“I marked no evil in him,” said Ole; “but I can tell you this, that he is a bold man, for I told him that you have a priest in your house, and he was not frightened.”
At this they all laughed.
“Why are you afraid of the priest?” asked Orm.
But to this question the old man would give no answer; only he shook his head and looked cunningly at them and mumbled beneath his breath that he was not so stupid but that he knew that that sort of folk were worse than trolls. Then he got up and left without tarrying longer.
“Seven weeks from now I shall be holding my feast,” Orm said to him as he rode away, “and if you are in these parts then, you will be welcome; for it may be that you have this day done me a good service.”
CHAPTER THREE
CONCERNING THE STRANGERS THAT CAME WITH SALT, AND HOW KING SVEN LOST A HEAD
THE NEXT evening the strangers of whom Salt-Ole had warned Orm arrived at Gröning. It had begun to rain, and the men and their horses halted a short way from the gate while one of their number came forward and asked for Orm, adding that they would be glad of shelter for the night. The hounds had given warning of the strangers’ approach, and Orm was already standing before the gate with Rapp, the priest, and five men of his household, all well armed except for Father Willibald.
The stranger who had addressed them was a tall, lean man, clad in a broad cloak. He brushed the rain from his eyes and said: “Such rain as this is unwelcome to peddlers, for neither bales nor leathern sacks can long withstand it, and I have on my horses’ backs salt and cloth, which will suffer if they become damp. Therefore, though I am a stranger to you, I beg, Orm, that you will give me shelter for my wares and a roof to cover the heads of me and my men. I who address you thus am no mere vagabond, but Östen, the son of Ugge, from örestad in Finnveden, a descendant of Long Grim; and my mother’s brother was Styr the Wise, whom all men know of.”
As he spoke, Orm looked at him closely. “You have many men with you,” he said.
“I have sometimes thought them too few,” replied Östen; “for the wares I carry are valuable, and this is not the safest of districts for peddlers to travel in. But so far all has gone well with me, and I trust it may continue so. It may be that I have in my sacks one thing or another that you or your wife might care to buy from me.”
“Have you been baptized?” asked Father Willibald.
“Certainly not!” said Östen indignantly; “nor have any of my companions. We are all honorable men.”
“Your tongue led you astray there,” said Orm sternly. “All of us are baptized men, and the man who asked you that question is a priest of Christ.”
“A stranger cannot be expected to know such things,” replied Östen humbly; “though, now that I remember it, a man we met on the way did tell me that there was a priest in your house. But it had slipped my memory, for most of what he had to say concerned you, Orm, and your reputation for hospitality and your fame as a warrior.”
The rain began to descend more heavily than ever, and thunder could be heard crackling in the distance. Östen glanced toward his wares, and his face began to wear a worried look. His men stood waiting beside the horses with their backs turned toward the wind and their cloaks drawn over their heads, while the rain stood like smoke about them.
Rapp smiled. “Here is a good opportunity for us to buy salt cheaply,” he said.
But Orm said: “Your ancestry may be good, Smalander, and I have no wish to think evil of you, but it is a great deal to ask of a man that he should take eleven armed men into his house for the night. I would not appear inhospitable, but I do not think you can blame me for being hesitant. But I give you two choices: either to depart and seek night shelter elsewhere, or to enter my land and take shelter in my bathhouse for the night with your men and your wares, having first surrendered your weapons to me here before my gate.”
“That is a hard condition,” said Östen, “for if I accept, I place myself and all my wealth in your hands, and no man willingly takes such a risk. But I think you are too great a chieftain to contrive treachery against me, and I am so placed that I cannot but accept your condition. It shall therefore be as you demand.”
So saying, he unhooked his sword from his belt and handed it to Orm. Then he turned and bade his men make haste to bring his wares into the dry. They lost no time in obeying his command, but each man had to surrender his weapons at the gate before he was permitted to enter. The horses were tethered in the grass by the river, there being no danger from wolves at this season.
When all this had been done, Orm invited the stranger to take food and ale with him. After the meal he bargained with Östen for salt and cloth and found him an honorable man to deal with, for he asked no more for his wares than what a man might reasonably be expected to pay. They drank upon the bargain as friends; then Östen said that he and his men were tired after their long day’s journey, and they thanked him for the good fare he had given them and retired to rest.
Outside, the storm increased in violence, and after a while a noise of lowing was heard from the cattle, which were kept at night in a shed next to the house. Rapp and the old cowman went out to see if the beasts had become frightened and broken loose. It was by now quite dark, apart from an occasional flash of lightning. Rapp and the cowman went carefully round the cattleshed and found it undamaged.
Then a thin voice asked from the darkness: “Are you Red Orm?”
“I am not he,” said Rapp, “but I am the next after him in this house. What do you want with him?”
The lightning flashed, and by its light he saw that the speaker was the little boy whom the peddlers had brought with them.
“I want to ask him how much he will give me for his head,” said the boy.
Rapp leaned swiftly down and seized him by the arm.
“What kind of a peddler are you?” he said.
“If I tell him everything I know, perhaps he will give me something for my knowledge,” said the boy eagerly. “Östen has sold his head to King Sven and has come here to collect it.”
“Come with me,” said Rapp.
Together they hurried into the house. Orm had gone to bed with his clothes on, for the storm and the strangers had made him uneasy, and Rapp’s news at once set him wide awake. He forbade them to strike a light, but slipped on his chain shirt.
“How did they deceive me?” he said. “I have their weapons here.”
“They have swords and axes hidden in their bales,” replied the boy. “They say your head is worth a deal of trouble. But I am to have no share of the reward, and they drove me out into the rain to keep a watch on the horses, so I shall not be sorry to see them get the wrong end of the bargain; for I am not of their party any more. They will be here any moment now.”
All Orm’s men were now awake and armed. Including Orm himself and Rapp, they numbered nine; but some of them were old and could not be reckoned upon for much help when it came to fighting.
“We had better go to their place at once,” said Orm. “With luck, we may be able to smoke them in their sleeping-quarters.”
Rapp opened the door a few inches and glanced out.
“The luck is with us,” he said. “It is beginning to grow lighter. If they try to run, they will make good targets for our spears.”
The storm had passed, and the moon was beginning to glimmer feebly through the clouds.
Ylva watched the men as they slipped out through the door.
“I wish this business was over,” she said.
“Do not worry,” said Orm, “but warm some ale for our return. One or another of us may find himself in need of it when we have finished this night’s work.”
They walked silently across the grass toward the bathhouse. A woodshed stood beside it, and they had just reached this when they saw the door of the bathhouse slowly open. Through the gap they could see gray faces and the glint of arms. Orm and several of his men immediately flung their spears at the gap, but none found their mark; then the whoop of battle-cries filled the air, and the doorway became thick with figures as the peddlers swarmed forth. Orm bent down and seized hold of the great chopping-block that stood at the entrance to the woodshed. With his arms almost cracking under the strain, he lifted it from the ground, took a step forward, and flung it with all his might at the open doorway. The foremost of his enemies managed to throw themselves aside in time, but several of those behind were hit and fell to the earth groaning.