fair as the day. Never before have I known the time when I could
drive about the ice week after week. It is not often the sea
freezes out here, and if once and again the ice has formed, there
has always come a storm to break it up a few days after."

The skipper still looked black and glum; he made no answer to all
Torarin's chat. Then Torarin began asking him why he never found
his way to Marstrand. "It is no more than an hour's walk over the
ice," said Torarin. But again he received no answer. Torarin could
see that the man feared to leave his ship an instant, lest he
might not be at hand when the ice broke up. "Seldom have I seen
eyes so sick with longing," thought Torarin.

But the skipper, who had been held ice-bound among the skerries
day after day, unable to hoist his sails and put to sea, had been
busy the while with many thoughts, and he said to Torarin: "You
are a man who travels much abroad and hears much news of all that
happens: can you tell me why God has barred the way to the sea so
long this year, keeping us all in captivity?"

As he said this Torarin ceased to smile, but put on an ignorant
air and said: "I cannot see what you mean by that."

"Well," said the skipper, "I once lay in the harbour of Bergen a
whole month, and a contrary wind blew all that time, so that no
ship could come out. But on board one of the ships that lay there
wind-bound was a man who had robbed churches, and he would have
gone free but for the storm. Now they had time to search him out,
and as soon as he had been taken ashore there came good weather
and a fair wind. Now do you understand what I mean when I ask you