deal with them.
"You overdo your business as sheriff!" he said.
It was Biorn who wasted no more time, for he saw that here was deepertrouble than a common riot. He lifted his axe.
"Come nearer at your peril," he said.
Then the black-bearded man sprang at him, and axe met sword for a parryor two, flashing white in the moonlight. Then one weapon flashed redsuddenly, and it was Biorn's, and back into the tower he sprang as hisfoe fell, and Havelok flung the door to, and I barred it.
"Up," said Biorn; and in the dark we stumbled from stair to stair, whilethe crowd howled and beat on the door below us. It was good to get outinto the moonlight on the roof, where we could rest. I was glad that thetower was there instead of Thor, and also that it was strong. It was nogreat height, but wide, and the men below looked comfortably far off atall events.
"Here is a fine affair," quoth Biorn, sitting himself down with his backagainst the high stone wall round the tower top. "It will take me all mytime to set this right."
"You have stood by us well, friend," Havelok said, "and it is a pitythat you have had to share our trouble so far as this. Who was the manwho fell on you?"
"That is the trouble," answered Biorn, "for there will be more noiseover him than all the rest. He was Hodulf's steward, the man who gathersthe scatt, and therefore is not liked. And all men know that there wasno love lost between him and me."
"Hodulf's man," said I; "how long has he been here, and is he a Norseman?"
For I knew him. He was the man who had spoken to me at the boat sidewhen we had to fly--one, therefore, who knew all of the secret of Havelok.
"Ay, one of the Norsemen who came here with the king at the first, andis almost the last left of that crew. I suppose that you have heard thestory."
We had, in a way that the honest sheriff did not guess, and I onlynodded. But I thought that we had got rid of an enemy in him, and thatGriffin had fallen in with him on landing, and known him, and taken himinto his counsel about us. He would have gone down to see the vessel andcollect the king's dues from her and from us at the same time. He hadnot come into the town till late, as we heard afterwards.
There was no time for asking more now, however, for the shouts of themen round the door ceased, and someone gave orders, as if there was aplan to be carried out. So I went and looked over on the side where thedoor was to see what was on hand.
It was about what one would have expected. They had got the trunk of atree, and were going to batter the door in. But now we were all armed,for Raven had brought Havelok's gear with him when he fetched his own.He had thought also for Goldberga, and she was sitting in the corner ofthe tower walls wrapped in a great cloak that she had used at sea, withher eyes on her husband, unfearing, and as it seemed waiting for the endthat her dream foretold.
I called the rest, and we looked down on the men. They saw us, and anarrow or two flew at us, badly aimed in the moonlight.
"Waste of good arrows," said Havelok; "but we must keep them from thedoor somehow."
"Would that the jarl would come," growled Biorn, "for I do not see howwe are to do that."
"If they do break in," said I, "any one can hold a stairway like thisagainst a crowd."
"I do not want to hurt more of these," answered Havelok, looking roundhim. And then his eyes lit up, and he laughed. "Why, we can keep themback easily enough, after all."
He went to the tower corner, and shouted to the men below. Four or fivehad the heavy log that they were to use as a ram, and they were justabout to charge the door with it, and no timber planking can stand thatsort of thing.
"Ho, men," he cried; "set that down, or some of you may get hurt."
They set up a roar of laughter at him as they heard, and then Haveloklaid hold of the great square block of stone that was on the very cornerof the wall, and tore it from its setting.
"Odin!" said Biorn, as he saw that, "where do they breed such men as this?"
"Here," answered Withelm, looking at the sheriff.
Now Havelok hove up the stone over his head, and a sort of gasp went upfrom the crowd below. One saw what was coming, and ran to drag back themen with the beam, and stopped short before he reached them in terror,crying to them to beware. But their heads were down, and they werestarting into a run.
"Halt!" cried Havelok, but they did not stay. "Stand clear!" he shoutedin the sailor's way.
And then he swung the stone and let it go, while those who watched fledback as if it was cast at them. Down is crashed on the attackers,felling the man whom it struck, and dashing the timber from the grasp ofthe others, so that one fell with it across his leg and lay howling,while the rest gathered themselves up and got away from under the toweras soon as they might.
Now no man dared to come forward, and that angered Havelok.
"Are you going to let these two bide there?" he said. "Pick the poorknaves from under the stone and timber, and see to them."
But they hung back yet, and he called them "nidring."
Thereat two or three made a step forward, and one said, "Lord, let us doas you bid us, and harm us not."
"You are safe," he answered, and Biorn laughed and said that this wasthe most wholesome word that he had heard tonight.
"Lord, forsooth! Mighty little of that was there five minutes ago."
But it was not the terrible stone throwing only that wrung this fromthem, as I think. They had seen Havelok in his arms, with the light ofbattle on his face in the broad moonlight, and knew him for a king amongmen.
They took the hurt men from under the tower, and then crowded together,watching us. And some man must needs loose an arrow at us, and it rangon my mail, and that let loose the crowd again. Soon we had to shelterunder the battlement, but they were not able to lodge any arrows amongus, for that is a bit of skill that needs daylight. Then they dared toget to the timber once more, and we saw them coming.
Havelok took his helm, and set it on his sword point, and raised itslowly above the wall, and that drew all the arrows in a moment. Then heleapt up, and tore the stone from the other corner; and again, but thistime without warning, it fell on the men below, and that wrought moreharm than before. But it stayed them for a time, though not so long, fornow their blood was up, and the berserk spirit was waking in them.Already the third stone was poised in the mighty hands, and would havefallen, when there was a cry of, "The jarl! the jarl!" and along thepath into the clearing galloped Sigurd himself, with his courtmenrunning behind him, and he called on the men to stay.
They dropped the beam at the command, and were silent. And Sigurd lookedup at the tower, and saw who was there, and stayed with his face raised,motionless for a space. I minded how Mord had stared and cried out whenfirst he saw Havelok, the son of Gunnar, in his war gear.
"Biorn! where is Biorn?" cried Sigurd, looking back on the crowd as ifhe thought he would be there.
"Here am I, jarl," came the answer, and the sheriff looked out frombeside Havelok.
"What is all this?"
"On my word, jarl, I cannot tell. Here have I been beset in my ownhouse, and but for your guests some of us would have come off badly.There were outlanders who fell on us, and, as I think, stirred up thefolk to carry on the business, telling them that we had slain ourselves,as one might say, for it was the cry that we had slain the jarl's guests."
"O fools, to take up the word of a chance stranger against that of yourown sheriff!" Sigurd cried, facing the people.
"Nay, but the steward said so likewise," cried some.
"Hodulf's steward?" said the jarl suddenly; "where is he?"
"Yonder. Biorn slew him."
"He was leading this crowd," said Biorn from above, "tried to force hisway into the tower past me, and would not be warned."
"What of the outlanders?"
"All slain. Seven Welshmen they were."
Then I said plainly, remembering that the jarl would have known him,"Their leader was Griffin, who came with Hodulf at the first. Whatbrought him here, think you, Si
gurd the jarl?"
But Sigurd looked round on the people, and scanned them for a long time,and at last he said, in a hush that fell when he began to speak, "Menwho mind the old days, look at the man whom you have sought to kill, andsay if there is that about him which will tell you why Hodulf's men haveset you on him thus."
Then the white faces turned with one accord to Havelok, as he stoodresting the great cornerstone on the battlement before him, and theregrew a whisper that became a word and that was almost a shout from themany voices that answered.
"Gunnar! Gunnar Kirkeban come again!"
Then was silence, and the jarl spoke to Havelok.
"Tell us your name, and whence you
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