badly, as one might well suppose.

Something touched my hand and I awoke. It was the great dog, who
came and thrust his nose against me, having made up his mind to be
friendly altogether. So when his master came in I was fondling his
head, and he looked puzzled.

"Say what men will," he said, "I know you are an honest man!"

"Do you hold that any will doubt it?" I asked, wondering what he
meant; for he looked strangely at me.

"Aye; the jarl has found your boat, and has sent me back to keep
you fast. Know you whose boat you have?"

"It belonged to Jarl Lodbrok, who came ashore in it, as I have come
here--and he gave it me."

"Hammer of Thor!" said the man. "Is the jarl alive?"

"What know you of him?" I asked.

"He was our jarl--ours," he answered.

"Who is the other jarl you speak of?" I asked him, with a hope that
Halfden had come home, for now I knew that we had indeed followed
Lodbrok's track exactly.

"How should it be other than Ingvar Lodbroksson? for we have held
that Lodbrok, his father, is dead this many a long day."