Havelok The Dane, Charles Whistler [interesting books to read TXT] 📗

shield, catching the thane's straightened arm along its whole length, and then, as sword and arm were dashed upwards, smiting him fairly in the face; and, like a stone, the Welshman was hurled from it, and fell backward in a heap on the grass three paces away. It seemed to me that he was off his feet in his spring as the shield smote him.

There he lay, and Havelok strode forward and stood between the two, with his face to Griffin, for Ragnar had dropped his axe to rest when his foe fell.

"No blood drawn," said my brother, "but no more fighting can there be. The man's arm is out."

And so it was, for the mighty heave that turned the thrust had ended Griffin's fighting for a long day. But he did not think so.

The sweat was standing on his face in great beads from the pain, but he got up and shifted his sword to his left hand.

"It is to the death," he cried; "I can fight as well with the left. Stand aside."

"An it had been so, you were a dead man now," said Havelok, "for the earl held his hand where he might have slain. If he had chosen, you might have felt his axe before you touched the ground."

Thereat, without warning other than a snarl of "Your own saying," Griffin leapt at my brother fiercely, only to meet a swing of his axe that sent his sword flying from his hand. And that was deft of Havelok, for there is nothing more hard to meet than a left-handed attack at any time, and this seemed unlooked for.

"Well, I did say somewhat of this sort," said Havelok; "but it was lucky that I had not forgotten it."

Then he took the thane by the waist and left arm and set him down gently; and after that all the fury went from him, and he grew pale with the pain of the arm that was hurt. But both I and the Welshmen had shouted to Griffin to hold, all uselessly, so quick had been his onset on his new foe.

Cadwal held his peace, biting his lip, but the other Welshman began to blame Griffin loudly for this.

"Nay," said Havelok, smiling; "it was my own fault maybe. The thane was overhasty certainly, but one does not think with pain gnawing at one. Let that pass.

"Now, earl, I think that you may say what you have to say that will set things right once more."

"Can none of us put the arm back first?" I said. "I will try, if none else has done such a thing before, for it will not be the first time."

"Put it back, if you can," said Cadwal. "If there is anything to be said, it had better be in some sort of comfort."

So I put the arm back, for when once the trick is learned there is not, as a rule, much trouble. But Griffin never thanked me. He left that to his seconds, who did so well enough.

Then Ragnar came forward and said gravely, "I was wrong when I called you 'nidring,' and I take back the word and ask you to forget it. No man who is that will face the Danish axe as you have faced it, and I will say that the British sword is a thing to be feared."

But Griffin made no answer, and when Ragnar held out his hand he would not see it.

"Maybe I have not yet made amends," Ragnar went on. "I will add, therefore, as I know that my words will go no farther, that I am sure that the thing concerning which we quarrelled yesterday was done by you at the orders of another. It was not your own doing, and no thought of cowardice is in my mind now."

But Griffin never answered; and now he turned his back on the earl, who was plainly grieved, and said no more to him, but turned to us and the two Welshmen.

"I do not think that I can say more. If there is aught that is needed, tell me. We have fought a fair fight, and I have taken back the words that caused it."

Then said Cadwal, "No more is needed. I did not think that we had met with so generous a foe. If Griffin will say naught, we say this for him. He has no cause for enmity left. And I say also that he has to thank this thane for his life as well as the earl."

"No thane am I," said Havelok, "but only Havelok Grimsson of Grimsby. And even that name is set aside for a while, so that I must ask you to forget it. I have seen a good fight, if a short one, and one could not smite a wounded man who forgot himself for a moment."

There was nothing more to be had from Griffin, for we waited a minute or two in silence to see if he would speak, and then we saluted and left the wood.

The last thing that I saw seemed to be a matter of high words between Griffin and his seconds; and, indeed, if they were telling him what they thought, it is likely that he wished he had been more courteous. It is easy enough for a man who wants a quarrel to have done with one and then start another.

CHAPTER XII. IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE.

We went quietly back to the town, and there was only one thing that I wished, and that was that Havelok had not had to tell his name twice. Ragnar was full of thanks to us for our help, and said that he would that we would come to Norfolk with him.

"We have a man who knows you also," he said, "but he has been with our princess for a long time now. He is called Mord, and is her chamberlain. He has often told me how he came by his wry-neck at the time of your shipwreck."

So he said, and looked at Havelok. But this was a thing that he had not seen, as he was so sick at the time. I said that I remembered Mord well, and would seek him some time in the day.

And as I said this I was thinking that I must find out from Mord whether he knew and had told more than I could of who Havelok was and whence he came to us. It seemed to me that the earl had heard some tale or other, and unless it was from him I could not think from whence.

Now the earl said, "This business has ended better than I could have hoped, and I think that Alsi will not hear of it. Griffin can well account for a slipped shoulder by any sort of fall that he likes to own to, and Alsi would be hardly pleased to hear that he had run the risk of setting all Norfolk against him for nothing after all."

"There is no doubt that he meant you to know that he does not consider the quarrel done with," I said. "You have an enemy there."

"Nothing new, that," answered Ragnar, laughing. "He thinks that I stand in his way with the princess. I suppose it is common talk that if he wedded her Alsi would still hold the East Anglian kingdom, making him ealdorman, if only I were out of the way. But were I to wed the lady, then it is certain that she would take the crown at once. I do not mean to do so, for then it is likely that three people would be unhappy for the rest of their days. But that would be less wretched for her than to wed Griffin."

"This is no pleasant strait for the poor lady," said Havelok grimly. "Do none ask what she herself can wish?"

"That is the trouble," said the earl, "for she is in Alsi's hand, and there is some old promise and oath sworn between him and Ethelwald her father that holds him back. Else had she been wedded to Griffin before now."

Then we came to the widow's house, and Havelok left his arms there, and we went on to the marketplace. As we crossed the bridge we saw that there was something going forward, for there was a gathering in the wide space, and a shouting and cheering now and then, and even Berthun himself was there looking on and seeming to be highly entertained.

"Here is a crowd that I will not face just now, in my arms," said the earl; "for this hole in my shield looks bad, not having been there when I went out. Farewell for the time, therefore, and think of what I said about your coming to Norwich with me."

He turned away therefore, and Havelok looked after him for a moment. The shield hung at his back, plain to be seen.

"It is a hole, for certain," he said; "but there is no need to show it in that wise."

So he strode after him.

"By your leave, earl, I will arrange your cloak across the shield, and then you can get it to your armourer without notice."

"That is well thought of," answered Ragnar, as Havelok did as he had said. "I do not forget that I think that I owe you my life, though I have said nothing as yet."

"How is that?"

"Griffin would have flown on me as he did on you, certainly; and it is in my mind that you foresaw it, which I did not. I could not have stayed him."

"Well I did," answered my brother; "else had either I or you a hole in us like the one that is well covered now. But I feared what came to pass."

Ragnar held out his hand, and Havelok took it, and so they parted without more words; but I knew that these two were friends from that time forward, whatever happened.

There were some sports of some sort on hand, when we came to see what all the noise was; and Berthun, seeing us, called Havelok to him.

"I have been looking for you," he said, with that curious tone of his that always seemed to be asking pardon for his boldness in speaking to my brother; "for here are games at which they need some one to show the way."

"This is a sport that I have not seen before," answered Havelok, looking over the heads of the crowd. "I should make a poor hand at it."

They had been tossing a great fir pole, which was now laid on one side, with its top split from its falls, and they, thanes and freemen in turn, were putting a great stone, so heavy that a matter of a few inches beyond the longest cast yet made would be something to be proud of. Good sport enough it was to see the brawny housecarls heave it from the ground and swing it. But no one could lift it above his knee, so that one may suppose that it flew no great distance at a cast.

"Nay, but the thanes are trying," Berthun said. "It is open to all to do what they can. One of your porters is best man so far." "Well, I will not try to outdo him."

"I would that you would lift the stone, Curan. That is a thing that I should most like to