The girl's light-hearted boldness went from
her in a gasp. Her shaking limbs gave way beneath her, so that she sank on the
nearest bench and cowered there, panting.
Though the men were too intent to notice her, in some sub-conscious way her
moving seemed to rouse them. Their discussion had been growing gradually
louder; now the bearded man and the young Jotun rose suddenly and faced their
companion, whose voice became audible in an obstinate mutter,--
"Nevertheless, I doubt that it was wise to join hands with an English
traitor."
The older man said in a tone of slowly gathering anger, "I told you to make
the bargain, and I stand at the back of my counsels. Have you become like the
wind, which tries every quarter of the sky because it knows not its own mind?"
While the young man warned in his heavy voice, "You will have your will in
this as in everything, King Canute; but I tell you that if you keep the
bargain, you will act against my advice."
Randalin had been mistaken in her deductions. It was not the brawny body that
was King of the Danes; the leader's spirit lodged in the slender frame of the
youth with the cloak of yellow hair.
He raised from his hands now a face of boyish sullenness, and sat glaring over
his clenched fists at his counsellors.
"Certainly it would become a great misfortune to me if I should act against
the advice of Rothgar Lodbroksson," he made stinging answer.
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