Gerda laughed at him. It seemed that the pleasure of her champions, as she called us, in the war gear pleased her.
"Swords you shall have," she said at once. "I did but wait."
"For what, lady?" asked Dalfin.
She smiled and reddened somewhat, looking down on the deck.
"One can hardly be mistaken as to whether a man is used to war gear," she said. "Now I see you three--prince, jarl, and thane--as I might have known you to be at first. Forgive me for the little doubt."
Seeing what sort of scarecrows we must have been, we did not wonder at all that she had doubted. And, after all, not every day are three men of rank of different lands to be found adrift in an open boat, simply as it had come about in our case.
"It would have been a wonder if you had not doubted," said Bertric. "We have naught to forgive, and, indeed, have held ourselves honoured that you took our words as you did. In all truth, I do feel myself again in mail, and so must Malcolm."
I did, and said so. There are thoughts knit up in the steel ringwork which are good for a man.
"The swords are in yon chamber," Gerda said quickly, not being very willing, mayhap, to speak more in this wise. "I will ask Malcolm, for he is a Norseman, to come and choose them."
That was the last thing I wished, but would not say so. Without a word I went forward with her to the penthouse, and took down the three loose timbers again. The dim chamber seemed very still, and across its dimness the shafts of sunlight--which came through the chinks in the rough timbering of walls and roofs--shifted and glanced as if alive, as the ship swayed. One golden ray lit on the still face of the old king, and it was almost as if he smiled as we stood in the doorway. Gerda saw it, and spoke softly, stepping to the side of the bier.