Every time he made a grip at it she wrenched and twisted it right away over the rocky wall, and there was a laughing and a grinning all down the mountain side--
"It blows away, it blows away!"
And, again and again, the rope drove in and out and hither and thither.
"You had better take a spring at once, and not wait till you're tired," thought he.
It was a pretty long leap to take, but he went back a sufficient distance, and then out he sprang.
Bardun was not the man to fall short of anything. He caught the rope and held it tight.
And, oddly enough, it seemed now to run up the cliff-side of its own accord, just as if some one were hoisting it.
But in front of the rocky crag to which he had fastened the rope, he heard a soughing and a sighing, and something said, "I am the daughter of the Wind-Gnome, and now thou hast dominion over me! When the blast blows and whines about thee 'tis I who long for thee. And here thou hast a rudder which will give thee luck and a fair wind whithersoever thou farest. He who is with thee shall thrive, and he who is against thee shall suffer shipwreck and be lost. For 'tis I who am in the windy gusts."
Then all at once everything was quite still; but down on the sea below there swept a heavy squall.
There stood Bardun with the rudder in his hand, and he understood that it was not a thing to be lightly cast away.