pale eyes, impressed Estein strongly.

"By you?" he inquired with some wonder; "what then have you to do
with me?"

With the same ringing voice the old man went on,--

"Even as over the windows of this poor house there hang those
skins, so over my life hangs a curtain which may not yet be fully
lifted--perchance the fates may decree that it shall ever hide me.
A little, however, I may venture to raise it. Listen, Estein!"




CHAPTER XII.

THE MAGICIAN.


As he said the last words Atli stooped, and lifting two large logs
cast them on the fire. For a minute he watched them crackle and
spit sparks, bending his brows as he deliberated how he should
begin.

Then he turned to Estein and said,--

"When I saw thee by the shore at Hernersfiord, now some two years
gone, didst thou think then that Atli was a stranger?"