As they reached this cross-road, a horseman passed down it at a gallop.  He only glanced toward them; and all Alwin had time to see was that he was young and richly dressed.  But Helga started up with a cry.

“Sigurd!  Tyrker, it was Sigurd!”

Slowly drawing rein, the old man blinked at her in bewilderment.  “Sigurd?  Where?  What Sigurd?”

“Our Sigurd—­Leif’s foster-son!  Oh, ride after him!  Shout!” She stretched her white throat in calling, but the wind was against her.

“That is now impossible that Jarl Harald’s son it should be,” Tyrker said soothingly.  “On a Viking voyage he is absent.  Besides, out of breath it puts me fast to ride.  Some one else have you mistaken.  Three years it has been since you have seen—­”

“Then I will go myself!” She snatched the reins from Alwin, but Tyrker caught her arm.

“Certain it is that you would be injured.  If you insist, the thrall shall go.  He looks as though he would run well.”

“But what message?” Alwin began.

Helga tried to stamp in her stirrups.  “Will you stand there and talk?  Go!”

They were fast runners in those days, by all accounts.  It is said that there were men in Ireland and the North so swift-footed that no horse could overtake them.  In ten minutes Alwin stood at the horseman’s side, red, dripping, and furious.

The stranger was a gallant young cavalier, with floating yellow locks and a fine high-bred face.  His velvet cloak was lined with ermine, his silk tunic seamed with gold; he had gold embroidery on his gloves, silver spurs to his heels, and a golden chain around his neck.  Alwin glared up at him, and hated him for his splendor, and hated him for his long silken hair.

The rider looked down in surprise at the panting thrall with the shaven head.

“What is your errand with me?” he asked.

It was not easy to explain, but Alwin framed it curtly:  “If you are Sigurd Haraldsson, a maiden named Helga is desirous that you should turn back.”

“I am Sigurd Haraldsson,” the youth assented, “but I know no maiden in Norway named Helga.”

It occurred to Alwin that this Helga might belong to “the pack from Greenland,” but he kept a surly silence.

“What is the rest of her name?”

“If there is more, I have not heard it.”

“Where does she live?”

“The devil knows!”

“Are you her father’s thrall?”

“It is my bad luck to be the captive of some Norse robber.”

The straight brows of the young noble slanted into a frown.  Alwin met it with a black scowl.  Suddenly, while they faced each other, glowering, an arrow sped out of the thicket a little way down the road, and whizzed between them.  A second shaft just grazed Alwin’s head; a third carried away a tress of Sigurd’s fair hair.  Instantly after, a man crashed out of the underbrush and came running toward them, throwing down a bow and drawing a sword as he ran.