"You mean Hilda?"
"Precisely. Hilda is the first word of the inscription. Light had dawned at last. I had discovered the key to the writing, and it is this: every fourth letter is to be treated as if in immediate sequence.
"I instantly marked off the characters into sets of four. By taking out the first letter in each quartette, and placing them in consecutive order, I found the result was an intelligible sentence. By treating the second letter of each quartette in like manner the sentence was continued: and so with the third and fourth letters. There could be no doubt about it. I had mastered the secret of Odin's Ring."
"And what is the secret?" said Beatrice breathlessly.
Idris could not avoid smiling at her eagerness. It was pleasant to have so fair and interested a listener.
"Impulsive Beatrice!" said Godfrey. "Idris may wish to keep the secret to himself."
"It will be very unfair, then, after having excited our curiosity," she retorted.
"You shall have the secret," said Idris; "though you will probably be as much disappointed with it as I was. There is nothing very startling in it. It does not relate to Odin and the gods of Valhalla, but to an old Viking and a buried treasure. This is my rendering of the Norse runes engraved on the broad perimeter of the ancient altar-ring."
And here Idris drew forth a second piece of vellum, and read from it as follows:—
"'Hilda, the Alruna, to her son, Magnus of Deira, greeting.—Within the lofty tomb of thy sire Orm, the Golden, wilt thou find the treasure won by his high arm. The noontide shadow of the oft-carried throne will be to thee for a sign. And may the fires of the Asas guard thy heritage for thee.—Farewell."