"We no fear bishop," said the stranger, still laughing. "You no fear——" and he pointed to the long stretch of path—the prodigious ascent before them.
Erica said there was nothing to fear on the mountain for those who did their duty to the powers, as it was her intention to do. Her first Gammel cheese was to be for him whose due it was, and it should be the best she could make.
This speech she thought would suit, whatever might be the nature of her companion. If it was the demon, she could do no more to please him than promise him his cheese.
Her companion seemed not to understand or attend to what she said.
When Erica saw that she had no demon for a companion, but only a foreigner, she was so much relieved as not to be afraid at all.
The stranger pointed to the tiny cove in which Erlingsen's farm might be seen, looking no bigger than an infant's toy, and said—
"Do you leave an enemy there, or is Hund now your friend?"
"Hund is nobody's friend, unless he happens to be yours," Erica replied, perceiving at once that her companion belonged to the pirates. "Hund is everybody's enemy; and, above all, he is an enemy to himself. He is a wretched man."
"The bishop will cure that," said the stranger. "He is coward enough to call in the bishop to cure all. When comes the bishop?"
"Next week."