Thoralf would have us bide on board, letting Phelim stand on the bows and hail the shore.  But that would have made trouble at once, for he would have been thought to be a captive.  Then Earl Osric said that we might as well wait until we must, but Hakon and I and Phelim thought it easier to deal with the few men here than to wait until the rest returned, most likely flushed with the victory their numbers must needs give them.  So in the end the small quarterboat was got over the side away from the village, and we took our place.  Phelim was in the bows, and I set my helm at my feet, and had a dark cloak over my mail.

I pulled away from the ship and came round her stern in a wide sweep, in order not to seem at once as if we came from her.  Then we went swiftly to the beach, and Phelim stood in the bows and signed to the men who stood along it.  They saw what he was, and ran together to meet him, ceasing their cries to hear him.  But I was not going to run more risk than I could help.  So soon as we were twenty yards from the beach, I stopped pulling, and bade Phelim say his say.

He told them what was needful, and they growled at first, as if they could not believe him.  Then he pointed to Fergus, who could be seen on board the ship, and they grew more satisfied.  At last he told them that they must fetch Dalfin the Prince as soon as possible, for that we of the ship, or some of us, were those who had brought him back.  And at last he told how there was a queen on board who had avenged the death of Dubhtach of the Spearshafts, and given back the torque which was lost.

That was all they needed to hear, for the torque had been seen, and word had passed round concerning it.  The black looks faded, and there was naught but friendliness thereafter.  Phelim asked for some leader, and a man stepped forward, and so took messages for Dalfin, and went across the green and up the lane with its terrible token of the fighting, that he might give them as soon as it was possible.  Then we rowed back slowly, for it was not worthwhile to go ashore.

“Thanks,” said Hakon, meeting us at the gangway.  “That is well done.  I will own that we had nearly run ourselves into a trap, and you have taken a load off my mind.”

“No need to have stayed here,” said Thoralf.

“Nay, but I want that ship, and now I think we may get her.  I did but stay to see if it might be done.”

I went and found Asbiorn, for somewhat was troubling me.  The thought of the men who had been taken at the same time as myself, and must needs be in one or other of these ships.

“We took seven in all,” he said.  “Well, I had five.  Two got away in Norway as soon as we fell out with Arnkel.  One was too much hurt to be of use, and we left him there.  My father took the other two, and they are yonder with him, I suppose.  Those two who joined us of their own free will were in my ship.  They were good men.”