Now the southwest wind shifted at last to the west and north, and that shift brought home him whom I most wished to see, my comrade, Halfden.  And it chanced that I was the first to see his sail from the higher land along the coast, south of the haven, where I was riding with my falcon and the great dog Vig, which Raud and his brother would have me take for my own after the wolf hunt.

Gladly I rode hack with my news to find Ingvar in the ship garth, and there I told him who came.

“A ship, maybe.  How know you she is Halfden’s?” he said carelessly.

“Why, how does any sailor know his own ship?” I asked in surprise.

Then he turned at once, and smiled at me fairly for the first time.

“I had forgotten,” he said.  “Come, let us look at her again.”

And I was not mistaken, though the jarl was not so sure as I for half an hour or more.  When he was certain, he said: 

“Come, let us make what welcome for Halfden that we may.”

And we went back to the hall, and at once was the great horn blown to assemble the men; and the news went round quickly, so that everywhere men and women alike put aside their work, and hurried down to the wharf side.  And in Ingvar’s house the thralls wrought to prepare a great feast in honour of Jarl Halfden’s homecoming.

Soon I stood with the jarls and Osritha at the landing place, and behind us were the courtmen in their best array.  And as we came to the place where we would wait, Halfden’s ship came past the bar into the haven’s mouth.

All men’s faces were bright with the thought of welcome, but heavy were my thoughts, and with reason.  For Halfden’s ship came from the sea on no course that should have borne him from Reedham, and I feared that it was I who must tell him all.  Yet he might have been drawn from his course by some passing vessel.

The long ship flew up the channel, and now we could see that all her rail was hung with the red and yellow shields that they use for show as well as to make the gunwale higher against the arrows, and to hinder boarders in a fight.  And she was gaily decked with flags, and shone with new paint and gilding in all sea bravery.  Not idle had her crew been in the place where they had wintered, and one might know that they had had a good voyage, which to a Dane means plunder enough for all.  But surely if Halfden had been to Reedham, the long pennon had been half masted.

It were long to tell how the people cheered, and how they were answered from the ship, and how I spied Halfden on the fore deck, and Thormod at the helm, as ever.  And when Osritha saw Halfden’s gay arms and cloak and all the bright trim of the ship and men, she said to me, speaking low and quickly: 

“They have not been to Reedham, or it would not have been thus.”

And it was true, for there would have been no sign of joy among those who had heard the news that waited them there.