Out of the fuzzy depths came a lisping voice.  “When a thrall of Leif Ericsson, who is also a Christian, thinks it worth while to risk his life and his soul to consult me, I forgive it that I am wakened at midnight.  It is a compliment to my powers that I do not take ill.  Say what you wish to learn from me.”

Alwin felt Sigurd touch him reproachfully, and shame burned in his cheeks; but he had gone too far to retreat.  He said bluntly:  “I wish to know whether Helga, Gilli’s daughter, is to be given to Egil.  Each time he speaks across the floor to her, I am as though I were pricked with sharp knives.  I have endured it through three feasts; but I look upon her with such eyes of love, that I can bear it no longer.”

“I will dull those knives, even as Odin blunts the weapons of his enemies.  Helga will not be given to Egil, because he is too haughty to ask for her since he knows that she loves you instead of him.”

It had seemed to Alwin that if he could only know this, he would be satisfied; yet now his questions piled upon each other.

“Then do you promise that she will be given to me?  How am I to save her?  How am I to get my freedom?  How long am I to wait?”

The Sibyl sank her head upon her breast so that her nose and chin quite disappeared, and she stood before them like some furry headless beast.  There was a long pause.  Alwin nervously followed the pairs of eyes, noiselessly appearing and disappearing, from floor to ceiling, in every part of the room.  Sigurd set his back against the door and carried on a silent struggle with the heavy lumps, hanging by teeth and claws upon his cloak.

At last Skroppa raised her head and answered haltingly:  “You ask too much, according to the time and the place.  To know all that clearly, I should sit on a witches’ platform and eat witches’ broth, and have women stand about me and sing weird songs.  Without music, spirits do not like to help.  I can only see bits, vaguely as through a fog...  I see your body lying on the ground I see a ship where never ship was seen before I see—­I see Leif Ericsson standing upon earth where never man stood before.  It seems to me that I read great luck in his face...  And I see you standing beside him, though you do not look as you look now, for your hair is long and black.  The light is so bright that I cannot...  Yes, one thing more is open to my sight.  I see that it is in this new land that it will be settled whether your luck is to be good or bad.”

She stopped.  They waited for her to go on; but soon it became evident that the foretelling was finished.  With all his prudence, Sigurd began to laugh; and Alwin burst out in a passion of impatience:  “For which, you gabbler?  For which?  I can make nothing of such jargon.  Tell me in plain words whether it will be for good or ill.”

Skroppa answered just one word:  “Jargon!”

Alwin stormed on unheeding, but Sigurd’s laughter stopped:  something in the tone of that one word chilled his blood and braced his muscles like a frost.  He strained his eyes to pierce the shadow and make out what she was doing; and it seemed to him that he could no longer see her.  She had disappeared,—­where?  In a sudden panic he groped behind him for the door; found it and flung it open.  It was well that the moon was shining at that moment.