled in Greenland.
"Only to get such wine, the journey would be worth while," Rolf murmured
to the shield-maiden, beside whom he sat, when at last the business of
eating was over and the pleasure of drinking had begun. As he spoke he
tilted his head back, with closed eyes and a beatific smile, and let the
contents of his horn run slowly down his throat.
Even a woman might have had the sense to leave him undisturbed at such a
moment; yet Helga bent forward and jogged his arm without compunction.
"Are you going to be forever swallowing?" she whispered, sharply. "Look
across the fire and tell me what Alwin is doing with his hands. He has
turned aside so that I cannot see."
It was with a distinct bang that the Wrestler set down his empty cup,
and in a distinct snarl that his answer came over his shoulder. "Not a
few men have been slain for such rudeness as that. Why should I care
what the Norman is doing? Is it a time to be riding horseback or
catching fish? Since there is no babbling woman at his elbow, it is
likely that he is drinking."
But Helga's hand did not loosen its hold upon his arm.
"Hush!" she entreated him. "Something really is going to happen; he
warned me of it. Something of great importance. You will act with no
more than good will if you look and tell me what you see."
Excitement is infectious; even through his sulks Rolf caught it, and
leaning forward, he peered curiously over the flames. The Norman sat in
his usual place at the chief's left hand. It was evident that his
thoughts were far away, for his drinking-horn stood forgotten at his
elbow and he was humming absently as he worked. His fingers were busy
with a long splinter and a tuft of fox-hairs, that he was pulling
carefully from the rug on which he sat.
Rolf's eyes widened into positive alarm as he watched. "He has the
appearance of a crazy man!" he reported. "Or it may be that he is making
a charm and that is the weird song which he is mumbling. See,--he has
finally drawn Leif's attention upon him!"
"He is not acting without a purpose," Helga persisted. "He told me to
watch him. Look! What is he doing now?"
Still humming, and with the leisurely air of one who works to please
himself alone, the Norman completed his task and held the result up
critically to the light. It was nothing more nor less than a clumsy
little fox-hair brush. Leaning back on the bear skin the chief continued
to gaze at it curiously. But the pair across the fire suddenly turned to
each other with a gasp of comprehension.
The Norman, still humming carelessly, drew his horn nearer with one
hand, and with the other pushed a bowl out of his way. Then dipping his
brush in the purple wine, he began to paint strange-looking runes on the
fair new boards before him.
"It has come to my mind to try whether I can remember the words of that
French song which we heard together in Rouen," he said lightly to Sigurd
Haraldsson who sat by him. "Was it not thus that the first line ran?"
Almost with the weight of a blow, Leif's hand fell upon his shoulder.
"Runes!" he cried, in a voice that brought every man to his feet, even
those who had fallen asleep over their drinking. "Runes? Is it possible
that you have the accomplishment of writing them?"
His hold upon the shoulder tightened, of a sudden, to such a pressure
that the young man was fain to drop his brush with a gasp of agony, and
catch at the crushing hand. "You have had this power all these months
that you have known of my great need? How comes it that you have never
put forth a hand to help me?" he thundered.
Across the fire, Helga, Gilli's daughter, held herself down upon the
bench with both hands. But though his lips were twisted with pain, the
rune-writer met Leif's gaze unflinchingly.
"Help you, chief?" he repeated, wonderingly. "How was I to know that
Norman writing would be of assistance to you? When did you ever tell me
of your need?"
Though his gaze continued to hold the Norman for awhile, Leif's grip on
his shoulder slowly relaxed. Then, gradually, his eyes also loosened
their hold. Finally he burst into a loud laugh and slapped him on the
back.
"By the edge of my sword, your wit is as nimble as a rabbit!" he swore.
"I cannot blame you for this. At least you lost little time in coming to
my support as soon as I had told my need. By the Mass, Robert Sans-Peur,
you could not have brought your accomplishment to a better market! I
tell you frankly that it is of more value to me than any warrior's skill
in the world, and I am not too stingy to pay what it is worth."
Unclasping the gold chain from his neck, he threw it over the Norman's
head.
"Take this to begin with, Robert of Normandy," he said, with grave
courtesy. "And I promise you that, if your help proves to be as great as
I expect, there will be little that you can ask that I shall not be glad
to give."
Decked in the shining gold of his triumph, the masquerading thrall stood
with bent head, a look that was almost shame-stricken stealing over his
face. But it is probable that the chief feared that he meditated another
attempt at hand kissing, for that brusque commander began to speak
quickly and curtly of purely unsentimental matters.
"I have none of the kid-skin of which your Southern books are made. Yet
will not a roll of fresh white vadmal offer a fair substitute? And
certainly there is enough wine--"
There certainly was enough, and more; yet at this suggestion an
indignant murmur could not be suppressed.
"Though I never dispute your wisdom in anything, that appears to me to
be little better than desecration," Valbrand declared, frankly.
With an effort the Norman roused himself. "It will not be necessary," he
said, absently. "I know how to make a liquid out of barks that will have
a dark color and suffer no damage from water."
He did not notice the expression that flared up in Kark's eyes; nor did
he hear Helga's gasp, nor feel Sigurd's foot. His gaze fell again to the
floor in moody abstraction.
The chief answered briefly to the murmurs: "It is unadvisable to oppose
my whim for writing in wine; who knows but I might exchange it for a
fancy to write in blood? Bring hither the vadmal, thrall, and we will
lose no more precious moments."
Was ever monkish work begun in more unchurch-like surroundings? Alwin
wondered, a festal board for a desk and a wine-cup for an ink-horn! The
brawling crew along the benches drank and sang and rattled dice in their
nightly carousal; and, in a corner, Lodin wrestled with the well-grown
bear-cub before a circle of cheering spectators. The firelight flickered
over the trophy-laden walls, picking out now a severed paw and now a
grinning skull, until the whole place seemed a ghastly shrine of
savagery.
The warrior-scribe wrote with painful slowness; and more than once, in
trying to catch some of Helga's chatter across the fire, he wrote such
twisted sentences that it was impossible to unravel them when he came to
retranslate. Yet he did write. Ploddingly, haltingly, clumsily, he still
caught the fleeting thoughts as they sped, and fastened them down, in
purple and white, to last so long as one thread should lie beside
another. No longer need anyone torture his brain to remember whether the
tallest maple-trees stood beyond the river's second bend to the left or
its fourth to the right, or between the third turning to the right and
the fifth to the left. The little fox-hair brush sprang upon the fact
and pinioned it, a prisoner for the remainder of time.
The chief's pleasure was almost too great to be controlled. He went at
the work as a starving man goes at food, and he hung over it as a
drunkard hangs over his dram. Tyrker rose with considerable bustle to
take his departure for the other house; and Vaibrand stamped about
noisily as he renewed the torches on the walls; but the monotonous
steadiness of the dictation never faltered. One by one, the men about
Leif dropped off, snoring; and he heeded it no more than he did the
soughing of the wind through the grove. By and by, even the fresh
torches began to snore, in angry sputters; and the fire, which had long
since begun to wink drowsily, shut its last red eye and lay in total
oblivion.
Leif sat up reluctantly, and stretched his arms over his head with a
regretful sigh. "My mind comes out of it as stubbornly as Sigmund's
sword came out of the tree trunk. We will return to it the first thing
in the morning. You have done me a service which I shall never forget
while my mind lives in me."
Leaning back against the bear skin to stretch his arms again and yawn,
he added thoughtfully, "Your accomplishments have remedied my misfortune
that last winter I was obliged to kill a youth who was of great value to
me."
The scribe sat thrusting his legs out before him and working the fingers
of his cramped hand, in a stupor of weariness. He awoke suddenly and,
through the flickering light of the one remaining torch, shot a stealthy
glance at the chief's face.
After a while he said carelessly, "Obliged, chief? How came that? Could
not his value outweigh his crime?"
Smothering a yawn, Leif rose to his feet and stood looking down at his
follower, while he buckled his cloak around him. "Yes," he said, slowly;
"yes, his value might have outweighed his crime,--but not his deceit. It
was not only because he broke my strictest orders that I slew him; it
was because, while pretending to submit to me, he was in truth scheming
to get the better of me. And because he and his hot-headed friend,
Sigurd Haraldsson, had the ambition to penetrate the state of my
feelings and handle me as you handle your writing-brush there. Is it to
be expected that a man would take it well to be fooled by a pair of
boys?"
The Norman sat for a long time staring at a huge furry skin that hung on
the wall in front of him. It shook sometimes in the draught; and when
the light flickered over it, it looked like some quivering shapeless
animal, crouching to spring upon him out of the shadow. After a while,
he laughed harshly.
"If he was simple enough to expect that he could play with you and then
survive the discovery of his trick, he deserved to die, for nothing more
than his folly," he said, bitterly.
He straightened himself suddenly and drew a long breath as though to
speak further. But at that moment the chief turned and left the booth.
While the Southerner stood looking after him, a sound like a smothered
laugh came from the corner where Kark slept. Alwin wheeled toward it;
but before he could take a step, Rolf's arm stretched out from his bunk
by the high seat and caught his friend's belt in a vise.
"It is unnecessary to soil your hands with snake's blood, just now," he
said, gently. "Besides serpent's fangs, the thrall has also serpent's
cunning in his ugly head. He knows that Leif will not, for any reason
tongue can name, injure the man who is writing down his history. Wait
until the records are finished; then it will be time to act."
He pulled his comrade down on the bunk beside him, and held him there
until the sleep of utter weariness had taken him into its safe-keeping.