"Aye," corrected Vagn. "'If!' A vow is an easy thing, Fairhair, to make, but a hard one to fulfill. Norway has many chiefs as noble as Jarl Hakon, and no country can be conquered against its will while there is one to lead the people against the invader. King Svein, or his son Canute, may well take England, for Ethelred is a cruel and hated king; but I misdoubt that we shall ever come to Thrandheim as conquerors."
On the second evening, when Harald came to lock them in their room, he grumbled, "If it were not for you two, I would be with the Jarls now. It will soon be all up with your Jomsborgers now!"
"Why, what do you mean?" cried Vagn. "Eirik hasn't come here yet!"
"Nor will he," rejoined Harald, as he shot the bolt. "He passed outside the Firth to-day with sixty ships, and will join his father by to-morrow night at More."
"How many ships will both Jarls have?" called out Sigurd.
The man paused in the hallway. "Close onto two hundred, for Hakon took seventy-four south with him, and he will collect as many more in the south."
As the man's steps died away the two boys stared at each other in dismal silence.
"Too late, Sigurd!" Vagn's voice broke.
"Not yet," contended Sigurd, stoutly. "Ulf said that the 'Otter' was fast enough to pass Eirik, and besides, our own fleet may not have come so far north yet. Never give up!"
"That's true," granted Vagn, "for the men will probably want to land and plunder. Well, there may be hope yet."