He looked at her so silently and intently that the blue eyes
drooped and a faint blush rose to the maiden's cheeks.

"Are you wounded?" she asked. She spoke in the Norse tongue, but
with a pretty, foreign accent, and she looked so fair and so kind
that thoughts of sirens and mermaids passed through the Viking's
mind.

"Wounded? Well, methinks I ought to be," he answered; "and yet I
feel rather bruised than pierced. If I can stand--" and as he
spoke he rose to his feet, and slipping on the seaweed, slid
quietly into the water.

The girl screamed; and then, as he scrambled out none the worse
and only a little the wetter, an irresistible inclination to laugh
overcame her. Forgetful of his head, he laughed with her.

"Forgive me," she said; "I could not help laughing, though, to be
sure, you seem in no laughing plight. I thought at first that you
were drowned."

"'Tis your doing, I think, that I am not. Did you find me in the
water?"

"Half in and half out; and it took much pulling to get you wholly
out."

Estein impulsively drew a massive gold ring off his finger, and in
the gift-giving spirit of the times handed it to his preserver.