“Fire were better,” said Ketill, shaking his head.

The day was still young when the council of war came to an end, and as they had more than sufficient time to reach the hall of Liot before night, the bows were turned to the open sea, that they might better escape observation.  Once they had got some miles from land they turned southwards, and striking the sail, to make as little mark as they could, moved slowly under oars alone.  All day the long ship rolled in a great ground-swell, the western cliffs of Orkney now hidden by a wall of water, and now glinting in the sunshine as they rose from trough to crest, and right ahead the distant Scottish coast drawing gradually nearer.  As the afternoon wore on they turned landwards again, and towards evening found themselves coasting a mountainous island lying to the south of Hrossey.

“What do men call this?” asked Helgi.

“They call it Haey, the high island, and it is on a bay to the south of it that Liot Skulison dwells,” answered Grim, their pilot for the time.

They drew closer and closer to the land, until a towering line of cliffs rose for more than a thousand feet right above their heads.  It was a stern and sombre coast, unbroken by any bays or inland glimpses, and gloomy and terrible in the fading light.  The great oily swell broke into spouts of foam at the cliff-foot, and all along the face of the precipice they could see innumerable sea-fowl clinging to the rock.

Gradually, as they sailed along this hostile land, a light sea-fog began to gather.  The leaders of the hazardous expedition watched it closing in upon them with growing apprehension.

“What say you, Grim?” said Helgi; “can you take us to Liot in this mist?”

Grim looked round him doubtfully.

“Methinks I can take you there,” he said, “but I fear we shall be too late, we can move but slowly; and with only seventy men, I doubt we shall do little when the men of Liot have left the feast.”

Estein had been standing in silence near the tiller.  At these words he turned and cried fiercely,—­

“Who talks of doing little?  Liot or I shall fall to-night, though the blackness of death were round us.  Think you I have come to sit here idly in a fog?  Tell your men to row like valiant Vikings, Ketill, and not like timorous women.”

The respect due to rank in Norway was little more than the proud Norseman chose to pay, and it was with small deference to his prince that Ketill answered,—­

“You are fey, I think, Estein.  I shall not lose my ship that you may the sooner feed the fishes.”

“Are you, too, afraid?  By the hammer of Thor!  I think you are in league with Liot.  I shall make these cravens row.”

“That you will not,” replied Ketill.

In an instant both swords were half-drawn.  The men within earshot were too much surprised at this sudden change from Estein’s usual manner to his followers to do more than look in astonishment at the dispute, and in another instant the blades would have clashed, when Helgi rushed between them.