roaring and jarring ever closer to us, till it was all around us
and beneath us everywhere, and our very hearts seemed to stop
beating in wonder.

Then of a sudden the ship was smitten from under the keel with a
heavy, soundless blow, and the waters of the firth ebbed and flowed
fiercely about us; and then the sound passed on and down the firth
swiftly and strangely as it had come, and left us rocking on the
troubled waters that plashed and broke along the rocks of the
shore, while the still, thick air seemed full of the screams of the
terrified eagles and sea birds that had left them.

"Odin defend us!" the jarl said; "what is this?"

I shook my head, looking at him, and wondering if my face was white
and scared as his and that of every man whom I could see.

Now we waited breathless for more to come, but all was quiet again.
The birds went back to their eyries, and the troubled water was
still. Then presently our fears passed enough to let us speak with
one another; and then there were voices enough, for every man
wished to hear his own again, that courage might return.

Then a man from the Orkneys who had been with Jarl Sigurd came aft
to us, and stood at the break of the deck to speak with Einar.

"Jarl," he said, almost under his breath, "it is in my mind that
Sigurd, your brother, is wroth because his mound has been untended
since we made it."