“Is it so?” I answered.  “Surely Steinar would have known this road even in the dark.  But what matter, since I have found you?”

“Aye, he knew as soon as we saw this grave mound.  But Steinar was telling me that some ghost haunts it, and I begged him to stay awhile, since there is nothing I desire so much as to see a ghost, who believe little in such things.  So he stayed, though he says he fears the dead more than the living.  Freydisa, they tell me that you are very wise.  Cannot you show me this ghost?”

“The spirit does not ask my leave to appear, lady,” answered Freydisa in her quiet voice.  “Still, at times it does appear, for I have seen it twice.  So let us bide here a little on the chance.”

Then she went forward a few steps and began to mutter to herself.

Some minutes later the clouds broke and the great moon was seen riding low down in a clear sky, illumining the grave mound and all the plain, save where we stood in the shadow of the mount.

“Do you see aught?” asked Freydisa presently.  “If not, let us be gone, for when the Wanderer comes at all it is at the rising of the moon.”

Steinar and Iduna answered, “No,” but I, who did see something, said: 

“Look yonder among the shadows.  Mayhap it is a wolf stirring.  Nay, it is a man.  Look, Iduna.”

“I look and find nothing,” she answered.

“Look again,” I said.  “He reaches the top of the mount and stands there staring towards the south.  Oh! now he turns, and the moonlight shines upon his face.”

“You dream, Olaf,” said Steinar.  “If you do not dream, tell us of the likeness of this spirit.”

“Its likeness,” I answered, “is that of a tall and noble man, worn as though with years and sorrows.  He wears strange rich armour that is dinted and soiled; on his head is a cap of mail with two long ear-pieces, beneath which appears his brown hair lined with grey.  He holds a red-coloured sword which is handled with a cross of gold.  He points the sword at you, Steinar.  It is as though he were angry with you, or warned you.”

Now, when Steinar heard these words he shook and groaned, as I remembered afterwards.  But of this I took no note at the time, for just then Iduna cried out: 

“Say, Olaf, does the man wear a necklace?  I see a necklace hanging in the air above the mount, but naught else.”

“Yes, Iduna, he wears a necklace above his mail.  How does it appear to you?”

“Oh, beautiful, beautiful!” she answered.  “A chain of pale gold, and hanging from it golden shells inlaid with blue, and between them green jewels that hold the moon.”

“That is what I see also,” I said, as indeed I did.  “There!  All is gone.”

Freydisa returned and there was a strange smile on her dark face, for she had heard all our talk.

“Who sleeps in that mound, Freydisa?” asked Iduna.