seemed to know the faces of the men, but I was not sure. It was but the
remembrance of the old Danish cast of face, maybe. I could put no names
to any of them. And as we were warped alongside the wharf, there rode
down to see who we were Sigurd the jarl himself, seeming unchanged,
although twelve years had gone over him. He was younger than my father,
I think, and was at that age when a man changes too slowly for a boy to
notice aught but that the one he left as a man he thought old is so yet.
He was just the noble-looking warrior that I had always wondered at and
admired.

We had arranged in this way: Havelok was to be the merchant, and we his
partners in the venture, trading with the goods in the ship as our own.
That the owner, who was also ship master, had agreed to willingly
enough, as we promised to make good any loss that might be from our want
of skill in bargaining. One may say that we bought the cargo, which was
not a great one, on our own risk, therefore, hiring the vessel to wait
our needs, in case we found it better to fly or to land elsewhere
presently. Then Havelok was to ask the jarl's leave to trade in the
land, and so find a chance to speak with him in private. After that the
goods might be an excuse for going far and wide through the villages to
let men know who had come, without rousing Hodulf's fears.

And as we thought of all this on the voyage, Goldberga remembered that
it was likely that Sigurd would know again the ring that had been the
queen's, and she said that it had better be shown him at once, that he
might begin to suspect who his guest was. For we knew that he was true
to the son of Gunnar, if none else might still be so.

This seemed good to us all; and, indeed, everything seemed to be well
planned, though we knew that there are always some happenings that have