“Odin!” shouted Ingvar; “you speak truth.  Woe is me for my father, and woe to the land that has given him a grave thus foully.”

With that he let his sword fall, and his passion having gone, he sat down and put his face in his hands, and wept tears of grief and rage.  And I, as I watched him, was fain to weep also, for my thoughts were akin to his.

Now Hubba had sat very still, watching all this, and he kept his feelings better than did his fierce brother, though I might well see that he was moved as deeply.  But now he spurned Beorn with his foot, bidding him get up and speak also.  But Beorn only grovelled the more, and Hubba spurned him again, turning to me.

“I believe you speak truth,” he said quietly, “and you are a brave man.  There was no need for you to tell the accusation against yourself; and many are the lies you might have told us about the boat that would have been enough for us.  We never thought to hear that our father had outlived the storm.”

“I speak truth, Jarl,” I said, sadly enough, “and Halfden will come to our haven, seeking us both, and will find neither—­only this ill news instead of all we had planned of pleasure.”

Then Hubba asked me plainly of Beorn, saying: 

“What of this cur?”

“No more than I have told you, Jarl,” I said.

“How came he into the forest?” asked Hubba, for he saw that there was more than he knew yet under Beorn’s utter terror.

“Let me tell you that story from end to end,” I answered.

And he nodded, so that I did so, from the time when I left the jarl until Ulfkytel sentenced us, giving all the words of the witnesses as nearly as I could.  Then I said that I would leave them to judge, for I could not.

Now Ingvar, who had sat biting his nails and listening without a word, broke in, questioning me of Halfden’s ship for long.  At last he said: 

“This man tells truth, and I will not harm him.  He shall bide here till Halfden comes home, for he tells a plain story, and wears those rings.  And he has spoken the ill of himself and little of this craven, who maybe knows more than he will say.  I have a mind to find out what he does know,” and he looked savagely at Beorn, who was sitting up and rocking himself to and fro, with his eyes looking far away.

“Do what you will with him he will lie,” said Hubba.

“I can make him speak truth,” said Ingvar grimly.

“What shall be done with this Wulfric?” asked Hubba.

“Let him go with Raud until I have spoken with Beorn,” answered Ingvar, “then we shall be sure if he is friend or not.”

Hubba nodded, and he and I rose up and went out to the porch, where Raud and Rolf waited with the two guards.  We passed them and stood in the courtyard.

“I believe you, Wulfric,” said Hubba, “for I know a true man when I see him.”

“I thank you, Jarl,” I answered him, taking the hand that he offered me.