CHAPTER II. KING HODULF'S SECRET.
My father came home heavy and anxious enough, for he did not know how
things would go under this new king, though he had promised peace to all
men who would own him. We in our place saw nothing of him or his men for
the next few weeks, but he was well spoken of by those who had aught to
do with him elsewhere. So my father went on trying to gather a cargo for
England; but it was a slow business, as the burnt and plundered folk of
the great town had naught for us, and others sold to them. But he would
never be idle, and every day when weather served we went fishing, for he
loved his old calling well, as a man will love that which he can do
best. Our two boats and their gear were always in the best of order, and
our kinsman, Arngeir, used and tended them when we were away in the ship
in summertime.
Now, one evening, as we came up from the shore after beaching the boat
on the hard below the town, and half a mile from the nearest houses, and
being, as one may suppose, not altogether in holiday trim, so that Grim
and his boys with their loads of fish and nets looked as though a
fisher's hovel were all the home that they might own, we saw a horseman,
followed at a little distance by two more, riding towards us. The dusk
was gathering, and at first we thought that this was Jarl Sigurd, who
would ask us maybe to send fish to his hall, and so we set our loads
down and waited for him.
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