She did not wait for the end.  “Then turn back with me a little way, and I will tell you something worth hearing.”

He turned obediently and walked beside her, trying to think how to put what he had come to say.

“You remember hearing of Egil’s father Olaf, who was so ill-tempered that Egil dared not go home and confess that he had become a Christian?  Gunnlaug Starkadsson returned this morning from visiting his wife, and she says that last night the old man’s horse threw him so that his head hit against a stone, and it caused his death.”

She made an impressive pause; but Alwin stalked along in silence, grinding his heels deep into the snow.

“Do you not see what that means?” she asked, impatiently.  “Egil will now come into his inheritance, and become one of the richest men in the Settlement.”

The trouble was that, in the first flash, Alwin had seen it all too plainly.  He had seen that now Egil would become just such a man as Leif was wishing to bargain with.  The thought burnt him like a hot iron, and he opened his lips to pour out his frenzy; but he could not find the words.

After a moment he said, sullenly:  “I should be thankful if he would leave Leif’s service, so that I could sometimes speak to you without having him watch me like a dog at a rabbit-hole.”

Helga turned toward him with frank interest.  “I wonder at that also.  He does not act so when I speak to Sigurd or Rolf.  But then, he has behaved very strangely to me ever since he talked with Skroppa in Iceland, two seasons ago.”

“He spoke to me of Skroppa the first time I saw him,” Alwin said, absently.  Then a flicker of curiosity awoke in him.  “I wish that you would tell me what ‘Skroppa’ stands for.  I do not know whether it is man or beast or demon.”

Even out there in the open, Helga glanced about for listeners before she answered.  “Skroppa is a fore-knowing woman, who lives among the unsettled places north of here, in a cabin down in a hollow.  Though Leif will not admit it, it was she who took the curse off Eric’s sword.”

It seemed to Alwin that here at last was an opening.  He said harshly:  “I wonder if she would be wise enough to tell whom Leif will marry you to before the feasting is over?”

Helga stood still and looked at him.  “What are you talking about?”

He stopped in front of her, with a fierce gesture, and in one angry burst told her all he had heard.  He could not understand how she could listen so calmly, kicking the snow with the toe of her shoe.

When he had finished, she said quietly:  “Yes, I know he has that intention in his mind.  It is for that reason that every time I go to a feast he gives me costly ornaments, and makes me wear them.  I have had great kindness from his hands.  But do not let us speak of it further.”

Alwin caught her roughly by her wrists, and shook her a little as he looked into her eyes.  “You must not let him marry you to anyone.  Do you hear?  You must not, I love you.”