'As I must start this evening for Arnaes,' said Mac Donalbain, 'allow me to wish you a pleasant ride. At Tornea I hope to meet you again.'
He departed with a significant glance at Christine, who followed him out, and Arwed was left alone with his uncle.
The governor remained some time in a deep reverie, rubbing the wrinkles from his forehead, which as constantly reappeared there, and finally asked Arwed: 'what think you of our two guests?'
'You must long since have observed that neither of them is particularly agreeable to me. Being your guests, I would have said nothing against them; but since you expressly ask my opinion, I will give it honestly: they appear to me like two wolves engaged tooth and nail in fighting for a noble deer. God grant that the victim may save herself during the contest, and both the monsters have an empty reckoning.'
'Your comparison appears to me to be overstrained; you may not, however be wholly wrong. As soon as I return from Tornea I will adopt different measures. I begin to think it would have been better had I done so at an earlier period. Good night.'
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The rising sun of the next morning found every one busy at Gyllensten, and the travelers prepared for their excursion. Christine, who had hoped to fly in advance of the rest of the company on her swift dun courser, was compelled to take a seat in the carriage with her father, who feared his gout, and her noble horse was led after her by the domestics, who accompanied the expedition in another carriage. Arwed and Megret, with their grooms, were in the saddle. The company set forth in a northerly direction, having the gulf of Bothnia on their right, and the mountains of Lapland on their left, passing the stations Beygde and Skelleste until they arrived at the little port of Pitea, which, yet poorer than Umea, lay at the mouth of the Pitea Elf. There, with the relay horses, six Swedish dragoons, furnished by the bailiwick and led by the sheriff, marched up with drawn swords to perform escort duty for the remainder of the governor's journey.
'Wherefore trouble these people, Mr. Sheriff?' said the governor. 'The road is safe, as far as I know, and for that reason I took no escort with me from Umea.'
'For some time past,' answered the sheriff, 'a band of robbers have beset this neighborhood. Two well planned and successfully executed burglaries, in quick succession, have created much alarm; and yesterday, a man who attempted to travel to Tornea, was found slain upon the road between here and Lulea.'
'And you have yet made no effort to apprehend the perpetrators of the deed?' asked the governor discontentedly. 'If the police do their duty such transgressors cannot long escape the vengeance of the laws.'