Then the chief said, “Little cargo have you,
friend Grim, and therefore I am the more sure that
you have store of money with you. Even flight
from Hodulf would not prevent you from taking that
wherewith to trade. So I must have it; and it
rests with you whether we tear your ship to splinters
in hunting for your hiding place or not.”
“I suppose there is no help for it, but I will
say that the most of what I have is not mine,”
said my father.
“Why, what matter? When one gives gold
into the hands of a seafarer, one has to reckon with
such chances as this. You must needs hand it over.”
So, as there was naught else to do, Grim brought out
the jarl’s heavy bag, and gave it to the chief,
who whistled to himself as he hefted it.
“Grim,” he said, “for half this
I would have let you go without sending a man on board.
What is this foolishness? You must have known
that.”
“The gold is not mine,” my father answered;
“it was my hope that you would have been content
with the cargo.”
“Well, I have met with an honest man for once,”
the Viking said; and he called his men, and they cast
off and left us.
But we were in no happy plight when he had gone away
to the eastward on his old course. Half our men
were gone, for the wounded were of no use, and the
loss of the queen weighed heavily on us. And before
long it began to blow hard from the north, and we
had to shorten sail before there was real need, lest
it should be too much for us few presently, as it
certainly would have been by the time that darkness
fell, for the gale strengthened.
Then, added to all this, there was trouble in the
cabin under the after deck, for since his mother was
lost, Havelok had spoken no word. I had brought
him down to my mother from the deck, and had left him
with her, hoping that he did not know what had happened;
but now he was in a high fever, and sorely ill.
Perhaps he would have been so in any case, after the
long days of Hodulf’s cruelty, but he had borne
them well. A child is apt, however, to give up,
as it were, suddenly.
So, burdened with trouble, we drove before the gale,
and the only pleasant thing was to see how the good
ship behaved in it, while at least we were on our
course all the time. Therefore, one could not
say that there was any danger; and but for these other
things, none would have thought much of wind or sea,
which were no worse than we had weathered many a time
before. We had sea room, and no lee shore to fear,
and the ship was stanch, and no sailor can ask for
more than that.
