Goldberga called me when I came near, and I sat down beside them as she bade me.

“Here we have been talking of what we shall do now, for it seems that to both of us are many things to hand,” she said.  “Good it would be if we could set them aside; but we were born to them, and we cannot let them be.  And, most of all, here in this place we may not forget the duty that Grim would remind us of.  Havelok must go to Denmark and win back his kingdom from Hodulf first of all.”

“We have thought that East Anglia was to be won first from Alsi,” I said.

“So says Havelok; but I do not think so.  For, indeed, I am but the wife, and the things of the husband come first of all.  Now, this is what I would say.  Sail to Denmark before Hodulf knows what is coming, and there will be less trouble.”

“I am slow at seeing things,” said Havelok; “but the same might be said of your kingdom.”

“Alsi is ready, and Hodulf is not,” she answered, laughing; “any one can see that.

“Is it not so, brother?”

So it was; and I thought that she was right.

“Let us ask the brothers,” I said, “for here are many things to be thought of; and, first of all, where to get men.”

That was the greatest trouble to our minds, but none at all to hers.

“Get them in Denmark,” she said, when we were all together in the great room of the house that evening.  “Let us go as merchant folk, and find Sigurd, or his son if he is dead.  If I am not much mistaken, all the land will rise for the son of Gunnar so soon as it is known that he has come again.”

“Sigurd is yet alive,” Arngeir said; “and more than that, he is waiting.  For he promised Grim that he would be ready, and I heard the promise.  I think that this plan is good, and can well be managed.  Here is the ship that Griffin was to have taken today, and he is not here.  Gold enough I have, for Grim hoarded against this time.”

Then he showed us the store that, through long years, my father had brought together to take the place of that of Sigurd’s which had been lost; and it was no small one.  And so we planned at once; and in the end we three brothers were to go with Havelok and Goldberga, leaving Mord to get to Ragnar and tell him that Goldberga was following the fortunes of her husband, and would return to see to her own if all went well.  Berthun would go with him, and Arngeir would bide at home, for we needed one to whom messages might come; and while none would know us now in Denmark, either Arngeir or Mord might be seen, and men would tell Hodulf that the men of Grim had come home, and so perhaps spoil all.  Word might go to Denmark from Griffin even yet.

We had little thought of any sorry ending to our plans, for the dreams that had come so true so far cheered us.  And so, with the evening tide of the next day, we sailed in the same ship that had been hired for Griffin.

But first Havelok spent a long hour on my father’s mound alone, thinking of all that he owed to him who rested there.  And to him came Goldberga softly, presently, lest he should be lonely in that place.  And there she spoke to him of her own faith, saying that already he owed much to it.  For he was making his vows to the Asir for success.