claim to every man's odal, or lands, in such wise that his realm was no
longer a place in which a freeborn man could live. So many men of that
land took ship and went forth upon the seas to seek other homes, and
they came to the land of the Scots. They were adventurous and valiant
men, who took to conquest and sea roving as a cygnet takes to the water.
Now these vikings were soon such a thorn in the side of King Harald,
that he resolved to quell the evil by following his old enemies to their
new abodes and hunting them across the western main, and he passed down
among the Western Isles, and harried and wasted those lands farther than
any Norwegian monarch before him or after him. So it befell that the
Western Isles, that had belonged to the Scots, were peopled and ruled
over by the Norsemen."

Kenric listened to the girl's soft voice as it rippled in sweet music,
but he heeded little this oft-told tale.

"Now there arose a great man in Argyll, who was mightier than any of the
Scots that had so lightly allowed their lands to be torn away from them,
and this was king Somerled. He waged war against the Norsemen of the
Western Isles, and he made conquest of Bute, Arran, and Gigha, with the
Cumbraes and other smaller isles that still remain in the hands of the
Scots, for he was a most powerful warrior, and it was said that no man
ever crossed swords with him but to be slain. His enemies fell before
him like ripe grain in the swath of the mower's sickle. And his sword --"

"Yes, his sword?" said Kenric, growing interested now.

"His sword had drunk so often and so fully of men's blood, that it
seemed to take new life into itself out of the hearts of all who fell
before its sway, and men named it the Thirsty Sword, for it is never