Death as their shafts hurtled past. Round and round the two galleys
circled in a strange dance, each steersman striving to bring his craft
bows on, so as to ram and crush the other, while they lurched in the
cross-seas, and rolled till they dipped in tons of water over the
rail.

Up sprang the stranger on his prow; tall and broad-shouldered was he,
with a torrent of ruddy hair floating in the wind. As Ulf turned to
give an order to bale out the inrushing water, up rose a brawny arm,
and a great spear flashed down from the high bow of the enemy and
struck fairly between his shoulders. So sharp was the blow, so sudden,
that Ulf pitched forward on one knee for just half a breath. But the
spear fell clanging to the deck. The ruddy warrior stood looking at it
with eyes of amazement. His own spear, that never before had failed! A
flash of light leaped back like a lightning stroke; back to its master
whistled the brand, for, ere he rose, Ulf snatched it up and as he
rose he hurled it--straight through the unguarded arm of the stranger.

"Hold!"

The shout rang sternly across the water and echoed back and forth from
sail to sail. The shouting hushed. Only the creak of the swaying yard,
the hoarse swash of the water, the panting of deep breathing broke the
silence, then once more from the lofty prow came the commanding voice.

"Who and whence art thou?"

"A son of the Forest am I," answered the other. "Ulf is my name, Ulf
the Silent my title, Jarl Sigurd my father by adoption. The sea is my
home; from over sea I came, and over sea am I going."