Alwin took a hesitating step forward.  He had been standing where his first defiance had left him, a light of comprehension dawning in his face; and also a spark of resentment kindling in his eyes.

Now he said slowly, “It is not your anger which appears strange to us, chief.  It is the slowness of your justice.  That knowing all this time of our deceit, you have yet remained quiet.  That you have allowed us to live in dreams, and led us on to behave ourselves like fools!  We have been no better than mice under the cat’s paw.”  He glanced at Helga’s thin cheeks and the pain-lines around her mouth, and the full force of his indignation rang out in his voice.  “To us it meant life or death, heaven or hell,—­was it worthy of a man like you to find amusement in our suffering?”

Though it was as faint as the rustling of leaves, unmistakable applause swept around.  Rolf dared to clap his hands softly.

The chief replied by a direct question, as he leaned back against the maple and eyed his young rebel piercingly.  “Befooling and bejuggling were the drinks you prepared for me; was it not just that you should learn from experience how sour a taste they leave in the mouth?”

Though moment after moment dragged by, Alwin did not answer that.  His eyes fell to the ground, and he stood with bent head and clenched hands.

The chief went on.  “You who could so easily fathom the workings of my mind, should have no need to ask my motives.  It may be that I found entertainment in playing you like a fish on a line.  Or it may be that I was not altogether sure of my ground, and waited to be certain before I stepped.  Or perhaps I was curious to see what you would do next, and felt able to gratify my curiosity since I knew that, through all your antics, I held you securely in the hollow of my hand.  Or perhaps—­” Leif hesitated for an instant, and there crept into his voice a note so unusual that all stared at him,—­“or perhaps, in becoming sure of my ground, I became uncertain of the honor of the man whom I wished to place highest in my friendship, and so deemed it wisest to remain under cover until he should reveal all the hidden parts of his nature.  It may have been for any or all of these reasons.  You, who have come nearer to me than any man alive, should have no difficulty in selecting the true one.”

Was it possible that reproach rang in those last words?  It sounded so strangely like it, that Tyrker involuntarily curved his hand around his ear to amend some flaw in his hearing.

Alwin’s face underwent a great change.  Suddenly he flung his arms apart in a gesture of utter surrender.

“I will strive against you no longer!” he cried, passionately.  “You are as much superior to me as the King to his link-boy.  Do as you like with me.  I submit to you in everything.”  He fell upon his knee and hid his face in his hands.

Then the tone of Leif’s voice became so frankly friendly that Helga’s beautiful head was raised as a drooping flower’s by the soft spring rain.