“This is beyond price,” said the jarl slowly.  “Not my whole town would buy this.  It is such as a queen might wear and be proud of.”

“Should I show it to Hodulf the king, therefore?” asked Havelok, with his eyes on those of the jarl.

“Let no man see it until I know if I can buy it,” answered Sigurd.  “Trust it to my keeping, if you will, for I would have it valued maybe.”

“It is my wife’s, and you must ask her that.”

Then Havelok called Goldberga from her cabin under the after deck, and the jarl greeted her in most courtly wise.

“I will trust it with you, Jarl Sigurd,” she said, when he asked her if he might keep the ring for a time.  “Yet it is a great trust, as you know, and it will be well to show the ring to none but men who are true.”

“It is to true men that I would show it,” he answered, with that look that had passed between him and Havelok already; and I was sure that he knew now pretty certainly who we were.  Yet he could not say more at this time, for the many men who waited for Havelok must be told somewhat of his coming first.

Now men were gathering on the wharf to see the newcomers, and so the jarl spoke openly for all to hear.

“Come up to my hall, all of you, and take a meal ashore with me; for good is the first food on dry land after days at sea and the fare of the ship.”

So he went across the gangway, and to his horse, and rode away quickly, calling back to us, “Hasten, for we wait for you.  And I will find you lodgings in the town for the time that you bide with us.”

Now at first that seemed somewhat hazardous, for we had meant to stay in the ship, lest we should have to fly for any reason suddenly.  But it seemed that we had no choice but to do as he bade us, and we could not doubt him in any way.  We should go armed, of course, as in a strange place; and, after all, unless Hodulf heard of us, and wanted to see us, he was not to be feared as yet.  So I fell to wondering where our lodgings would he, and if the old families still dwelt in the houses that I had known, and then who had ours.  Many such thoughts will crowd into the mind of one who sees his old land again after many years, and finds naught changed, to the eye at least.

Men have told me that, as we came into the hall presently, they thought us the most goodly company that had ever crossed its threshold; and that is likely, for at our head were Havelok and Goldberga.  Raven was a mighty warrior to look on as he came next, grave and silent, with far-seeing grey eyes that were full of watching, as it were, from his long seafaring, and yet had the seaman’s ready smile in them.  And Withelm was the pattern of a well-made youth who has his strength yet to gather, and already knows how to make the best use of that he has.  There were none but thought that he was the most handsome of the three sons of Grim.  And last came I, and I am big enough, at least, to stand at Havelok’s back; and for the rest, one remembers what Eglaf said of me.  But I do not think that any noticed us with those twain to look at, unless they scanned our arms, which were more after the English sort than the Danish, so far as mail and helms are concerned, and therefore might seem strange.