Once more then I took the jarl’s sword in my right hand, and raised his hand with my left, putting my own weapon by against the wall.  And then the hilt slipped from the half-open fingers, and the sword was mine, and my hand held the jarl’s.  And it seemed to me that he gave it me, and that I must thank him for such a gift.  The sword though it was sheathed, was not girt to him, and its golden-studded belt was twisted about it, and it was no imperfect giving.

So I spoke in a low voice: 

“Jarl Sigurd, I thank you.  If my might is aught, the sword will be used as you would have used it.  Surely I will say to Einar that you rest in peace, and we will come here and close your mound again in all honour.”

I set back his hand then, and it seemed empty and helpless, not as a warrior’s should be.  So I ungirt my own weapon—­a good plain sword that I had won from a viking in Caithness—­and laid it in the place of that he had given me.  And as I put the thin fingers on its hilt, almost thinking that they would chose around it, a ring slipped from them into my hand, as if he would give that also, and I kept it therefore.

Then for a minute I stood before Jarl Sigurd, waiting to see if he had any word; but when he spoke not, I lifted the sword and saluted him.

“Skoal to Jarl Sigurd; rest in peace, and farewell.”

Then I went forth softly, and came out into sunshine; for the wind was singing round the hilltops, and the dun mist had gone.  Then I was ware that the sound of the stone on the sword edge had long ceased, and I looked for Kolgrim.

He was lying on the grass in the place where I had left him, but he was on his face, and the sword and whetstone were flung aside from him.  At first I feared that he had been in some way slain because of his terror; but when I came near, I saw that his shoulders heaved as if he wept.  Then I stood over him, treading softly.

“Kolgrim,” I said.

At that he looked up, and a great light came into his face, and he sprang to his feet and threw his arms round me, weeping, yet with a strong man’s weeping that does but come from bitter grief.

“Master,” he cried, “O master I thought you lost—­and I dared not follow you.”

“I have met with no peril,” I said, “nor have I been long gone.”

“More than two hours, master, have you been in that place—­two long hours.  See how the sun has sunk since you left me!”

So indeed it seemed, though I knew not that I had been so long.  I had stayed still and gazed on that strange sight without stirring for what seemed but a little while.  Yet I had thought long thoughts in that time, and I mind every single thing in that dim chamber, even to the markings on the stones that made its walls and roof and floor.

“See,” I said, “Jarl Sigurd has given me the sword!”

Kolgrim gazed in wonder.  There was no speck of dust on the broad blade as I drew it, and the waving lines of the dwarf-wrought steel and gold-inlaid runes were clear and bright along its middle for half its length.  For the mound was very dry, and they had covered all the chamber with peat before piling the earth over it.