where we saw no man, the same was going on towards the town of Hodulf;
for if the news came to a village, some would be for the king that was,
and other and older men for the king that might be. Yet all asked that
question; and more than once, when they heard the reply, there would be
a halt and a talk, and then the men would turn and cast in their lot
with the son of Gunnar, hastening to him with more eager steps than had
taken them to Hodulf.


CHAPTER XXI. THE TOKEN OF SACK AND ANCHOR.

It seemed only the other day that I had passed over the well-known ways,
and I showed Withelm the hollow where Grim had met with the king and
taken his precious burden from him. Then we passed along the wild shore,
and the linnets were singing and the whinchats were calling as ever, and
the old mounds of the heroes of the bygone were awesome to me now as
long ago, when I looked at them standing lonesome along the shore with
only the wash of the waves to disturb them. And so we came to the town
at high noon, and already there was the bustle of a gathering host in
the place, for the news had fled before us.

They had built a new and greater hall in place of that which had been
burned; and there sat Hodulf with his chiefs, wondering and planning,
and maybe waiting for more certain news of what had happened. Not long
would they wait for that now.

We rode to the door, and one came to meet us with words of welcome,
thinking that we were men who came to the levy that was gathering; but
his words stayed when I asked to be taken to the presence of Hodulf, as
I came with a message from Havelok Gunnarsson the king.