Then the earl turned to me, “By Loki, fellow countryman, there is somewhat wrong here.  What does he mean by feigning to think the whole affair a jest?  It won’t be much of a jest if Griffin and I slay one another tomorrow, as we mean to do, because of what was not done, and what was said about it.”

“It has seemed to me, jarl,” I said plainly, “that all this is more like a jest between the king and Griffin.”

“Call it a jest, as that is loyal, at least.  But I think that you are right.  If Goldberga had been carried off—­Come, we shall be saying too much in these walls.”

I had only been told to wait while the king and earl spoke together, and so I opened the door and followed him out.  The horse was yet there waiting for him, and it was plain that the king had not meant him to stay.

“Bid the grooms lead the horse after us, and we will go to your captain.  Then you shall take me to one of my friends, for you will know where their houses are.”

But at that moment a man from the palace ran after us, bringing an order from the king that I was to go back to him.  So Ragnar bade me farewell.

“Come to me tonight at the gatehouse,” he said.  “I will speak to the captain to let you off duty.”

“Say nothing to him, jarl, for it is needless.  I am only with him for a time, and am my own master.  I have no turn on watch tonight, and so am free.”

So I went back, and found the king in the hall again, and he was still smiling.  If he had looked me straight in the face, I suppose that he might have seen that I was not a man to whom he was used, but he did not.  He seemed not to wish to do so.

“So, good fellow,” he said, “you have heard a pleasant jest of our young kinsman’s contriving, but I will that you say nothing of it.  It is a pity to take a good guardroom story from you, however, without some recompense, and therefore—­”

With that he put a little bag into my hand, and it was heavy.  I said nothing, but bowed in the English way, and he went on, “You understand; no word is to be said of what you have heard unless I bid you repeat it.  That I may have to do, lest it is said that Griffin the thane is ‘nidring’ [9] by any of his enemies.  You know all the story—­how the earl and he planned a sham attack on the princess’s party, that Ragnar might show his valour, which, of course, he could not do if Griffin was there.  Therefore the thane held back.  But maybe you heard all, and understood it.”

“I heard all, lord king, and I will say naught.”

The king waved his hand in sign that I was dismissed, and I bowed and went.  There were five rings of gold in the bag, worth about the whole year’s wage of a courtman, and I thought that for keeping a jest to myself that was good pay indeed.  There must be more behind that business, as it had seemed to me already.

Now, as I crossed the green within the old walls on my way to the gate, it happened that Havelok came back from the town, and as he came I heard him whistling softly to himself a strange wild call, as it were, of a hunting horn, very sweet, and one that I had never heard before.