"What mercy can you hope from me!" I said coldly.

"None, Thane--none. But let me go hence with you. Better the rope
than these wild beasts. Or slay me now, and swiftly."

"Who, of all your friends, tied you here?" I asked him.

"Howel's men," he answered. "They took my goods at the ford of
Caerau yonder, and so brought me here and left me. That was early
this morning."

"I marvel that you bided in reach of any who might speak with me,"
I said.

"My comrades left me, for fear of that same. I must hire ponies to
get the goods away. I thought you had died on the wild sea that
night."

"It seems to me that this is but justice on you. The goods you have
lost were stolen from honest men. And it were just if I left you
bound as you bound me."

Then the man said slowly: "Ay, it is justice. But will you treat me
even as I treated you, Thane?"

I looked at him in some wonder. The man's face had grown calm,
though it was yet grey and drawn, and this seemed as if he would
own his fault without excuse. I minded that Nona the princess and
her father, ay, and Thorgils, had said that they thought well of