He turned obediently and walked beside her, trying to think how to put
what he had come to say.

"You remember hearing of Egil's father Olaf, who was so ill-tempered
that Egil dared not go home and confess that he had become a Christian?
Gunnlaug Starkadsson returned this morning from visiting his wife, and
she says that last night the old man's horse threw him so that his head
hit against a stone, and it caused his death."

She made an impressive pause; but Alwin stalked along in silence,
grinding his heels deep into the snow.

"Do you not see what that means?" she asked, impatiently. "Egil will now
come into his inheritance, and become one of the richest men in the
Settlement."

The trouble was that, in the first flash, Alwin had seen it all too
plainly. He had seen that now Egil would become just such a man as Leif
was wishing to bargain with. The thought burnt him like a hot iron, and
he opened his lips to pour out his frenzy; but he could not find the
words.

After a moment he said, sullenly: "I should be thankful if he would
leave Leif's service, so that I could sometimes speak to you without
having him watch me like a dog at a rabbit-hole."

Helga turned toward him with frank interest. "I wonder at that also. He
does not act so when I speak to Sigurd or Rolf. But then, he has behaved
very strangely to me ever since he talked with Skroppa in Iceland, two