"I was charged to give this token to you, sire." Estein looked at
him in surprise, and taking the token from his hand, glanced at it
curiously.

It was a stave of oak, about two feet long, and shaped with some
care. Along one side an inscription was carved in Runes, and as he
read the first words his expression changed and he spelt it keenly
through. The whole writing ran: "An old man, a maiden, and a
spell. Come hither to Jemtland."

He turned sharply to the man and asked,--

"How came you by this? Who sent it to me?"

"That last I cannot answer," replied the man. "This only I know,
that the night before the Jemtland people attacked us, a man came
to the door of the house where I lodged, and giving me this said,
'Fly, war is afoot,' and with that he left as suddenly as he came.
I aroused my master Arne, and one or two more, and thanks to the
warning, we escaped the fate of our comrades. That is all I can
tell you."

The message made a sharp impression on Estein's mind. "An old man,
a maiden, and a spell," he repeated to himself. He racked his
brains, but he could think of no one in that remote country who
would be likely to send such a message. It seemed to him to have
an almost supernatural import, and again he said to himself, "An
old man, a maiden, and a spell." Then suddenly he took a
resolution, and turning from the messenger stepped into the crowd
who surrounded the king.