would offer a rich reward to the man who should compass your end.
You will be wise, therefore, if you breathe no word of your kinship
with Triggvi Olafson. Also, you must betray to no man, not even to
your foster brother Thorgils, that I am your uncle, or that I know
your name and kin; for it is a law held sacred in Gardarike that
no one of royal birth shall abide in the land without the sanction
of King Valdemar. If it be known that I am wilfully breaking that
law, then both you and I will fall into the sorest trouble."

Amazed at hearing all this, and at learning that the man he had
taken for a secret enemy was none other than his own uncle, Olaf
was speechless. He silently put his hand into Sigurd's great palm,
and let himself be led back to the place where Thorgils and Egbert
still lay sound asleep.



CHAPTER III: GERDA' S PROPHECY.


On the morrow, when Olaf awoke, he told nothing of this that he had
heard concerning his kinship with Sigurd Erikson, and if Thorgils
saw that he was very moody and quiet, he no doubt thought that
the lad was but sorrowing at being taken away from the sea that he
loved so much. And yet Olaf seemed strangely unwilling to favour
any plan of escape. Both Thorgils and Egbert were for ever speaking
of flight, but Olaf always had some wise reason to offer for yet
further delay, and would only shake his head and say that their
plans were ill formed. On the second evening of the journey into
the south, a halt was made upon the shores of a great inland lake.