The Thrall of Leif the Lucky Part 40

Before he had finished, another voice had taken up the cry--and another--and another; until there were not ten men who were not shouting it over and over, in a delirium of excitement. Eric turned his face away and made over his breast the hammer sign of Thor, but there was only pride in his look when he turned back.

Leif stood motionless amid the tumult; looking upward with that strange absent look, as though his eyes would pierce the clouds that veiled Valhalla's walls and search for one beloved face among the warriors upon the benches.

Under his breath he said to his English squire, "I pray G.o.d that Olaf Trygva.s.son hears this now, and knows that I have been as faithful to him in his death as I was in his life."

He did not feel it when Alwin bent and touched the scarlet cloak-hem with his lips, nor did he hear the fervent murmur, "So faithful will I be to you hereafter."

THE END