So he and we looked at each other for a moment, we wondering at him and he seeking our leader.  Nor did he doubt long, taking two steps to my father, holding out his hand, and again thanking him.

My father grasped the offered hand frankly, and, smiling a little, said: 

“Rather should you thank Wulfric, my son, here; for it was his line that reached you.”

“No fault that of yours,” answered the Dane; and he turned to me with the same hearty greeting.

“Now, friend Wulfric, I owe you my life, and therefore from this time forward my life is for yours, if need be.  Nor shall my men be behind in that matter—­that is if I ever see them again,” he added, looking quaintly at me, if gravely.

“Surely you shall do so,” I said, “if it is in our power.”

“I thank you—­and it is well.  I know coasts where a stranger would be a slave from the moment his foot touched shore.  Now tell me whose ship this is that has given me shelter, and what your father’s name is, that I may thank you rightly.”

“Elfric, the Thane of Reedham, is my father,” I said, “Sheriff of the East Anglian shore of the North Folk, under Eadmund, our king.  And this is his ship, and this himself to whom you have spoken.”

“Then, Thane and Thane’s son, I, whose life you have saved, am Lodbrok, Jarl {ii} of a strip of Jutland coast.  And now I have a fear on me that I shall do dishonour to the name of Dane, for I faint for want of food and can stand no more.”

With that he sat down on the bench where I had been, and though he smiled at us, we could see that his words were true enough, and that he was bearing bravely what would have overborne most men.  And now the falcon fluttered from my wrist to his.

Then my father bade me hasten, and I brought ale and meat for the jarl, and set them before him, and soon he was taking that which he needed; but every now and then he gave to the bird, stroking her ruffled feathers, and speaking softly to her.

“Aye, my beauty,” he said once, “I did but cast you down wind lest you should be lost with me.  And I would have had you take back the news that I was lost to my own home.”

My father stood and watched the tide, and presently I joined him, for I would not hinder the Dane from his meal by watching him.  I looked at the beautiful boat astern, tossing lightly on the wave crests, and saw that she would surely be lost over the bar; so I asked my father now, as I had meant before, if we might not try to get her on board.

For answer he turned to Lodbrok.

“Set you much store by your boat, Jarl?” he asked him.

“The boat is yours, Thane, or Wulfric’s, by all right of salvage.  But I would not have her lost, for my sons made her for me this last winter, carving her, as you see, with their own hands.  Gladly would I see her safe if it might be.”

“Then we will try to get her,” answered my father; “for there are one or two things that my children have made for me, and I would not lose them for the sake of a little trouble.  And, moreover, I think your sons have made you the best boat that ever floated!”