fastening.

Sister Wynfreda rose and took a step forward, staring at him in bewilderment.

"Fridtjof?" she questioned.

At the sound of her voice, the boy turned and hastened toward her. Then a
great cry burst from Sister Wynfreda, for the face under the black locks was
the face of Randalin.



Chapter II

Randalin, Frode's Daughter


At a hoary speaker
Laugh thou never.
Often is good that which the aged utter;
Oft from a shrivelled hide
Discreet words issue.
Ha'vama'l.

She made a convincing boy, this daughter of the Vikings. Though she was
sixteen, her graceful body had retained most of the lines and slender curves
of childhood; and she was long of limb and broad of shoulder. Her head was
poised alertly above her strong young throat, and she was as straight as a
fir-tree and as supple as a birch. A life out-of-doors had given to her skin a
tone of warm brown, which, in a land that expected women to be lily-fair, was