listened idly, and the next thing was that I knew, with a great
leap of my heart, that what he sang, or pretended to sing, was
meant for myself. It could only be so, for he sang of the Orkney
Isles to the east of us, and of a boat, and of two men who could
win thereto if they dared to try.

"Listen, Dalfin," I said, and my comrade started up eagerly.

Asbiorn heard the movement, and he seemed to lean toward the hatch.

"Jarl's son," he hummed, "come under the hatch and listen. Is it in
your mind to get away from us?"

I set my head through the little square opening carefully, and
looked round. There was a bale of canvas, plunder from our ship
sheds, across the break of the deck, and I could not be seen by the
men, while Asbiorn was alone at the helm. It was almost as light as
day, with the strange shadowless brightness of our northern June,
when the glow of the sunset never leaves the sky till it blends
with that of sunrise.

"Your boat is towing aft," he said, still singing, as one may say.
"It is shame to keep chiefs in thralldom thus; and I will not do
it. Now, I am going forward, and you can drop overboard and take
her. The men are asleep, and will not wake."

"What of my men?" I said.

"Glad enough they will be that you have escaped," he said. "They
will be all the more ready to do so themselves when they have the