spoke.

"I have brought a shipwrecked seafarer, father," she said. "He is
wounded, I fear, and certainly he is both wet and hungry. I have
told him we would give him shelter and food, and such tending as
his wounds may require."

"Whence came he?" asked the old man.

"From the sound beyond the island; at least, he was in the sound
when I first saw him."

"And I have to thank your daughter that I am not there now,"
Estein added.

"What is your name?"

"I am known as Vandrad, the son of a noble landowner in Norway."

The old man looked for a moment as though he would have questioned
him further on his family. Instead, he asked,--

"And why came you to these islands?"

"For that, the wind and not I is answerable. Orkney was the last
place I had thought of visiting."

"You were wrecked?"

"Wrecked, and wellnigh drowned."