"Is it you, maybe, that are to take them over to Scotland?" asked
Torarin.

"Well," said the skipper, "I have a cargo for Edinburgh, and one
of them was here but now and asked me would I take them. But I
have small liking to sail with such wild companions aboard and I
asked for time to think on it. Have you heard aught of them? Think
you I may venture to take them?"

"I have heard no more of them but that they are brave men. I doubt
not but you may safely take them."

But no sooner had Torarin said this than his dog rose from the
sledge, threw his nose in the air, and began to howl.

Torarin broke off his praises of the Scotsmen at once. "What ails
you now, Grim, my dog?" he said. "Do you think I stay here too
long, wasting the time in talk?"

He made ready to drive off. "Well, God be with you all!" he cried.

Torarin drove in to Marstrand by the narrow channel between
Klovero and Koo. When he had come within sight of the town, he
noticed that he was not alone on the ice.

In the bright moonlight he saw a tall man of proud bearing walking
in the snow. He could see that he wore a plumed hat and rich
clothes with ample puffs. "Hallo!" said Torarin to himself; "there
goes Sir Archie, the leader of the Scots, who has been out this
evening to bespeak a passage to Scotland."