A boat shot alongside even as he spoke, and a thane came to bid
Olaf to a council of the leaders on Ethelred's ship. So Olaf went
with him, and was long away. The tide was almost low, and darkness
had fallen before he came back in high spirits.

"Ethelred was sorely downcast, even to weeping," he told us, "and
so had almost given up hope of taking London. He thought of sailing
away and landing elsewhere. Then I said that I would take the
bridge tomorrow if I had help in what I needed tonight."

Then he looked round on us, and what he saw in our faces made him
laugh a little.

"It seems to me that you are over fearful of stone throwing after
the Danish sort," he said. "Had I not a plan that will save our
heads and the ship's timbers alike, I would not go. I am not the
man to risk both for nought. We will build roofs over the fore
decks and try again."

Then Rani growled:

"How are we to climb out from under your roofs so as to get upon
the bridge? We have already seen that ladders are needed for that
also."

"Nay," said Olaf, "we will bring the bridge down to us," and so he
went forward laughing to find his shipwrights.

So all that night long we wrought as he bade us, and Ethelred's men
came with spars and timber from houses they pulled down ashore, and