“Once,” he said, as if thinking aloud, “I was foolish enough to buy a bag full of wind from a Finn.  He said that it depended on how much I let out what sort of breeze I had.  When he was out of my reach, I found that he had not told me from which quarter the wind would come.  So I hove the thing overboard.  Now I wish I had it.  Any wind is better than this doubt of what may come.”

“Aye,” I said.  “We may be blown back into the arms of old Heidrek.  What say you to taking one of these boats, or fitting out our own with their oars, and so trying to make the coast?  Even Heidrek would pay no heed to a boat.”

“We may have to do that yet,” answered my friend.  “Heidrek is not coming, or he would have sought this ship under oars at once.  That Arnkel must have beaten him soundly—­is that likely?”

“I think so,” I said.  “Every warrior would be in his war gear at that funeral, and it would be a full gathering of the king’s folk.  Now, I wonder how Arnkel explained the making away of the lady to her people.”

“One may think of many lies he could tell.  Men do not heed what goes on behind them when a fight is on hand.  He will say that she fled, or that Heidrek’s men took her—­as the fight may go.  They will search for her, in the first case, and presently think her lost for good.”

“If there is one thing which I should like more than another,” said Dalfin, “it would be to see Arnkel’s face when we take back the lady.”

“So we may—­but not yet.  We must know where Heidrek is.  And we have to wait for wind.  Eh, well!  We had better sleep.  I will take first watch.”

“No, Bertric,” I said; “do you two sleep.  I could not if I tried.”

“Why not?” he asked, with a great yawn.  “I could sleep anywhere at this minute, and Dalfin is as bad.”

“I think that I could not sleep with yonder chief so near me,” I said frankly.

Dalfin laughed, though Bertric did not; but without more ado, they took the sail from the nearest boat and rolled themselves under it on the after deck.  They were asleep in a moment, knowing that I would call them with the first sign of wind, if it came before my watch was ended.  It wanted about an hour to midnight at this time, and the red glow of the sun in the sky was flooding the north.

Now for a long while I paced the deck, thinking of all that had happened in these few days.  Heavy things they were, but the heaviest were those of the summer morning when Heidrek came, so that beside those terrors what else had passed was as nothing.  And I passed through them all again, as it were, and hardened myself to bear them.