‘Those same teeth met in Hugh’s right arm and side,’ Sir Richard went on.  ’I?  Oh, I had no more than a broken foot and a fever.  Thorkild’s ear was bitten, but Hugh’s arm and side clean withered away.  I saw him where he lay along, sucking a fruit in his left hand.  His flesh was wasted off his bones, his hair was patched with white, and his hand was blue-veined like a woman’s.  He put his left arm round my neck and whispered, “Take my sword.  It has been thine since Hastings, O my brother, but I can never hold hilt again.”  We lay there on the high deck talking of Santlache, and, I think, of every day since Santlache, and it came so that we both wept.  I was weak, and he little more than a shadow.

’"Nay—­nay,” said Witta, at the helm-rail.  “Gold is a good right arm to any man.  Look—­look at the gold!” He bade Thorkild show us the gold and the elephants’ teeth, as though we had been children.  He had brought away all the gold on the bank, and twice as much more, that the people of the village gave him for slaying the Devils.  They worshipped us as Gods, Thorkild told me:  it was one of their old women healed up Hugh’s poor arm.’

’How much gold did you get?’asked Dan.

‘How can I say?  Where we came out with wedges of iron under the rowers’ feet we returned with wedges of gold hidden beneath planks.  There was dust of gold in packages where we slept and along the side, and crosswise under the benches we lashed the blackened elephants’ teeth.

’"I had sooner have my right arm,” said Hugh, when he had seen all.

’"Ahai!  That was my fault,” said Witta.  “I should have taken ransom and landed you in France when first you came aboard, ten months ago.”

’"It is over-late now,” said Hugh, laughing.

’Witta plucked at his long shoulder-lock.  “But think!” said he.  “If I had let ye go—­which I swear I would never have done, for I love ye more than brothers—­if I had let ye go, by now ye might have been horribly slain by some mere Moor in the Duke of Burgundy’s war, or ye might have been murdered by land-thieves, or ye might have died of the plague at an inn.  Think of this and do not blame me overmuch, Hugh.  See!  I will only take a half of the gold.”

’"I blame thee not at all, Witta,” said Hugh.  “It was a joyous venture, and we thirty-five here have done what never men have done.  If I live till England, I will build me a stout keep over Dallington out of my share.”

’"I will buy cattle and amber and warm red cloth for the wife,” said Witta, “and I will hold all the land at the head of Stavanger Fiord.  Many will fight for me now.  But first we must turn North, and with this honest treasure aboard I pray we meet no pirate ships.”

’We did not laugh.  We were careful.  We were afraid lest we should lose one grain of our gold, for which we had fought Devils.

’"Where is the Sorcerer?” said I, for Witta was looking at the Wise Iron in the box, and I could not see the Yellow Man.