Helga looked with wide-open eyes first at him and then at Leif. Then she smiled without comprehension and a little uncertainty. Leif looked unhappy. "I quite forgot them," he stammered, blushing and embarrassed.
Ingolf laughed loud and heartily. But Helga threw her arms round Leif's neck and kissed him tenderly before the eyes of her brother.
V
There was a chief and Viking named Olmod the Old, son of Horda-Kaare. He was a kinsman of Leif.
Olmod the Old was popular with all. He was a wise man, quiet and circumspect, a warrior in battle and a hero where drinking-horns were emptied. No one would have guessed that Olmod the Old concealed a great restlessness under the mask of quiet and imperturbability which he outwardly wore. He talked willingly, and had a flow of cheerful conversation, but was not lavish with his confidence. All thought that they knew his mind, but no one did.
Olmod the Old seldom remained long in one place. In the summer he went on Viking expeditions; in winter he was a guest in various places. He had many friends, and wherever he stayed he brought cheerfulness with him.
He was very fond of his kinsman, Leif, whose character resembled his own. It was a significant fact about Olmod that Leif was unaware that he possessed a friend in him. Leif would have been rather inclined to believe the opposite. Olmod seldom talked to him, gave him no presents, did not show him favour or friendship in any degree. But in secret Olmod kept an eye on his kinsman, Leif, and knew all about his affairs.
That winter Olmod visited Atle Jarl at Gaulum. In doing so he fulfilled an old promise. He knew that Leif and Ingolf had been on a Viking expedition with Atle's sons the previous summer. It had suddenly occurred to him that he knew Atle's sons too little.
During his visit to Gaulum, Olmod gave such close attention to Atle's sons that he actually came to over-hear a conversation between Haersten and Holmsten which they did not intend him or any one else to hear.