THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG
He is happy
Who gets for himself
Praise and good-will.
Ha'vama'l
It was a picture of sylvan revelry that the sunset light reddened, as it
bade farewell to the Norse camp on the river bluff. On the green before
the huts, two of the fair-haired were striving against other in a
rousing tug-of-war. Now the hide was stretched motionless between them;
now it was drawn a foot to the right, amid a volley of jeers; and now it
was jerked back a foot to the left, with an answering chorus of cheers.
The chief sat under the spreading maple-tree, watching the sport
critically, with an occasional gesture of applause. Over the head of the
bear-cub she was fondling, Helga watched it also, with unseeing eyes.
Those who had come in from hunting and fishing sprawled at their ease on
the turf, and shouted jovial comments over their wine-cups.
They welcomed Rolf and the Norman with a shout, when the pair appeared
on the edge of the grove.
"Hail, comrades!"--"It was in our minds to give you up for lost!" "Your
coming we will take as an omen that Kark will also return some
time."--"Yes, return and cook us some food."--"We are becoming hollow as
bubbles."
Rolf accepted their greetings with an easy flourish.
"You will become also as thin as bubbles if you wait for Kark to cook
your food," he answered, lightly. "I bring the chief the bad tidings
that he has lost his thrall." Pushing his companion gently aside, he
walked over to where the Lucky One sat. "It will sound like an old
woman's tale to you, chief," he warned him; "yet this is nothing but the
truth."
While the skin-pullers abandoned their contest and dropped cross-legged
upon the hide to listen, and the outlying circle picked up its drinking
horns and crept closer, he related the whole experience, simply and
quite truthfully, from beginning to end.
From all sides, exclamations of amazement and horror broke out when he
had finished. Only the chief sat regarding him in silence, a skeptical
pucker lifting the corner of his mouth.
Leif said finally, "Truth came from your mouth when you foretold that
this would appear to me as strange as the tales old women tell. Until
within the last month we have passed through that district almost daily;
and never yet have we found aught betokening the presence of human
beings. That they should thus appear to you--"
"They came like the monsters in a dream, and vanished like them," Rolf
declared.
"Saving in the fact that dream monsters do not leave mangled bodies
behind them," Leif reminded him; and his eyes narrowed with an
unpleasant shrewdness. "Rolf Erlingsson," he advised, "confess that they
are the dreams you liken them to. That Kark was no favorite with you or
your friend"--he nodded toward the Norman--"was seen by everybody.
Confess that it was by the sword of one of you that the thrall met his
death."
For once the Wrestler's face lost its gentleness. His huge frame
stiffened haughtily, as he drew himself up.
"Leif Ericsson," he returned, fiercely, "when--for love of good or fear
of ill--have you ever known me to lie?"
The chief looked at him incredulously.
"You will swear to the truth of the tale?"
"I will swear to its truth by my knife, by my soul, by the crucifix you
wear on your breast."
After a moment, Leif arose and extended his hand. "In that case, I would
believe a statement that was twice as unlikely," he said, with honorable
frankness. And a sound of applause went around as their hands clasped.
From the spot where the Norman had halted when his companion pushed
forward, there came the rustle of a slight disturbance. Sigurd had
caught his friend by his cloak and was pleading with him in a passionate
undertone, growing more and more desperate at each resolute shake of the
black head. The instant Leif resumed his seat, the Fearless One wrenched
himself free and strode forward. Rolf strove to bar his way, but Robert
Sans-Peur evaded him also, and took up his stand before the bench under
the maple-tree.
"The Fates appear to be balancing their scales to-night, chief," he
said, grimly. "For the dead man whom you believed to be alive, you see
here a living man whom you thought to be dead. For the thrall that you
have lost, I present to you another."
Winding his hand in his long black locks, he tore them from his head and
revealed the crisp waves of his own fair hair.
From either hand there arose a buzz of amazement and incredulity mingled
with grunts of approval and blunt compliments and half-muttered pleas
for leniency. Only two persons neither exclaimed nor moved. Helga stood
in the rigid tearless silence she had promised, her eyes pouring into
her lover's eyes all the courage and loyalty and love of her brave soul.
And the chief sat gazing at the rebel brought back to life, without so
much as a wink of surprise, without any expression whatever upon his
inscrutable face.
After a moment Alwin went on steadily, "I hid myself under this disguise
because I believed that luck might grant me the chance to render you
some service which should outweigh my offence. Because I was a
short-sighted fool, I did not see that the better the Norman succeeded,
the worse became the Saxon's deceit. My mind changed when your own lips
told me what would be the fate of the man who should deceive you."
The chief's face was as impassive as stone, but he nodded slightly.
"A man of my age does not take it well to be fooled by boys," he said.
"It is a poor compliment to his intelligence, when they have the opinion
that they can mould him between their fingers. Though he had rendered me
the greatest service in the world, the man who should deceive me should
die."
Silence fell like a shroud upon the scattered groups. With a queer
little smile upon her drawn lips, Helga softly unsheathed her dagger and
ran her fingers along its edge. Alwln, earl's son, drew a long breath,
and the muscles of his white face twitched a little; then he pulled
himself together resolutely. With one hand he plucked the knife from his
belt and cast it into the chief's lap; with the other, he tore his tunic
open from neck to belt.
"I have asked no mercy," he said, proudly.
Leif made no motion to pick up the weapon. Instead, a glint of something
like dry humor touched his keen eyes.
"No," he said, quietly. "You have asked nothing of what you should have
asked. You have even failed to ask whether or not you have deceived me."
With her dagger half drawn, Helga paused to stare at him.
"You--knew--?" she gasped.
Leif smiled a dry fine smile. "I have known since the day on which
Tyrker was lost," he said. "And I had suspected the truth since the
night of the day upon which we sailed from Greenland."
He made a gesture toward the shield-maiden that was half mocking and
half stern. "You showed little honor to my judgment, kinswoman, when you
took it for granted I should not know that love alone could cause a
woman to behave as you have done. Or did you think I had not heard to
whom your heart had been given? That my ears only had been dead to the
love tale which every servant-maid in Brattahlid rolled like honey on
her tongue? Or did you imagine that I knew you so little as to think you
capable of loving one man in the winter and another in the spring? Even
had the Norman borne no resemblance to the Englishman, still would I--"
"But..." Helga stammered, "but--I thought that you thought--Rolf said
that Sigurd--"
For perhaps the first time in his life, Rolf's cheeks burned with
mortification as a derisive snap of the chief's fingers fell upon his
ear.
"Sigurd! Your playmate! With whom you have quarrelled and made up since
there were teeth in your head! By Peter, if it were not that the joke
appears to lie wholly on my side, I could find it in my heart to punish
the four of you without mercy, for no other crime than your opinion of
my intelligence!"
Alwin took a hesitating step forward. He had been standing where his
first defiance had left him, a light of comprehension dawning in his
face; and also a spark of resentment kindling in his eyes.
Now he said slowly, "It is not your anger which appears strange to us,
chief. It is the slowness of your justice. That knowing all this time of
our deceit, you have yet remained quiet. That you have allowed us to
live in dreams, and led us on to behave ourselves like fools! We have
been no better than mice under the cat's paw." He glanced at Helga's
thin cheeks and the pain-lines around her mouth, and the full force of
his indignation rang out in his voice. "To us it meant life or death,
heaven or hell,--was it worthy of a man like you to find amusement in
our suffering?"
Though it was as faint as the rustling of leaves, unmistakable applause
swept around. Rolf dared to clap his hands softly.
The chief replied by a direct question, as he leaned back against the
maple and eyed his young rebel piercingly. "Befooling and bejuggling
were the drinks you prepared for me; was it not just that you should
learn from experience how sour a taste they leave in the mouth?"
Though moment after moment dragged by, Alwin did not answer that. His
eyes fell to the ground, and he stood with bent head and clenched hands.
The chief went on. "You who could so easily fathom the workings of my
mind, should have no need to ask my motives. It may be that I found
entertainment in playing you like a fish on a line. Or it may be that I
was not altogether sure of my ground, and waited to be certain before I
stepped. Or perhaps I was curious to see what you would do next, and
felt able to gratify my curiosity since I knew that, through all your
antics, I held you securely in the hollow of my hand. Or perhaps--" Leif
hesitated for an instant, and there crept into his voice a note so
unusual that all stared at him,--"or perhaps, in becoming sure of my
ground, I became uncertain of the honor of the man whom I wished to
place highest in my friendship, and so deemed it wisest to remain under
cover until he should reveal all the hidden parts of his nature. It may
have been for any or all of these reasons. You, who have come nearer to
me than any man alive, should have no difficulty in selecting the true
one."
Was it possible that reproach rang in those last words? It sounded so
strangely like it, that Tyrker involuntarily curved his hand around his
ear to amend some flaw in his hearing.
Alwin's face underwent a great change. Suddenly he flung his arms apart
in a gesture of utter surrender.
"I will strive against you no longer!" he cried, passionately. "You are
as much superior to me as the King to his link-boy. Do as you like with
me. I submit to you in everything." He fell upon his knee and hid his
face in his hands.
Then the tone of Leif's voice became so frankly friendly that Helga's
beautiful head was raised as a drooping flower's by the soft spring
rain.
"Already you have heard your sentence. The fair words I spoke to Robert
the Norman I spoke also to Alwin of England. When I promised wealth and
friendship and honor to Robert Sans-Peur, I promised them also to you.
Take the freedom and dignity which befit a man of your accomplishments
and--with one exception--ask of me anything else you choose."
With one exception! Helga sprang forward and caught Leif's hand
imploringly in hers. And Alwin, still upon his knee, reached out and
grasped the chief's mantle.
"Lord," he cried, "you have been better to me, a hundredfold better,
than I deserve! Yet, would you be kinder still... Lord, grant me this
one boon, and take back all else that you have promised."
The chief's brawny hand touched Helga's face caressingly.
"Do you still believe that I would rub salt on your wounds, if it were
in my power to relieve you?" he reproached them. "But one man in the
world has the right to say where Helga shall be given in marriage; he is
her father, Gilli of Trondhjem. Already I have done him a wrong in
permitting, by my carelessness, that one of thrall-estate should steal
his daughter's love. In honor, I can do no less than guard the maiden
safely until the time when he can dispose of her as pleases him. I do
not say that I will not use with him what influence I possess; yet I
advise you against expecting anything favorable from the result. I think
you both know his mercy."