“This is no chance,” I said.  “There may be more yet.  We must get all this lumber cleared.”

It had been the same on the other side of the pile, but the peat was cold and dead, not having burned so long.  Then we moved the wagon from the after end of the penthouse, and cleared that.  Here again was peat, and more of it, and it had been lighted, and had only been out for a short time.  Some of the turfs may still have had fire within them, but we did not wait to see.  And all the while as we worked at this strange task, I wondered what the meaning of it all was.

The last fagot went overboard, and Bertric rose up and looked at me.  His face was white as with some fear, and he stepped backward away from the penthouse aft.

“Comrades,” he said, “why did they want to burn this ship?  She is not burnt, only because as she ran in the light breeze there was no wind to set the peat aflame.  They meant her to burn when she was in the open sea—­when the spark they set in the turf should have had time to grow to flame, and fire the brushwood.  Look at those two tar barrels set handy.”

“Aye,” I said, for all this had been growing on me.  “They meant her to run far from shore before her rigging went.  That is why the halliards have been brought aft, out of the way of the flame.”

“And why the sail was wet,” said Dalfin.  “And maybe why we are not chased.”

“It comes into my mind,” said Bertric slowly, “that there has been pestilence on board, and that they would rid themselves of it.”

But I hardly noted what he said.  There had come to me, of a sudden, the memory of old tales of the ways of my Norse forefathers, and the certainty of what that penthouse might hold flashed on me.  Many a time I had heard how in long ago days men would set the body of their dead chief afloat in his favourite ship, with all his treasure and war gear, and all else that a chief might need in Asgard; and so light his balefire on board, and let him pass to a sea grave beyond the ken of men in strange magnificence.  For we of the old faith hold that what a man buries in life, or takes with him to the grave in death, is his to enjoy in the hall of Odin when he comes thither.  It was the ancient way, and a wonderful one—­the way of the Asir with the dead Baldur.

Yet I had ever been told that the custom was long past, and that such a sea and fire burial was unheard of now.  It was only the finding of the half-dead fire which minded me of it; for that which we had thought of a family flitting across the seas to Iceland—­the sail, wet with the thunder rain of yesterday, spread to dry, and then the coming over the hills of the cast wind suddenly, setting the carelessly-moored ship adrift from some westward-looking haven, where lay no other craft which could follow her, had been quite enough to account for the wandering vessel.

Now I knew that only one thing would account for the purposeful firing of the ship.  Yonder lay some mighty chief—­and as I thought of that I clutched Bertric’s arm and pointed.