"
Something like a veil seemed to fall over the King's face; from behind it he
spoke slowly as he moved away to the dais upon which his throne-chair stood,
and mounted the steps. "The same dream has come to me, but never has it
occurred to me to seek you out to tell you of it."
"No such purpose had I," the Jotun said with a touch of surliness. Pulling a
bag from under his belt, he shook out of it upon the floor a mane of matted
yellow hair. "If you want to know my errand, it is to bring you this.
Yesterday it came to my ears that one of my men was suspected of having tried
to give you poison through your wife's British thrall. I got them before me
and questioned them, and the Scar-Cheek boasted of having done it. This is his
hair. If you remember anything about the fellow, you understand that he was
not alive when I took it from him."
The King looked immovably at the yellow mass. "You have behaved in a
chieftain-like way and I thank you for it," he said. "But I would have liked
it better if you had come to me about the judgment that raised this wall
between us--"
Rothgar's throat gave out a savage sound. "Tempt me not! I am no sluggish
wolf."
But Canute spoke on: "What I expected that day was that you would come to me,
as friend comes to friend, and with my loose property I would redeem from you
every stick and stone which my kingship had forced me to hold back.
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