the marketplace. Had Reas exacted an hundred gold marks instead of
two paltry marks of silver, I should willingly have given him them."

"And why?" asked Olaf with a frown. "Is it that you think to take
me west to Norway, and cast me like a young goat among wolves? I
had thought when you so blandly spoke to me yesternight that you
were a man of honour. Haply Queen Gunnhild would reward you well if
you should deliver me into her clutches. But this you shall never
do!"

"Rash boy," said Sigurd as he stroked his horse's mane, "do you not
recognize a friend when you meet one? Or is friendship so strange
to you that you take all men to be your enemies?"

"Enmity comes so often in the guise of friendship," said Olaf,
"that it is well to be wary. I had been wiser last night if I had
refused to speak with you."

"The time will soon come," said Sigurd, "when you will not be sorry
that you so spoke. But I will warn you that it may go very ill with
you if you tell your story to all strangers as you told it to me."

Olaf was perplexed. He looked into the man's face and saw only
kindness there, and yet there was something very suspicious in the
stranger's eagerness to possess him.

"If you are indeed my friend," said the boy, "why do you keep this
chain about my neck? Why do you drag me after you like a dog?"

"Because I am not willing that you should escape me," answered