is deserted and in ruin. I have seen neither Herr Arne nor any
other. But I was so startled by the dream that I fell off the
load."




CHAPTER IV

IN THE MOONLIGHT



When Herr Arne had been dead a fortnight there came some nights of
clear, bright moonlight, and one evening Torarin was out with his
sledge. He checked his horse time after time, as though he had
difficulty in finding the way. Yet he was not driving through any
trackless forest, but upon what looked like a wide and open plain,
above which rose a number of rocky knolls.

The whole tract was covered with glittering white snow. It had
fallen in calm weather and lay evenly, not in drifts and eddies.
As far as the eye could see there was nothing but the same even
plain and the same rocky knolls.

"Grim, my dog," said Torarin, "if we saw this tonight for the
first time we should think we were driving over a great heath. But
still we should wonder that the ground was so even and the road
free from stones and ruts. What sort of tract can this be, we
should say, where there are neither ditches nor fences, and how