lances, men so hostile to all semblance of law and order that the
son of a Norwegian king would seem in their eyes a most desirable
quarry. Many a load of hard-won spoil changed hands on its way
home; and the shores of Norway itself were so harried by these
island Vikings that some time later King Harald Harfagri descended
and made a clean sweep of them in the interests of what he
probably considered society.

The two vessels floated close together, the oars were shipped, and
there, in the grey prosaic early morning light, they heaved gently
on the North Sea swell, and awaited the approach of the ten. A few
sea-birds circled and screamed above them; a faint pillar of smoke
rose from some homestead on a distant shore; elsewhere there was
no sign of life save in the ships to seaward.

Thorkel, leaning over the side of his vessel, told a tale of
buffetings by night and day such as Estein and his crew had
undergone. That morning he said they had descried Estein's ship
just as the day broke, and almost immediately afterwards ten long
ships were spied lying at anchor in an island bay. For a time they
hoped to slip by them unseen. The fates, however, were against
them. They were observed, and the strange Vikings awoke and gave
chase like a swarm of bees incautiously aroused.

Apparently the strangers considered themselves hardly yet prepared
for battle; for they slackened speed as they advanced, and those
on Estein's ships could see that a hasty bustle of preparation was
going on.

"What think you--friends or foes?" asked Helgi.