"Ho, comrade," he said, "hasten after us. Mind not the things left in the boat. There is supper ere we go."
I lifted my hand, and he turned his horse and rode away, paying no more heed to me. That was a good tale of things left that Thora had made in case I was seen to be going back to the boat.
Then I waxed light hearted enough, and thought of my other plan. Kolgrim saw me coming, and the boat was ready.
"Have you flint and steel?" I said to the fisher as I got into the boat.
"Ay, master, and tinder moreover, dry in my cap."
"Well, then, take me to those ships we saw. I have a mind to scare these Danes."
It was a heavy pull against the sea to where they lay afloat now, though it was not far. I fired all three in the cabins under the fore deck, so that, as their bows were towards the town, the light would not be seen till I was away.
Then we went swiftly back to Kolgrim, and as I mounted and rode off, the blaze flared up behind us, for the tarred timbers burned fiercely in the wind.
"That will tell Odda that the Danes are flying. And maybe it will save Wareham town from fire, for they will think we are on them. So I have spoiled Jarl Osmund's supper for him."
Then I minded that this would terrify the Lady Thora maybe, and that put me out of conceit with my doings for a moment. But it was plain that she was brave enough, for there were many things to fray her in the whole of this matter, though perhaps it was because Kolgrim stayed beyond the river that she made so sure that I was a man of King Alfred's and no friend to the Danes.