"Cheer up, good wife," Ingolf said. "Better days are coming now."
But that same day the thralls came back from looking for the posts.
"We have bad news," they said. "As we walked along the shore looking for the pillars we saw a man lying on the shore. We went up to him. He was dead. It was Leif. Two well-built houses stood near. We went to them. We knew from the carving on the door-posts that they were Leif's. We went in. The rooms were empty. Along the shore and in the wood back of the house we found all of his men, dead. There was no living thing about."
Ingolf said no word, but his face was white, and his mouth was set. He went into the house and got his spears and his shield and said to his men:
"Follow me."
They put provisions into the boat and pushed off and sailed until they saw Leif's houses on the shore of the harbor. There they saw Leif and the men who were his friends, dead. Their swords and spears were gone. Ingolf walked through the houses calling on Helga and on the thralls, but no one answered. The storehouse was empty. The rich hangings were gone from the walls of the houses. There was nothing in the stables. The boat was gone.
Ingolf went out and stood on a high point of land that jutted out into the water. Far along the coast he saw some little islands. He turned to his men and said:
"The thralls have done it. I think we shall find them on those islands."
Then he went back to Leif and stood looking at him.
"What a shame for so brave a man to fall by the hands of thralls! But I have found that such things always happen to men who do not sacrifice to the gods. Ah, Leif! I did not think when we made those vows of foster-brotherhood that this would ever happen. But do not fear. I remember my promise. I had thought that a man's blood is precious in this empty land, but my vow is more precious."