is he the richest man, but he is also the highest-born, for his father's
father was a jarl of Jaederan; and so--"

It is to be feared that Alwin lost some of this. He broke in suddenly:
"Now I know where it is that I have heard the name of Eric the Red! It
has haunted me for days. In the trader's booth in Norway a minstrel sang
a ballad of 'Eric the Red and his Dwarf-Cursed Sword.' Know you of it?"

He was answered by the involuntary glances that the others cast toward
the chief.

Rolf said with a shrug: "It is bondmaids' gabble. There is little need
to say that a dwarf cursed Eric's sword, to explain how it comes that he
has been three times exiled for manslaughter, and driven from Norway to
Iceland and from Iceland to Greenland. He quarrelled and slew wherever
he settled, because he has a temper like that of the dragon Fafnir."

A faint red tinged Egil's dark cheeks. "Nevertheless, Skroppa's prophecy
has come true," he muttered, "that after the blade was once sheathed in
the new soil of Greenland, it would bring no more ill-luck."

"Skroppa!" cried Alwin. But he got no further, for Sigurd's hand was
clapped over his mouth.

"Lower your voice when you speak that name, comrade," the Silver-Tongued
warned him.

"Do not speak it at all," Egil interrupted brusquely. "The English girl
is coming aft. It is likely she brings some message from Helga."