"That is as you will, lady," I said; "it is yours. Was it the wish of Thorwald that it should pass to the mound with him?"
She glanced at me, half proudly and half as in some rebuke.
"Thorwald would ask for naught but his arms," she said. "The treasure was mine, for he did but hoard to give. I would set him forth as became Odin's champion. He was no gold lover."
"Should it not be, then, as he would have wished?" I said. "Let him pass to the depths with his war gear, and so through Aegir's halls to the place of Odin, as a warrior, and unburdened with the gold he loved not at all."
She looked sharply at me, and shrank away a little, half turning from me.
"Is the treasure so dear to you men after all?" she asked coldly.
That angered me for the moment, and I felt my face flush red, but I held myself in.
"No," I answered as coldly. "These arms you have given us are all the treasure we need or could ask. They are a warrior's treasure, and mayhap we hold them as dear as did Thorwald. What else may lie in those chests we do not know or care, save only for one reason."
"What is that?" she asked, glancing at me again as if she knew that she had spoken unkindly.
"That if it goes into the sea depths it leaves you, Lady Gerda, helpless. When you were at home, with your folk round you, the hoarded spoils might be spent in all honour to their winner without thought of why he had kept them thus. Now, in the power they have for you lies your comfort, and maybe the regaining of your home. Doubtless, the king hoarded at last for you, and we cannot see your wealth pass from you without a word to bid you think twice of what you do here and as things are."