Now that was no new thought to me, as I have shown, and I was ready for it, seeing that even I had seen the likeness to the king as I remembered him.
“Keep that thought to yourself for a while, Mord,” I said. “It is in my mind that you are right, but the time has not yet come for me to know.”
“That is wisdom, too,” he answered; “for if once he gathers a following, there is a bad time in store for Hodulf. And it will be better that we fall on him unawares, before he knows that Havelok, son of Gunnar, lives.”
“We fall on him?”
“Ay, you and I, mail on chest and weapon in hand, with Havelok to lead us. What? think you that I would hold back when Gunnar’s son is calling?”
“Steady, friend,” I said, laughing; “men will be looking at us.”
So he was silent again; and now I thought that the time of which my father spoke had surely come, for it was plain that Havelok was a man whom men would gladly follow as he went to win back his kingdom. And I went and fetched Withelm from where he sat, and so we three talked long and pleasantly, until it was time for us to go forth from the hall. And we thought that it was good for Arngeir to come here, for the secret was coming to light of itself, as it were, and we would have him speak with Mord.
[CHAPTER XIV.
THE CRAFT OF ALSI THE KING.]
Now Alsi the king went from the feast with a new and cruel thought in his mind under the smiling face that he wore, and long he sat in his own chamber, chin on hand and eyes far off, thinking; and at last he called Berthun.
“What is the name of this big knave of yours?” he asked, when the steward stood before him.